Preparing for winter III

MrsCD

Gettingtherequickly wrote: »

Looking for suggestions for my mum please House snug as a bug with ofch for an hour or so in morning and evening. Has a burner in the kitchen/diner/every day living which is on all day so keeps the radiators warm. Also has open fire in main living room, but sometimes cannot be bothered taking up residence there in the evening so watches tv/reads etc in kitchen.

Now this where she has the problem, the back doors are bronzed aluminium and she loves the idea of using something to make it even more cosy, but what can she attach that will look pretty but be practical? We rarely use the front door (in fact discovered that birds have built a nest a couple of weeks ago in the porch area) so practicality is essential.

Just a thought - would one of the lovely sounding window quilts work?

SpikyHedgehog

slm6002 wrote: »

Hi where abouts in Ipswich will it be - outskirts or in town. I dont currently have car so i would have to go by bus and in town would be great

Hollow laughter at the thought of new shops in town ;-). No, it's Ransoms Europark, where Next used to be. But the number 3 bus goes up there, & I think the 1 - it takes a while, so I drag my boys on & get a family ticket for £4 when we go to Warren Heath Mr S. Or the day rover is also £4.

Ellie83 wrote: »

Can I ask you resourceful ladies a question? We are in the process of buying our first house (yay ) and it got me thinking of way to save on the heating bills. I read some of you mention window quilts: are they good? I know they have a lot of them in the US but I don't know if they would make much of a difference in a UK home (warmer winters, double glazing, etc).

As you can see, we are rather clueless as our current (rented) flat feels like a fridge in the winter, so I don't want to go overboard

Thanks for your help

I'd start by making sure as you put curtains etc up, you make then as weather proof as possible. We put up the first blinds we saw in the kitchen when we moved in, & I swapped them for blackout blinds last year & it makes such a difference.

babyblooz

I have very wide french doors in my dining room extension (flat roof) and the best thing I have found is to have full length curtains. I intend to make some new ones for winter (or maybe search ebay) but I want to attach a shelf above, like a pelmet and using that peel and stick velcro, attach a valance to it in the same fabric as the curtains. I reckon it should keep the heat in the kitchen rather than let it go towards the colder glass. It is double glazed but double glazing can only do so much!

My front windows are a bay with long panels, so I am making an experimental window quilt from some fabric left over from a mattress cover, you know the white quilted stuff? If it works, then I am going to cover the experimental one with some nice fabric to suit my colour scheme. I don't want to waste money on nice fabric only to find that the flippin' thing doesnt work out right. Last year I slung a fleece up over the roller blind because it was just so cold and the difference was amazing! There was about six or seven degrees difference when I put the fleece up so that's why I have decided to make a big effort to get them done this year.

pigpen

Ah.. just what I was looking for..

I have located a fully functional, as far as I am aware, unused hot water bottle would anyone like it???

I threw it in the cs bag then thought of you lot!

nicki_2

The expanding rods some of you are talking about, would they work okay to hang a net curtain when the opening is over 2m wide? I live in a rental with vertical blinds on front windows and I'm sick of the goldfish bowl effect when I open the blinds in the livingroom as the pavement is right there outside my house. :mad:

Also, does anyone have any ideas of what I can do about putting a better curtain up over my front door. This is what I have to deal with:


If you look at the right hand side of the door you can see that there is a notch chopped out of the corner, this is so the door can open as the livingroom door is at an angle. As you can also see atm I have a piece of dowling on cup hooks which holds the curtain, but this means that whenever I open the frontdoor I have to take the curtain down and means there's also nothing up when we're out of the house. Any ideas as to what I can do to it? I'm sick of the cold coming through (you can see daylight around the door in some places) and I have tried the stick on draught excluder but the problems I then have trying to shut & lock the front door is frustrating to say the least. Oh and there is already that rubber edged door trim stuff on the outside of the frame :eek:

Would a portier work? I have no idea and can't really afford to buy one if its not going to work.

Fruball

nicki wrote: »

The expanding rods some of you are talking about, would they work okay to hang a net curtain when the opening is over 2m wide? I live in a rental with vertical blinds on front windows and I'm sick of the goldfish bowl effect when I open the blinds in the livingroom as the pavement is right there outside my house. :mad:

Also, does anyone have any ideas of what I can do about putting a better curtain up over my front door. This is what I have to deal with:


If you look at the right hand side of the door you can see that there is a notch chopped out of the corner, this is so the door can open as the livingroom door is at an angle. As you can also see atm I have a piece of dowling on cup hooks which holds the curtain, but this means that whenever I open the frontdoor I have to take the curtain down and means there's also nothing up when we're out of the house. Any ideas as to what I can do to it? I'm sick of the cold coming through (you can see daylight around the door in some places) and I have tried the stick on draught excluder but the problems I then have trying to shut & lock the front door is frustrating to say the least. Oh and there is already that rubber edged door trim stuff on the outside of the frame :eek:

Would a portier work? I have no idea and can't really afford to buy one if its not going to work.

I have a telescopic rod to keep my net curtain up at the front - window is about 2.4+ metres.

Hope that helps

annie123

nicki wrote: »

Also, does anyone have any ideas of what I can do about putting a better curtain up over my front door.

You need one of these
http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/curtain-tracks-rods+accessories/wilko-tension-rod-self-locking-extendable-white-100cm-150cm/invt/0146150/?htxt=%2FUvRjc0xAaKk26JwgsxcsV6E2gjpK53ITJCPcypNRrR6jhjYX3SDlEUFWaOdTpLU0xVcTayKYYOc%0Aw4t9gBa9qg%3D%3D
They do sell longer ones up to 2 mtrs if needed.

Some plastic curtain rings sown onto a fleece will keep you much warmer. Plastic rings make it easier to slide it back behind you when you leave the house in the winter. You may need to stitch 2 fleeces together for the length.
And it won't leave any marks when removed and you can take it with you if you move home.

Fleeces up at the windows also help, they make light weight summer curtains, still allowing light to filter through in the evenings if you use white ones, but any colour will keep you warm in the winter.

You can use the rods but they're £25 upwards and have to be attached to the door and frame, so landlord may complain/hold deposit when leaving if you take it with you and leaves holes on the door etc.

poohbear59

We have had all our external doors on the porches replaced at last. The house feels more snug already. The porches protect us from the worst of the weather all year round.
The next major job is to fix the insulation into the hall ceiling.

poohbear59

annie I have just read through the link you posted and love the cardboard shutters. I am going to use them in my bathrooms. The windows are small so it should be easier to find card to fit. If we put bubble wrap on first then the cardboard shutters, with the porch doors repaired (the bathrooms are on ground floor with a porch outside) we should have cosy bathrooms.

The first floor bathroom was always warm as it has no window and has the hot water tank in there. Since we fitted the extractor fan the bathroooms has been wuite chilly. Does anyone else have this problem and have any ideas of how to counteract it?

rising_from_the_ashes

poohbear59 wrote: »

Since we fitted the extractor fan the bathroooms has been wuite chilly. Does anyone else have this problem and have any ideas of how to counteract it?

Yup and ...... nope It does get a bit chilly if it's on the whole time you're in the bath.

I'm a bit wary of sealing up every nook & cranny in the house and certainly couldn't not use the extractor fan in the bathroom - even tho the houses are new, I'd been having a few damp problems ..... right the way through summer :eek: (jammed paper in printer, full moisture absorbing tub things etc):eek:

Have finally put it down to the amount of washing that's been hanging around as it's been so beeping wet.

Unlikely to improve but I guess it may be slightly better in winter as the heating's on (although only downstairs - I never have it on upstairs) .... open to suggestions!:)