we got a couple hours of pretty huge snow flurries today!

of course they melted on the asphalt and concrete… but it stuck to the grass, trees and roofs…

reminds me… really have to paint the house : )

hasn’t been a strong week with getting things done to the house… mostly because nothing has been done.

aside from no actual accomplishments, there have at least been some observations regarding heat, and ways to save a bit:

1. if you take a bath, leave the water in the tub until it has reached room temperature. doing so in our house raised the temperature of the bathroom by 9 degrees, and the hallway by 7 degrees. no, it doesn’t last… after an hour or so the water temp is down to about 10f above room temp… but why let the heat/energy go down the drain?

2. cooking pasta, or something else that uses boiling water? let the pot sit on the counter after the pasta is removed. last night this raised the temperature of the kitchen by 4 degrees, and helped bring the humidity up a bit. forced air heat is dry… really dry. humidity helps retain warmth.

3. have an electric dryer, in a large area? ours is in the basement, which seems to have no issues with humidity. instead of letting the dryer vent outside, i’ve been monitoring it and letting it vent inside. turns out it’s common practice in a lot of countries. 40 minutes of the drier on medium heat, our entire basement goes from 56f to 65f… pretty nice when i’m working down there.
don’t even think of doing this with a gas dryer, though! carbon monoxide is all fun and games until it kills ya!

that’s it… since nothing has been done to the house, i’m left with sad posts like the above… sorry, maybe next time : )

got a bit more insulation into the attic…

hauled a bunch of subfloor up there, laying it down with subfloor adhesive and copious amounts of 3″ 16d nails… shot from a makita nail gun. too much work bangin’ ‘em all by hand.

we also cleared up some space in front of the house that was previously used for parking… courtesy of some asshat that ran a red light and plowed into rebecca’s car as she was making a left turn. no major injuries, which is the good thing.