Preparing for winter II

niccinotts

i got some of those pyjamas when they were in the sale too,,,i love them

sammy_kaye18

Thank you MrsRogers for the forewarning re winter weather.

We have recently moved home - we were living on the flat, next to the local village shop and were relatively well off in terms of if we needed anything we could pop next door and then we were in a small 2 bedroomed flat, that was single glazed but we were ground floor and had heat coming from three neighbours - one above, one behind and one to the side.

Now we are living at the top of TWO hills :eek: and the two local shops are now down the bottom of those two hills and last year boyfriend had to abandon the car mid way up and walk as it wouldn't make it up the hills in the snow/ice. Plus now we have a three bedroomed house to heat, and two kiddiwinks here full time to heat as well so my thoughts have now turned to being prepared for winter in a big way!

- Thankfully our house now is double glazed. Our main window in the living room in fact rather than two stretched curtains, now has 4 ruffled curtains on it - as we needed 4 to cover our living room one in flat but it looks nice and keeps the cold out. We also have an old gas fire on the wall too.
- Our kitchen is much larger and has two windows in it - both have roller blinds on them at the minute so will need to do some thinking there. It has one small radiator in there too.
- Our bathroom is downstairs, and has a small back porch for the back door with a small radiator in the bathroom. Think wet room rather than bathroom
- The dog is currently sleeping in the cubby hole in the porch but think in winter I will move him into the kitchen in a little under cabinet cubby hole that's down there. He has a comfy bed though.
- all of the downstairs in laminate flooring.
- hallway - no radiators, the front door and a small window mid way up the stairs! no carpet
- Hollys room - small radiator, box room, has carpet and curtains on the window
- Bens room - large radiator, and the cupboard in his room houses the water tank with no jacket on it. his room has carpet too. Thinking though since we don't have a bath - only an electric shower - we could leave the airing cupboard door cracked open and the heat from teh water tank will help keep his room warm rather than having the radiator up high.
- Our room - no carpet, no curtains at present and a large window, has a radiator but our cupboard has a window in it too ? random I know

loft is insulated though and we have cavity wall insulation.

Think I am off to make a checklist of things to do and have a think.

lushlifesaver

MrsRogers wrote: »

What are peoples opinions on Snow Boots? has anyone bought any?

I was thinking of buying a pair but they are quite pricey compared to a pair of wellies with thick socks..

Any advice greatly appriciated

My darling father got me a pair of snow boots last year for about £60, I have a reasonably long commute and my feet get cold easily but I hardly went anywhere without them on last year and was the only one to have toasty dry feet!
I have to admit I love them, they might not have looked the most stylish last year but I've already seen boots this year in the shop that look similar.
Tried some on just out of curiosity and to kill time and I can say the 'fashion' pairs were less comfy and didn't have much of a decent sole on etc so I would say check out a few places before you grab a pair but definitely get some.
Oh and youonly need to wear thin/normal socks with a decent pair, not thermals, otherwise you can end up with damp/sweaty socks (ick)

CH27

We've just had our extension roof repointed. The frost of the last two years caused chunks to fall out.
Thought it was better to be proactive rather than wait for problems.
The roofer said he been innundated with people having the same problems.

jamanda

Sounds like a lot to do Sammy, but you've got the imagination to work it out. CS and fleeces all round spring to mind. Wonder if you could get some rugs from freecycle/friends/ads in paper?

babyblooz

Can I just say that to all those people struggling with the idea of sewing fleeces to the backs of curtains, there is another idea you could try. My aunt used to just hang another pair of curtains behind the front curtains. She used to hook them onto the hooks for the linings, it sounds a bit tricky but if you use the small s shaped plastic hooks designed for linings it is quite easy to work out. It might not be as effective as fleece but it is better than nothing and it worked well for my old aunty. She did this years ago, before anyone had double glazing. Because they are hung behind it doesnt really matter what they look like, but you still get the look of curtains from through the window.

It is worth trying I suppose.

helen_jelly

Hi
I've been following this thread and have "borrowed" many of your amazing ideas for the forthcoming winter so a huge thank you to all who post

I have a question????
All of my upstairs windows are Velux windows [think Chalet stlye house where the bedrooms etc are in the roof so all the windows are slanted the same as the roof] We have blinds at them all but that is all - curtains are impossible because of the slanting wall so do any of you have any ideas on how I can make them less cold?? They are draught proof but the glass gets very cold especially when it snows as the snow lays on them

thank you
Helen x

lushlifesaver

One thing I did in my loft room of my rented house over the winter last year was knock up a super cheap curtain for the velux window. I put a small hook into the roof at each corner and measured the width then added two inches each side - bought a metre of plain fleece and a metre of nice fabric (each was about 130cm wide), cut them to fit the window (well i cut the fabric piece 1.5in bigger), sewed them together and the sewed a 0.5in hem on the fabric leaving a tube at the top and bottom then got a couple of pieces of plastic coated wire (thick stuff) with rings at each end (I'm sorry that's not a great description I got it from my parents and have no ideas what it actually was!) put that stuff through the openings and strung it up by the hooks. I swear it kept my room a ton warmer

Sorry if that's not a great explanation

Chillout5892

Long range weather forecast for this summer

MrsRogers wrote: »

Hello All

Couple of people have asked about the long range forecast for Winter 2011. I came across this site in Aug last year and although all the main stream weather stations were predicting one thing these guys was bang on the money so I will be preparing inline with their predictions!

Here is the website link (Lot is quite technical)
(http://www.exactaweather.com/UK_Long_Range_Forecast.html

Summary from above link

'Based on the natural factors that I have covered and in terms of how I calculate solar activity into my forecasts, it would be adequate to suggest prolonged periods of well below average temperatures and widespread heavy snowfall throughout this winter. This will result in the fourth bad winter in succession for the UK, and will prove to be the worst of them all. I now fully expect records to be broken, with the Highlands of Scotland being once again particularly hard hit. It is therefore vital to start preparing now in terms of high energy bills, and raised awareness amongst the elderly and most vulnerable people.'

Like all MSE recommendations preperation is key

Hey you guys. I went back to Mrs Rogers weather site to see what they had to say about this summer. This time last year I was nut brown from sunbathing and reading the Wallander novels on the balcony. I can't wait for the sun to come out.

Well don't want to depress you but.... this is what it forecast in January.

Summer 2011 Based on the factors I have covered, it would be adequate to suggest below average temperatures in terms of how I calculate solar activity into my forecasts. The UK will also begin to see the lag effect of the Gulf Stream shift to couple this. However, I also feel that the La Niña will largely influence the UK summer, in terms of how it will affect the jet stream. WARNING! This could lead to torrential downpours and severe flooding So it looks like a summer of grey skies and damp weather, and it's probably safe to say that there will be no BBQ summer again this year.

Damn and rats!

I'd make the very most of every decent day you get, while planning for the winter ... which may start in September ... again .....

Glad I got the knitting machine.

helen_jelly

Lushlifesaver
Thanks for the response - I think I know what you mean - bit like a net curtain - if I put wire across the top and the bottom I could thread the curtain through them and then just pull them across - now I can't believe I didn't think of that - its so obvious - duh!!!! Also means that I could have pretty curtains - I'm suffering from the lack of curtains hehe. And they would be warmer and I could colour co-ordinate [the current blinds we have are horrid] Oh thank you so much

Helen x