It was 55° in the house this morning and the temps are scheduled to drop further this week so we figured it was time to bust out the heat. Based on last year’s post it looks like we made it one day further than last, although whereas today simply ushered in the first day of moderately steady flurries it looks like October 28, 2011 brought a nice blanket. Oddly enough, last winter was a bit of a dud. I like how this space might be used as a timeline of sorts, and what a difference a year makes. I had applied for the job I now have, not yet knowing my future there. I believe I had already been informed that we would be let go from my previous job at the end of November, but also immediately rehired so I could work for 6 hours a week at home. They were dark times.

I’ve lost 20 pound since then, and 35 from my all-time high in early 2011 (now if only I had hair left). Part of that is an improved attitude and desire to be active. Tonight I donned the headlamp to compensate for the lost hour, and ran out into the dark and flurried woods. At one point I heard crashing through the brush to the left, then later I found two pairs of eyes looking back at me from about 5 feet off the ground and as I approached – white tails retreating. I had human companionship as well, but there were times when I could pretend there was nothing else. My uniform:

I’ve also made capital improvements to the Logz this year. It’s still a work in progress, but I managed to button things up a bit. The rear of the house is logs up to the eave, which we chinked last year, but the original owner cheaped it up and faked it with siding the rest of the way. This is also the side of the house that’s most exposed to the northwestern winter blast.

The entire house used to leak like a sieve, but after the chinking it became clear that this gable end was a real problem. You could feel the draft coming in and if you held an open flame near the wall it would flicker. When I pulled the warped and gaping siding off I was not surprised to find no sheathing. Nor was I surprised to find an especially poor insulation job.

I created a ledge to ‘receive’ 2″ of new rigid foam and taped them seams up! Vertical strapping would have been ideal for air flow, but I wanted a vertical finish so I cut weeps into the straps for air and drainage.

Then applied the finish. The overhang never had a proper treatment, and I still need to box in the look-outs, but the boards need to be painted and we’ve run out of good painting weather. I had my priorities when the weather was last good. I feel like given the depth of the overhang it should probably be okay this winter. I’ll finish it up in the spring, first thing, along with painting the windows to match and staining the rest of the house to match the lower right window trim.

It’s not perfect, but the house is many, many times less drafty than before. The windows are probably the weakest link at this point and they will get the old hairdryer’d plastic sheet in the coming weeks. Can’t wait to be a little more efficient and warm in this winter, and we’ll see what 2013 brings!