Simple tips for keeping your home warmer in the wintertime

Posted on February 24th, 2008 in do it yourself, energy savings, heat, home improvement by homeimprovement
Here’s a couple simple tips for keeping your home warmer in the wintertime as well as cooler in the summertime. Have you ever gone to turn on a light and felt cold air streaming from the light switch? Or have you ever gone to plug something in an outlet and felt the same thing? These are basically holes in your wall and you need to seal them up to keep the cold out. Sealing them up is something you can do very simply and inexpensively.What you see to the left are Frost King Electric Outlet Sealers. They also make Light Switch Sealers as well. Grab yourself a few packs each of these and a cordless screwdriver and you can seal up all the electric outlets and light outlets in your house in about 30 minutes. Will you notice the difference? Definitely when you go to turn on a light or plug a light in. You’ve got to have at least 50-100 outlets in your home. I imagine sealing 50-100 or so will result in some appreciable difference in how your home feels. Besides they’re about a buck a pack. Give it a shot and see.
Another thing that I recently did was to take some thick plastic and wrap my screens with it to the windows of my back porch. These screens are about 4′ by 5′. My back porch is sort of a sun room with those old louvered windows that you crank open and close. Problem is - the windows don’t close all the way anymore which leads to some serious cold air intrusion. I took some packaging tape and some thick plastic and, after taking out the screens, wrapped the screens with the plastic. My back porch was over 20 degrees warmer than the outdoor temperature yesterday. This also creates a nice buffer zone between the outside and the house even when it’s only 5-10 degrees warmer in the porch than it is outside. I also get less worked up now when the wife leaves the door open which leads to the porch.

Home improvement questions and answers

Posted on January 6th, 2008 in do it yourself, home improvement by homeimprovement

This week’s batch of questions on home improvement.

My new vinyl replacement windows are drafty. Why would that be the case?

There could be a number of reasons for that. My first guess is that they were poorly installed. When windows are installed there are still a lot of gaps and seams that must be filled with caulk. Caulking needs to be done on the interior and exterior of the window. Also, part of the installation process involves adding insulation around the window. I have a picture of an installed window but with no finish work done yet. You can see all the gaps that need filled in.

My second guess is that the window was poorly manufactured. Hopefully, you bought a well made window and the installation job was poor. I would contact the seller and have them do the job right.

Will my house lose value if i convert my garage to a kitchen?

That depends on a number of factors.

1 - how big is the garage - one or two car?
2 - how big is your current kitchen - I assume that it is tiny.
3 - how big is your house?
4 - what’s the climate like in your area?
5 - do all your neighbors have garages?
6 - would you still have off-street parking?
7 - do you have a utility shed to store all your garage items?

Assuming you have a one car garage, a small kitchen, a small house, and would still have off street parking, then I would answer that you would gain value by expanding your kitchen and losing the garage. I assume that you would also gain a dining area as well.

Can you paint basement walls in the wintertime?

Sure, I did. I would recommend placing a few portable heaters down there and heating the place up to at least 60 degrees or perhaps 70. Your paint can will have instructions telling you the minimum temperature for application.

What is the cost for having basement ceiling insulated and finished?

You can estimate this yourself if you can determine the cost in materials. Figure out the square footage of the ceiling to be replaced. Determine how much drywall, insulation, paint, and other miscellaneous materials you will need and their cost. Take that figure and multiply by 4 and that should give you a good idea of the cost involved.

Do it yourself dishwasher installation

Posted on December 22nd, 2007 in Bosch dishwasher, dishwasher, do it yourself, installation by homeimprovement

1950’s kitchen

Here’s your standard 1950’s kitchen. Do you like the green? The whole kitchen including cupboards used to be that green. In fact, most of the house was that putrid green. What in the hell were they thinking? I guess it must have seemed like a good idea at that time.