Time to winterize

I can't believe it's been nearly a week since I last posted. I have no idea what went on in that time but it sure went by quickly. I know I slept a lot. And got next to nothing else done. I guess that's a good thing in the long run, though.

Although...it's time to winterize the house. Tom would rather keep the windows open until the daytime temps are at 30F but I want it done before it's too cold to get it done. We're going to mow for the last time today and I'm going to put the storm windows in and close off the back addition that has a board missing. Well, the board isn't missing, it's just not attached to the house because years ago someone was going to fix it and never got around to it. So I will attend to it this week, most likely today. I also have to empty out the rain barrel because we might have freezing temps this weekend and we've had more than our share of grief with leaks in that rain barrel.

I have plastic for the inside and outside of the windows. The new windows we have will get plastic on the outside, the old, ancient ones will get both inside and out. In spite of being new windows, they sure seemed to leak air. I had many a morning when I opened up the curtains to frost on the windows where they met. I do like to be able to open and close the blinds though so I'll just put plastic on the outside.

I'm also going to put up an expansion rod in the doorway leading to the back hall. This is the area that has no insulation under the floor and in fact, is just resting on the patio. It's separating from the house a bit and has a gap on the floor (in addition to a sizeable hole that I stuff with plastic bags to prevent small, furry, gray critters from entering.) I'm going to use an old blanket to keep the heat out as much as possible. We have a pocket door there but the cat box is in the basement so he needs access for his potty needs and I really don't want to open the door for him every time he needs to go. I'm also closing off the pantry, which is a part of that shoddy addition. It's frustrating to see so much that needs to be done but is so expensive to fix.

And finally I'm putting down a lot of old rugs on the floor to insulate as best I can since it's only some linoleum (yes...ancient linoleum) some wood flooring and cold air...nothing else. I really hope to do a better job winterizing this year.

Also, while Tom is gone this weekend bow hunting, I'm going to put plastic on his windows upstairs. He never did it last year, waiting until it was so cold up there the tape wouldn't stick to the windows because he likes to open the windows even when it's freezing outside. It doesn't make sense to me to use a space heater up there when there are so many breezes coming in from lack of preparation. He wouldn't need as much heat if it wasn't going out of the room as fast as the thing was heating up.

I'm also going to close the basement windows and seal them while he's gone. Again, he keeps the windows open almost till the snow flies and yet will turn the heat up when he gets cold. Is this a male chromosome thing?

I'm making good progress on the Oblique sweater (modified) but very little else. All that sleep, you know. I have a lot of projects in my queue but don't seem to take the time to sit down and work them out. Maybe with the cold coming in I'll feel more like curling up with my projects.

Well, off to mow the yard (my share of it, that is) and get some work done before the rain and cold starts coming in...like...tomorrow, it looks like.

TTFN