My New 'Old Home' Adventures

I've been struggling with minimizing my heat and electric bills at my home.  I do have a pretty ancient heating and cooling system that I have checked annually by a technician and so far although not the most efficient, it is still running fairly well.  Besides replacing some of the doors and windows, the second year in my home I added additional insulation bats to my attic and this past year I replaced the insulation in my crawl space.  Both have helped reduce my heating and cooling costs but one thing that has bothered me was the gaps around my doors.  I've tried several times to put foam strips around them but my pets tend to like to claw at this and I end up replacing it fairly often around the lower part of the doors.   The three amigos in their favorite window seat I have been contemplating installing a storm door at the front door which is the worst for drafts.  Every time I come down the stairs I see this gap around the front door.  Today the thought came to me th

I wish I had started this blog back in 2010 when I purchased a small farm outside Richmond VA.  I was recently separated and was living in a rental home with my three teenage children.  I searched for months trying to find a small horse property that was within my means and ability to maintain and finally came across a 5-acre farm that fit the bill.  The home was a short-sale and was looking pretty shabby from neglect but I saw potential and moved in with my children (and two horses and two dogs) the day before Christmas 2010. Original condition of new home I will have to say that I was totally inexperienced as to home repairs and improvements.  I had been married to a very handy man and over the years I contributed very little to the upkeep of our homes.  Suddenly I was buying a 1970's home that required care and tlc and I was a little overwhelmed but also excited at the prospect of handling these things on my own. Over the past several years, I have struggled with  so m