With the recent cold conditions we have been experiencing we are worried about getting out utility bills next month.
We keep adjusting the thermostat but the drafts that blow through the house are making it very hard to keep warm. Even the outlets on the wind side of the house seem to blow cold air into the living room. When we first bought the house, we did some minor improvements, painting the walls, putting up new shutters, and doing some landscaping. Mostly cosmetic improvements. I now wish we would have spent the extra money to have the insulation in the walls, windows, and such bumped up at that time. We could have saved the money on paint but dealt with the mess when the house was still empty. Now, we will be stuck either opening the walls or having that blown in insulation installed. Both of these processes will mean making repairs to the drywall and repainting, both of which I am dreading. We can’t continue to just pay higher bills each winter so I don’t see any other option. To make it through the rest of this season, we have blocked off unused rooms, put draft protectors in front of the doors, and even put that plastic film over the windows. None of this is very attractive, but, it will help a little anyways. I even went to the hardware store and found little foam boards to install behind the electric plates. This is an inexpensive way to block some of the cold. I hope that we can come up with the money for a more permanent solution in the spring.