Baby It's Cold Outside

Every year about now Jared and I begin to talk about how we could make the living room and kitchen warmer. Our furnace is below the laundry room so the back of the house stays nice and cozy while we freeze our extremities off in the living/kitchen.

We have taken some steps to help by purchasing the magnetic vent covers and placing them in the back of the house forcing the warm air out where it's needed. I don't really think it helped much.

We have a crawl space under the kitchen where the duct work runs to the living room and the crawl space is not insulated nor is the duct work. We both think it would help to insulate the duct work so the air doesn't completely cool while making its way to the living room. If you feel the air coming into the room it takes several seconds to get warm, stays warm for a few seconds only to cool off quickly as the cycle ends. This can't be very productive. Plus the floor to the kitchen is like ice where the crawl space is. I can't imagine walking through my kitchen without stocking feet.

We have also discussed purchasing a small room heater to just take the edge off and always intend to do so at the end of the season in order to save money and yet still haven't purchased one. I would really like one of those that looks like a mini fire place but they are definitely pricey.

There are 2 back doors to our house and both feel like an air conditioning vent mid winter. I keep towels at the base to keep out the draft but the door themselves need to be resealed or something because you can see daylight around one of them. I have tried quick fixes like the black rubbery strips but they end up peeling off mid season. I have also purchased the rubber and metal seals for the base and they lasted one winter and with the constant traffic letting the dogs in and out they didn't survive for this winter.

As soon as it gets warmer we seem to forget all about the issues of the frigid winter only to be snapped back into reality with the first drop in temperature.