Window shades in Summit Park

Cabins that turned into year-round homes

Summit Park sits on the forested slopes just east of Parleys Summit, the high point of I-80 in Utah at a little over 7,100 feet, and most of its homes are tucked between about 6,800 and 7,400 feet. The original plat dates to the late 1950s, when it was laid out mostly for summer cabins, which is why you still find streets with alpine names like Innsbruck Strasse and Saint Moritz Strasse. Many of those cabins have since been enlarged, winterized or torn down and rebuilt, so a single Summit Park street can hold a 1960s A-frame, a 1990s remodel and a brand-new mountain-modern house. The windows follow suit, and no two houses in Summit Park need quite the same plan.

Shade from the trees, glare from the canyon

Unlike the open basin below, much of Summit Park is wrapped in fir, pine and aspen. On the shaded side of a house, the problem is often too little light, not too much, so heavy fabrics can make a room feel like a cave. We usually suggest light-filtering or sheer and dual shades on those walls, so daylight still comes through the trees. The exception is glass that looks west or southwest down the canyon or across an opening in the trees. Late-day sun can pour straight into those rooms, and in winter it reflects off snow-covered roofs and slopes. A darker solar screen shade handles that view wall without hiding it.

Living next to I-80

Homes on the lower streets hear the interstate, especially trucks climbing toward the summit at night. We want to be straight about this: shades are not soundproofing, and the windows themselves do most of the work of keeping traffic noise out. What a fuller fabric can do is soften hard echoes in a room with lots of glass and wood. Cellular shades and heavier room-darkening fabrics tend to make a bedroom feel a little quieter and calmer than bare glass or metal blinds, and they also block headlight flicker and the glow of highway lights. If road noise is the main complaint, we'll tell you so and suggest you talk with a window installer about the glass.

A-frames, gables and older openings

Older Summit Park cabins often have triangular gable windows, shallow sills, log or rough-sawn trim, and openings that have settled out of square over the decades. We measure each window at several points before deciding between an inside mount and an outside mount over the trim. Tall gable glass above a loft is a separate conversation: some of it is best left uncovered for the light, and some of it heats a loft so much in summer that it's worth planning around. For reachable rectangles below a gable, battery-powered motorized shades or simple cordless shades are both practical, and our large and vaulted window page explains how we approach tall glass in general.

Steep driveways and winter access

Summit Park roads are steep and winding, and in a snowy month some driveways are a challenge. We plan measuring and installation around plowing, parking and whether a vehicle can reach the house, and we're happy to start from photos of each window if you'd like a first opinion before an on-site visit. Many owners here commute to Salt Lake City or work from home, so we can also schedule around a workday.

Where Summit Park homes usually start

• Light-filtering fabrics on tree-shaded walls so rooms keep their daylight
• Darker solar screens on west-facing canyon or sunset windows
• Room-darkening cellular shades in bedrooms closest to the interstate
• Cordless or battery-motorized shades on loft and stair windows that are awkward to reach

Summit Park sits right next to Jeremy Ranch and Pinebrook, and we work throughout that side of the basin.