Preparing for Winter V

TracyS66

I love this thread, even though it talks about winter, feels like we have not had much of a summer and already the nights are drawing in and leaves are starting to fall. Bought an electric blanket in the sale, reduced from £40 to £15 so a real bargain. All blankets are washed and ready to go, and a new hot water bottle has been bought.
Made a new draught excluder for our front door. I always have a food and freezer list so will slowly start to add a few extras along the way, mainly long-life milk, beans etc. nothing too excessive.
Sorted out all my fleeces and hoodies, had to recycle a few as they were so tatty and they are all put in a box with a label on, so i know what's in there, also got a bargain in the M&S sale, thermal socks pack of 2 for £2.00 reduced from £7.00 so bought 2 packs!

dND

I too am beginning to think about my winter preparations.  1950's house with very large windows - double glazed but old and not very efficient especially the doors.  I've been eyeing up door curtain poles and the current cheapest are at H0me Barga1ns.  Has anyone else used these?  It's difficult to see how well made they are through all the packaging. Cheers. 

SuzeQStan

dND said:

I too am beginning to think about my winter preparations.  1950's house with very large windows - double glazed but old and not very efficient especially the doors.  I've been eyeing up door curtain poles and the current cheapest are at H0me Barga1ns.  Has anyone else used these?  It's difficult to see how well made they are through all the packaging. Cheers. 

We had a couple thin door curtains and I just safety pinned a blanket to the back of each one. Very effective proper keeps the drafts out.

fionaandphil

Primrose said:

On the topic of tall trees, a few months ago we changed our house insurance and noticed on the new policy conditions that we had to declare if there any tall trees above a certain height (can't remember what it was now) within x feet of our house structure.    Don't recall seeing that previously and wonder if increasing storms and gales are increasing the risk of property structure damage.

woth bearing in mind if you have any tall trees on your property because of course they grow taller every year and thus more expensive to be lopped.

We've had this on our house insurance for a number of years.  We are surrounded by lots of tall mature trees.  We actually went out and measured it and none of them were within the distance. I think ours was 'trees taller than 10ft within 5 metres of the house' or something like that.  I am thinking its more to do with subsidance than with actually falling though as they could actually hit the house if they fell, but we do have them checked regularly.  

SuzeQStan

Prep for winter here includes our garden as we do love a good potter and some of the plants we have moved house with us and been with us decades. So those all got a good mulch and sorted the greenhouse to make space for the non frost hardy ones in near future. 

Also cut back lavenders and the garage where am drying the cuttings smells WONDERFUL.  Will be making cupboard drawer bags for those just with some drawstring bags doesn’t need to be fancy etc. these in turn keep the moths away from winter jumpers blankets etc as they dont like the scent.

our firewood earmarked for this year use (minimum 18 months seasoning in log store and tested to be less than 20% moisture prior to use) is all laid by and ready to go. 

Have made a little insect house out of branches and bits of carp from garden for those displaced once we start having fires. We always have a 2nd log store on the go anyway where they can decamp to as it’s only 6 months seasoned so far so has another year before it is dry enough to burn.

Like the others have washed dried blankets but had to have the duvets done at the local laundrette due to size and it was ridiculously expensive.  Almost cheaper to just buy new - will seriously consider that next year!!

Primrose

Like the others have washed dried blankets but had to have the duvets done at the local laundrette due to size and it was ridiculously expensive.  Almost cheaper to just buy new - will seriously consider that next year!!


before I became  so disabled, I used to watch the weather forecast and on really hot days would wash my king size duvet iin the bath, let it drain for a few hours then husband and I would lug it downstairs and lay it out over the top of our rotary airer to dry in the sun.  But it was definitely a gargantuan four handed  job because I begrudge the huge cost of having it dry cleaned.!

Laura_Elsewhere

dND said:

I too am beginning to think about my winter preparations.  1950's house with very large windows - double glazed but old and not very efficient especially the doors.  I've been eyeing up door curtain poles and the current cheapest are at H0me Barga1ns.  Has anyone else used these?  It's difficult to see how well made they are through all the packaging. Cheers. 

We bought a curtain track from Dunelm for about four quid a couple of years ago, and my husband put it up across the very narrow hallway just inside the front door- you have to not fling the door wide open as you come in or it would probably cause a collapse somewhere! But it's not a problem, in practice...
It's attached each side to the support for the square shelf he put up above the front door (we keep our emergency supplies (camping-hob in a kind of little briefcase, small saucepan, camping kettle, battery-lantern, etc.) up there and a box with sunhats in winter, and woolly-furry hats during summer  

We did buy one of those spring-loaded curtain rods, to use in the bedroom window-space for a thin summer curtain, and although we bought a decent quality one, I wouldn't want to put a proper curtain on one. 

dND

Thanks Laura 

SuzeQStan

Sorry @dND - my reply bore no resemblance to what you were asking! 

We bought the cheapest flexible curtain track from @rgos for about £12 - plenty sturdy to hold the heavy blanket backed curtains we have on there and we bought a second one for the hallway like Laura E which creates a bit of an ‘air lock’ and keeps the drafts from going around the house. A bit cheaper than buying a new front door which is what we really need!!

Auti

Just a curtain pole as there was very little room to fit anything - took some work but made a difference - now working out how to draughtproof the stained glass window as has ornate opening catch at top right corner and raised curved beading all around.