Sunday, December 13, 2009

Plastic*

*Alternate Title:  "I Have Plastic on My Windows and I Like It"

I live in an older house.  It was built in the 40's, so it's 60-some years old.  It's age is one of the reasons my husband and I liked it - it had character and didn't look like all of the other houses.

For instance, we have real plaster on the walls.  They have a very nice texture.

We also have arched doorways, like this one:





We also have a cool built-in china cabinet in the dining room:





We have a fireplace (I know....we've lived here for 9 years and have never used it, but still.....we have one):





And, we have an awesome kitchen (sorry....it's messy):




Those are some of the cool things about our house.  But.....because it's older, it also comes with some really not so cool things.

For instance, some of the things in the house are really old.  Like the windows.

And, because the windows are old, they let a lot of air in and out of the house.  So in the winter, if you stand really close to some of the windows, you can feel a very slight breeze.  Of cold air.  Coming in.  If it's super windy out, or really really cold, that breeze might be even more than slight.

We've come to expect sort of high heating bills in the winter - it just came with the territory of owning an older home.  Usually, they're not too bad, but at least two months out of the year they're pretty heart attack inducing.  We thought about getting new windows earlier this year, but were a bit concerned with the cost (we have 16 windows in our house; a new standard window is about $250; of course, not all of our windows are considered standard.....so that bumps the average per window up to about $450.  You do the math).

So, in order to save on heating costs this winter, I have tried a few new things.  For one, I leave the heat at 64 or 65 degrees - all the time.  Sure it's a bit chilly, but really, we're not home all that much, and when we are, a lot of the time is spent sleeping.  We just bundle up and we're fine.

But, the breezy windows were bugging me.  So, today, I did something I thought I would NEVER do:  I put plastic up on my windows.

AH!  I've turned into some sort of crazy person!

(I didn't put them on Alexandra's windows because I would have had to take her shades down, and since she's the type of person who wakes up as soon as she senses the sun, I decided that the shades were enough insulation and that I wanted to sleep past 7 am for the next 6 months.)

But even though I have plastic on half of my windows, they look pretty good!  And I am pretty impressed with my window plastic-ing skills, if I do say so myself.

Actually, you can't even tell.

See?


2 comments:

Foursons said...

I live in a house that is only 7 years old but it has crappy windows that are the same way. On my windows in the playroom we hung outdoor blinds and it has made a huge difference in that room. There is a film you can buy at a home improvement store (think window tinting on a car) that is supposed to work well.

Kmama said...

Our house isn't that old, but we've definitely put plastic on our windows before. We should still do it, but we haven't in a few years (probably because we're lazy).

I love the arched doorways and plaster walls. is it a craftsman-style home? The built-ins are awesome.

Jdaddy and I are looking at some vacant property and if we decide to build, I'm going with a craftsman-style, at least on the outside.