Keeping our House Warm

Ladies and gentlemen, we are trying something new this year.... thermal window covers.

We have a huge picture window in the front of our house, with two smaller windows on each side.  The opening is over 100" wide.  Every year Matt tries to get out the window plastic and the double sided tape & cover this opening.  It's a vinyl window in a wood opening.  He goes around the wood on the top and sides, but has to tape to the vinyl on the bottom.  Every year we spend $13 on the "extra large" sliding door plastic in order to get a sheet that is big enough.  And every year, the cold temps, breeze coming through the gaps in the window and the fact that the tape is on two different materials, the plastic comes undone, and we wonder why we ever put the plastic on in the first place.

Well the thermometer is dropping, and now I know why we try this plastic wrap every year, it's like a BREEZE coming through our front windows!  We might as well have the windows open!  So, being that today was Cyber-Monday, I decided to look for a deal on window thermals.

I tried JCPenney first.  They were having a great sale on 42" wide panels - $15 dollars a piece.  We would have to get three panels to fit the width of the window. They would be worth their price in just 3 seasons.  However, they were out of white & the website started crashing after that.  So I moved on to Overstock.com.  I found a couple of options.  Luckily, they were all sold in pairs, and with most of them, they were 52" wide or greater per panel.  Because we have a double curtain rod, and we will be placing these closest to the window, we weren't super concerned with the appearance.

We ended up finding a pair 52" wide for $30.  Even better than the price we had with the first ones.

Photo from overstock.com

We got them in off-white.  They apparently have a bit of a "sheen" to them.  We decided that if the sheen was awful, we would just keep the drapes closed.  If not, the sheen might add to the holiday decor, making them a little extra sparkly.  Regardless, we are hoping that they stop the arctic breeze from continuing to chill our living room!  We'll keep you updated on how things go.

Another thing that we started doing a few years ago was trying to keep the heat from going right up the stairwell and out through the roof.  I got three yards of corduroy fabric on sale, at JoAnn's of course, made a rod pocket on the top, and hemmed the bottom.  We got a tension rod to span between the stairwell walls.

Personal Photo

The fabric is the same color as the carpet, so it's a little hard to see exactly what's going on in the photo, but it's the best thing we have done.  It keeps the first floor noticeably warmer, which keeps the heat from kicking on more often.  This keeps our bills down!  Yay!  Super cheap idea, super easy, super worth it.

We'll post more of our Winter Ideas as we come up with them.  Exactly how we are keeping our old leaky house warm and comfortable.  How are you keeping your house warm this winter?