Preparing for Winter V

EmberJ

Hoping for a little advice. My partner lives in a small cottage in Lancashire, with a wood stove as our main heating. I'll be moving I'm shortly due to expecting child but its incredibly cold and draughty to me. I'm sat on the sofa right now in a tee, jumper and jeans, under a duvet and still very cold as we're avoiding using the stove - very low on wood due to bad planning. We don't have central heating just rather terrible storage heaters. The kitchen is usually icy, but that's probably due to no curtain/being stuck on the side of the house with three external walls. There's pretty heavy wooden door into the kitchen we keep shut. The other room downstairs is a long living/dining type room, with a short, but long high window one side, and a bigger window the otherwise, near the entrance. The entrance is a heavy wooden door, opening into a tiny hall with a wooden and half glass panelled door leading to our living area. We have an open wooden staircase, if that makes sense, leading to a small landing with an airing cupboard that houses the water heater - not that we switch it on. We boil the kettle to wash up and use and electric shower. The bathroom has a nearly floor to ceiling window that's about three foot wide, and the bathroom ceiling is sloped as is the bedroom. We have quite an issue with damp in the bathroom and bedroom, and condensation, waking up to it on the top of our duvet, the bedroom has an uninsulated dormer window, and a stable door leading to a fire escape. There's a roller blind at the window and a floor length curtain at the door. There is an electric heater in the room but it doesn't seem to warm the room very well. The cottage has its original beamed ceiling downstairs and I'm told it was part of a barn conversion many years ago.
Its rented, and we can't put excessive holes into the walls etc, but we need to insulate or draft proof or something for next July when baby comes along. I can sew well, and crochet well, and I'm decent at diy.
Can anyone help with some frugal ideas to keep the house warm when the stove is lit?
I've considered hanging fleece blankets or light quilts on the walls in the bedroom but I'm not sure how to without leaving holes. I want to get thermal curtains for all the windows, and the stable door, but I'm not sure how I could hang them at the other doors. We've learnt from our mistake with the wood this winter so will be keeping a closer eye on our supply from now on.

Really hope someone has some ideas because I'm feeling quite stuck. I can manage stocking and storing food from living in rural Derbyshire, but we still had central heating, but dealing with this cold has stumped me. We live on a rather rural hill so I'm not worried about flooding thankfully.
Sorry for going on so, I just feel I need to be as prepared as I can.
Thanks

smeeth

Thanks for the info on self-heating meals!

LP you'll be moved to Co-op at 00:01 tomorrow, who will keep your tariff and balance as it was before, so hopefully everything will go smoothly.

Ember bubble wrap windows, get portable dehumidifiers if you don't want an electric one.. it won't solve the condensation issue but it might lessen it. Find any gaps where you can feel a draught and tape them up. You could put up some command hooks then run a curtain wire from them for curtains, blankets etc. For windows and doors, if frames allow use telescopic poles and curtain rings. Remember you can fill holes reasonably easily so if you need too a few nails won't hurt. Draught excluders on doors will help. If you have the hot water on and the airing cupboard gets warm open the door to let some heat out. And as you say, make sure you have plenty of fuel. Hot drinks and water bottles/wheat bags are a must of course.

EmberJ

Thank you smeeth. I think nails would be okay, but screws could be an issue. OHs dad is under orders by his wife to come around and see what he can think up too, as they raised my OH and his brother in houses like this. All of the windows have curtain poles, bar the dormer window, but we were looking at a pressure rod for that, I used to use one in an old attic bedroom. I don't think he has switched the hot water on since he moved in, in January, and I've just gotten used to boiling the kettle to wash up, its never seemed like a big deal. He grew up learning to be very frugal, and I've managed to teach myself bits and bobs. Would an electric dehumidifier work better? If so I'd rather that. We're both heavy coffee drinkers, though I drink tea too, but I've swapped to hot blackcurrant since finding out.
How strong are command hooks? Or would it be worth just asking the landlord if he minds a few cup hook type things around the room, providing we fill and paint when we leave? I have several wheat packs as they help with my back and joint pain. I feel really quite out of my depth, the pregnancy was a big surprise, ideally we'd have planned in advance and would be living in a better house, but with losing my income, and new child we wouldnt be able to afford to move, and we need to prep the house as cheaply as possible. I'd love to keep working but I won't be allowed due to several health issues. Sorry for going on again, I guess I needed to vent a little as only my mum and aunt know about me expecting and aren't too happy, I can't tell the rest of the family as they'll all kick off about me being too young (I'm 20), too irresponsible, and my family tend to have arguments like world war three. Stress makes my back pain flair, which I don't need at the moment.
Thanks again smeeth

smeeth

If you're concerned then ask the landlord but it's unlikely they'd notice as long as you covered them up when you moved.

Electric dehumidifiers do work, they're not cheap but if you're waking up with it on the duvet I'd recommend it.. especially with the baby (congratulations btw).

Don't apologise for getting it off your chest, I can understand if you feel a bit isolated at the moment!

As I said stopping the cold getting in needs to be the main priority so checking doors and windows, bubble wrap on the windows for insulation etc. There's lots of good tips in this thread and elsewhere on the "net" so just look around.

You mentioned you're good at crochet etc, could you make pieces to sell online? That might be a way for you to pass the time and make some extra money.

Hopefully we'll get you cosy in no time!

EmberJ

If its to keep sprog safe we'll manage some how to get one. My OH is asthmatic so it may help him too. Thank you for the congrats, I've just been feeling lost in shock haha.
I can crochet well, but only for short amounts of time because of joint problems. I will give selling some stuff ago on line, at the very least it could fund my yarn habit, after odd pieces of baby stuff. Thank you, I've shown my OH this thread now he's home from work.

mardatha

Ember I live on an open moor at 1000ft and we get bad winters -when we moved into this house we had the same prob, waking up with condensation on the downie and damp walls. It went away when we got solid fuel central heating in. Would it be possible maybe to move the baby's cot into the livingroom and heat only that room next winter? The baby will be fine in summer in the bedroom.
I found Ikea blackout curtains excellent at keeping out draughts. I also think it's a mistake to make the room too draught-proof - sometimes that gives you more problems with mould etc. A wee draught is good for you Sew sausages and attatch them to the bottom of the doors onto the hall, that helped me a lot as well. And will that stove burn coal or peat? Because they are far hotter than wood in a really baltic day. I had my first baby a month before my 19th birthday and we managed just great - ignore the family it's none of their business xx

tori.k

If like me you have solid stone walls I would bite the bullet and order more wood in as if you don't get any heat into the walls the place will act like a refrigerator and it will soon be colder inside than out. wood stove is our only heating and we struggle in the winter as no-one is home long enough to keep our beast of wood stove ticking over and it's miserable.

culpepper

Ember ... hats for everyone. You lose so much heat through your head.
The Babies layettes in my oldy worldy knitting books are a hat gloves,bootees,knitted leggings and a jacket and they were published when many had no central heating .
What about making long tension poles to hold curtains? I think instructables has some instructions for DIY poles. You suspend them from wall to wall or any edges where you can wedge them.
If the rooms are small enough, shower curtain rod would work but I don't know what weight they would take.
If you cant curtain a whole room, how about just round the beds like a 4 poster? Either a frame made on the bed or a few hooks and curtain wire on the ceiling ??

Living_proof

mardatha wrote: »

That's a shame LP, hard on you xx

Thankfully all resolved as Coop Energy are going to take over the accounts on the same terms and will honour the credits due, if any. That will be a huge relief for all the households owed hundreds - the biggest I saw was £738!

mardatha

:eek:There is no way in hell I'd ever let a company hang on to £700 of mine