Leaky windows, Leaky doors, Leaky everything, Leaky floors...

When the weather first started changing, I got the idea to put those air-filled packing thingys into the cavity of the transom window over the front door. The PO had a nice piece of plexiglass stapled to the outside of the window (which kind of defeated the purpose of having the window open) and I removed that as soon as I could.

Last winter, I put styrofoam in the cavity, which wasn't much better and blocked what light comes in that window. But this year, I thought the air-filled thingys would work just fine.

And they did, until a really strong gust of wind blew the window open in December, leaving the hallway littered with air-filled thingys and the cats spooked. I always meant to re-install them with a bit of packing tape holding them together, but even though heat is an expensive commodity around here, I've been wasting it since then.

Today I decided enough was enough. When you walk down the stairs, you get hit with a wall of cold air, and the temperature difference between upstairs and downstairs is like, oh, walking from a warm room into a freezer. A large part of the problem is the front door and transom window.

So I gathered up the millions of air-filled thingys that I have collected from work, taped them together to make a transom-sized air-filled pillow, and shoved them into the cavity. Then I slammed the window closed, and used a bit of packing tape to block the last of the air coming through. (You can't even see it! Honest!)

Then I felt all the cold air coming through the door. Argh. At least it's not really that much cold air; it's warmer when you go down the stairs already. But it's 70 degrees up in my hallway, which is a bit ridiculous, since I like to sleep cold anyway, and I have the house set at 65 while we're home and 62 during the day.

(I love hot water radiator heat!) However, it does seem I'm going to have to get some weather-stripping stuff for the front door, at least.