I said burrr, it's cold in here!

Thanks to the onset of winter in Greektown Baltimore the house has gotten a bit chilly!

You can call me cheap for not wanting to turn the heat up on full blast, but I prefer to call myself environmentally friendly. I've recently been on this big kick to lower my carbon footprint because it's better for the environment. My carbon footprint is 18... calculate yours!

Some steps I've taken include using less water, recycling (obviously), replacing light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs, not using the highest setting on the hot water heater and keeping the thermostat lower. Not only does all of this help the environment, it also helps keep energy bills down too!

My latest project was to make the house more airtight. Since the house was built in 1915 (that would make it 93 years old) there are a lot of gaps in the doors & windows and if you held your hand over them for just a few seconds you could feel the cool air blowing in them. I took a trip to the local Home Depot to purchase some supplies including: weather stripping, door sweeps, caulk and insulating foam.

I weather stripped the front and rear doors (prevents air from entering/escaping from where the door meets the door jamb), added door sweeps to the bottom of the door (again to prevent air from entering/leaving) and spraying expandable foam into the gaps between the door jambs and the walls. I also caulked between the glass and frame of the old window on the back door, too! All of this in hopes of keeping the warm air in!

I also finally realized why my bedroom was so darn cold... the vent was plastered closed! So with a hammer, screw driver and a little muscle I was able to get the vent open and sleep a lot warmer than I had been!

Next up, a programmable digital thermostat!