In the Midwest Deep-Freeze again

[Bioburner]

When spring comes-if it comes I would really look at some major upgrades of insulation for your home. I was there in early 2000s. Stuck a big bottle of pop between door and the blanket to cool of one night and was froze solid next morning. Local utility may have a reduced cost home energy audit and the auditor may know of programs to help with costs of the projects.

 

[3650]

I'd really like that too, but unfortunately my home is plaster lathe over split faced blocks. Insulating the walls would be a major renovation. I have considered studding out walls over the plaster lathe and insulating them, but I'm worried about mold issues if I do that. I agree something needs to be done I'm just not sure I can afford it. I have heard that Ameren is offering assistance for this and I am going to check into it. Cant do anything until spring.

When I moved in to this house propane was .60 cents a gallon. I would spend about $1500 to $1800 a winter heating it then, so you can imagine how expensive it was when propane shot up. There was a point when I was keeping the thermostat set at 50* constantly. Talk about miserable. The following winter I traded a car for a Quadrafire Mt Vernon. I was in heaven. If I remember correctly I think I kept the house at 80* just to spite the cold. I do remember experimenting to see how hot I could get the house and managed to bring in up to 98*. I was lounging around in my underwear. I'm pretty sure that must have been when I warped the heat exchanger tubes on the Mt Vernon, so I dont recommend anyone else try that.

on a side note. I too, had a fridged experience one winter. I closed off two bedrooms to have less space to heat and when I peaked in during a cold snap I found the rooms firmly encrusted in a layer of pretty heavy frost. It reminded me of the scene from Dr. Schivago when he goes back to his empty home in the grips of winter. Needless to say I leave all doors open now.

 

[Bioburner]

Would do as much of the leg work as you can before spring as there may be a large demand for the services and lot of programs will burn through the funding, so first come first served.

 

[SidecarFlip]

-17 here last night. I've never has air conditioning in the house. Summer is to e enjoyed, not hide from.

 

[Old Spartan]

-17 here last night. I've never has air conditioning in the house. Summer is to e enjoyed, not hide from.

No doubt it is ,,,,,, BUT ,,,,, It is just a bookend to winter when it comes to comfort inside.

A home needs to be comfortable when relaxing or enjoying other activities regardless of the outside temp and 90 with high humidity is no more comfortable than a cold day.

Summer, like winter is for the outdoors not for inside my home unless I choose.

 

[SidecarFlip]

If I need ac, I get in a tractor or in my buggy. A window fan is always enough. I'd like to find a way to 'can' the summer heat for winter use..... Wishful thinking other than geothermal.

 

[TimfromMA]

Headed home early today to get a jump start on clearing snow off my roof before rain comes in on Sunday.

Good times......NOT

 

[SidecarFlip]

Headed home early today to get a jump start on clearing snow off my roof before rain comes in on Sunday.

Good times......NOT

Just don't go sledding on the roof and bust your arse.....................

 

[TimfromMA]

Busted my arse in the past. Not something I care to repeat.

 

[OhioBurner©]

When I got home it was 42* in my house.....

....Insulating the walls would be a major renovation.

Wow and I thought my house was bad. I'm with you on the renovation. But are you planning on staying there long term? I think it would surely be worth it in the long term. My house is half timber plaster walled over 100 yr old and the other half built in 1990 but seemingly pretty cheeply done with 4" walls, a large great room with probably crap insulation on the ceiling, and all sorts of air leaks everywhere and really bad at the joints of the old and new walls. The old side has 9 large double hung windows that leak air, but they are all in fine shape and I'd hate to replace them. The new side isnt much better, and has 15 large windows. I plan on doing bit of remodel to part of the uninsulated upstairs on the old side and the laundry room directly below it that is typically in the low 50's, and down by the floor with the IR right now 38-42F. I did find a cavity behind the dryer that went straight into the cellar, like 4"x16" hole, that I stuffed insulation into but things like this are all over the house. Finding out that half the attic wasnt even insulated though was a breaking point for me recently. I think it'd be easier to move than to properly renovate. Especially since the interior and exterior are so nicely done, I'd hate to rip it all down. Hopefully some buyers will see the nice house and not worry about the insulation and air leaks! I'm going to have to sell it during warmer weather!

