Addressing the Cold

I had this brilliant plan to keep the two front facing rooms warmer, and I have no clue if they’ll work, but they sure sound good in theory. The guest room and our bedroom are much colder than the rooms on the back of the house, for a number of reasons. First off, the back faces south, so it gets a lot of sunshine. Second, the back is directly above the stove, so it gets heated the most. And finally, and I could be wrong about this, but the back wall is better insulated.

The reason I think this last point is true is because the front rooms are doghouse dormers that have knee-walls that are part of the slant of the roof. I know there’s insulation in there, but also know that a roof must allow cold air to vent through it in order to work properly. For anyone in the know (my Mentor, JH and his magic bag of tools, PR, etc.) this is important because it keeps the attic cold.

In this knee wall, there is a book shelf in each room, and the bottom shelf has no backing, so it is essentially exposed to the roof. I keep assorted clothes on this shelf, including underwear or shirts, and I’ve noticed that when I put them on in the Winter, it’s like putting ice cubes on. They’re freezing.

Through a rigid process of deduction, I concluded that this is contributing to the cold in the rooms. My plan, of course, is to seal up that hole. I’m not sure why it wasn’t done in the first place, so I could be screwing things up, but it’s worth a try. I need more projects to feed this blog.

Until then, thanks for reading, and thanks to Raja R for the pic.