Preparing for the Winter (In a Most Unromantic Way)

Normally when one thinks of a blog post about preparing for winter, the thought that would come to mind is of lovingly storing up food, knitting warm socks, making warm pies and cocoa.  All with a serene countenance and, of course, in a lovely romantic sort of dress - with a frilly apron.

Not in this house!!

Our winter prep is of a more utilitarian nature: namely rehanging the ancient basement door that has been letting in so much cold air it is like its own air conditioning unit.  This is a problem for me doing laundry, and our poor kitties whose cat box is downwind of the draft - Brrrr!.  The door is rather ugly and peppered with small gouges from BB guns from previous owner's children.  But the big problem was that the door was ill-fitting, did not close properly, and had air leakage and drafts constantly.

So Paul removed the door this weekend (probably the last "warm" weekend here in the Chicago area).  He found proper wood in his stash, got new hinges and a handle from the hardware.  He refitted the door and added pieces so that when the door is shut with applied insulation strips it will be a tight (and draft-free) fit.  I did the usual lady thing when a man is working: holding sticks of wood, holding parts in place while Paul marked things or drilled holes, making "helpful" suggestions, ordering pizza, and taking annoying photos.   The work is mostly done.  All that is left now is to add the insulation strips, fill the BB holes, prime, and paint it.

Here are two in-progress shots, more to come once the door is painted:

In other non-romantic news, in between holding things in place for Paul, I did a lot of basement uncluttering, packed up and sent off a large load of give-aways to Salvation Army.  Then I sorted things into new spaces, cleaned a bit.  I still have a lot more of that to do.  Maybe I'll get to the cocoa and knitting one of these days.