Stopping the leaks

We are going top join the people at Tiny Old House to stop the leaks.

I know this will mean a lot of work for us. We are missing many storm windows, and the ones we do have are in sad shape. Many of our windows are drafty, and you can feel wind coming under the doors.

I bought a programmable thermostat to save energy. Right now we are keeping the house at 65 deg F when we are awake and home, and 62 deg F when at work or sleeping. I figure the dogs and cats have fur, so can handle 62 just fine. This won;t be worth much, though, if we don't get the leaks sealed!

So thanks to Tiny Old House for helping us get the jump on this.

From Step Repair to Step Rebuild

I took advantage of one of the last warm weekends in Chicago for the year and repaired the front step.  However, as I brushed away the lose debris, more and more of the steps came loose. 

Started with this

 

Then so much loose debris came out that I broke through to under the front porch.  Now under that porch is our root cellar but that only accounted for about half of the space.  Until now we had no idea what the walled off area contained.  

Here is a picture of the cavern below the porch

 

So, this little project turned into a rebuild of the bottom two steps.  However, it was neat to see what was under there.