-9 ambient -- -23 to -41 wind chill depending on the minute last ---- 75 in the big room -- 67 far away from the big room. added a tstat and a switch a few weeks ago to the far room so that room can control the propane furnace when I want. I wanted last night and set it at 67. Timer said it ran 43 minutes overnight.
We are happy being warm ..... Just wish the sun was providing the heat.

Nice, hopefully I'll be there some day! Spartan, that doesn't refer to South Jeff does it by chance? Because that's where I grew up.


Well I woke up this morning to a cold house though not as cold as some it seems. My pellet stove had went out sometime in the middle of the night, pellets were all stuck to the hopper sides despite me coating it with aluminum tape. Probably a good bag of pellets left in the hopper but a hole down the middle of the pile right to the auger and no pellets dropping. Wood stove also seemed to die out earlier than normal (was down to just a small amount of coals ~200F), then again I did sleep in until after 8am since my son's school was cancelled (loaded the stove 11PM). Looks like it got down to -13F overnight so probably did hit the -20's with wind chill they were forecasting. The weather center is in the great room with the woodstove and since midnight it had hit a low of 54. The other side of the house that the pellet stove heats was reading 48-52. Thankfully it warmed up quick outside, well atleast back above zero, and have both the woodstove and pellet stove cranked up for a few hours now and back on the good side of 60.

I've never has air conditioning in the house. Summer is to e enjoyed, not hide from.

I'm a big fan of natural air conditioning. The exception I make is the uninsulated cap cod upstairs the ceiling of the bedroom can get well over 100F on a sunny day. I put a window unit just in the bedroom since it was so hot I couldnt get to sleep and getting up for work at 4am with no sleep and sitting infront of a computer for 12hrs straight is a miserable. Last year I actually did without though, no A/C all summer. I think I may have used it in my truck 5 or 6 times if I was driving in the heat of the day.

 

[bogieb]

I did find a cavity behind the dryer that went straight into the cellar, like 4"x16" hole, that I stuffed insulation into but things like this are all over the house. Finding out that half the attic wasnt even insulated though was a breaking point for me recently. I think it'd be easier to move than to properly renovate. Especially since the interior and exterior are so nicely done, I'd hate to rip it all down. Hopefully some buyers will see the nice house and not worry about the insulation and air leaks! I'm going to have to sell it during warmer weather!

I tore out my living room walls because it was easier to put in new sheetrock than to try to deal with the crappy repairs all over the place. While I was at it, I was going to put in newer (better) insulation between the 2 x 4's. Found that the exterior plywood only went exactly to the eave, meaning the top 8-9" of every single exterior wall was directly open to my eaves (I have a southern style roof that is fairly flat and has a large overhang). that would be bad enough if it was only 2 sides of the house, but I have a hip-type roof, so those holes were on all 4 sides. I had to custom cut plywood to scab into each hole and each was a different size because apparently they just threw the joists on and where they fell, that is where they were nailed - some were 9" OC, others were 17" OC).

Obviously one room of walls became all exterior walls that got demolished and remedied. Everyone thought I spent all my spare time at the gym, I was so buff - instead it was all the demo and reconstruction I did that got me in great shape last summer

 

[Old Spartan]

Nice, hopefully I'll be there some day! Spartan, that doesn't refer to South Jeff does it by chance? Because that's where I grew up.
View attachment 154135

Queensbury, just south of Lake George and just north of Saratoga. A great place this North Country - for about 8-9 months. The other three are right out of Paradise Lost.

 

[OhioBurner©]

Queensbury, just south of Lake George and just north of Saratoga. A great place this North Country - for about 8-9 months. The other three are right out of Paradise Lost.

Ahh well not quite. Oddly enough I have really wanted to move back to NY and probably have a good shot of a job similar to what I do in Albany and have been looking at places not to far from where you are. I was shocked at how low price land was outside of Gloversville area. Pushing my drive limit but I would love to be there. I think it might have been cheap since it was bordering the Adirondack park that maybe there were a bunch of rules and such, not sure. Anyhow I'm stuck in central Ohio for a while. Looking at land around here, easily 4X the cost per acre of what I was looking at in NY, and I'm in the middle of no where and have no wonderful mountains, lakes, or state parks nearby. Just farmland and houses. Lots of houses. Way too many houses for out in the middle of nowhere.

Anyhow, this is where I grew up and the folks still live.


Right in that nearly black dot a smidgen south of Watertown where storms like that one are somewhat normal. Dad said along with some snowfall a few days earlier they got around 6 feet that week (last month). The bigger cities tend to get more news coverage but that narrow spot between Watertown and Pulaski and out to Lowville just gets constantly hammered with feet of snow on a regular basis it seems. Much more than Buffalo usually gets.

 

[SidecarFlip]

New York is a beautiful state (Northern Tier that is). Just one issue. You have a gestapo governor and he's anti firearm. I could never live there.

 

[Wilbur Feral]

Headed home early today to get a jump start on clearing snow off my roof before rain comes in on Sunday.

Good times......NOT

My inlaws outside Boston paid $1500 to have theirs cleared yesterday. Holy moly... Hope it went well for you.

 

[Old Spartan]

Interesting that you are from the Watertown area. My closest friend in middle school and beyond was transplanted from Watertown. I used to go with his family occasionally when they visited, and until a few years ago fished from Pulaski to Rochester for Salmon every fall with my brother.

Gloversville is one of those cities well past prime. Was once the world's glove manufacturing center (what else) with large tanneries. Today it is a depressing area gasping for air. A friend of mine lives just outside the city.

Reason for low re prices in that area are high taxes (relatively speaking, few decent jobs, poor school system and limited opportunity for improvement). It is a depressing place although Fulton County area has lovely countryside and reasonable proximity to good fishing, hunting, and cultural activities.

 

[Old Spartan]

New York is a beautiful state (Northern Tier that is). Just one issue. You have a gestapo governor and he's anti firearm. I could never live there.

Yes we are unfortunately governed by New York City natives who have a different world view than us Northerners, You simply learn to ignore some of the silly things these cement valley people enact and just go about your life.

Many of the North Country Sheriff offices refuse to enforce the recent gun registration act and the vast majority of owners have simply refused to comply.

I can remember when the current gov's pop tried to close a road into a fishing pond. The natives simply brought in dozers and removed the pile of gravel of put across the road. There is now a nice gravel road leading to that pond where once was just a WD only logging road.

 

[adam6979]

New York is a beautiful state (Northern Tier that is). Just one issue. You have a gestapo governor and he's anti firearm. I could never live there.

Yep Yep - had actually considered upstate NY - found out about the gun laws - now ammo --- no way I'll stay in Maine!

 

[jp99]

Yep Yep - had actually considered upstate NY - found out about the gun laws - now ammo --- no way I'll stay in Maine!

Ditto here - had a nice job offer to work at RPI in Troy but turned it down for reasons like this and the high taxes. I'd have lived in VT and commuted if I had gone there.

 

[TimfromMA]

 

[RAVinMetrowest]

-10 here this am. Rain tonight?

 

[Old Spartan]

AWESOME photo TimfromMA ......... I see a blue sky background. Thought that was a thing of the past in Mass

 

[TimfromMA]

We haven't had a significant storm in over a week. That all changes tomorrow with a storm forecasted to bring rain to my area. I can't even imagine how heavy that 4 feet of snow on my roof will get when soaked with water.

 

[Bioburner]

We haven't had a significant storm in over a week. That all changes tomorrow with a storm forecasted to bring rain to my area. I can't even imagine how heavy that 4 feet of snow on my roof will get when soaked with water.

It wont be a roof for long if you add much rain. They had on the news that over a hundred roofs had already collapsed.

 

[TimfromMA]

It wont be a roof for long if you add much rain. They had on the news that over a hundred roofs had already collapsed.

Which is why I will spend most of the day up there dressed like I was in the photo.