Curb Appeal...Form Follows Function

Sunday, I forced...I mean....encouraged Neal to take action on the cold house dilemma. You may remember that last year we spent a fortune on propane and I still froze. The floor was like a slab of ice. Midway through the winter, Alan educated me on the physics of air flow in the crawl space and the absolute necessity of closing off all the vents in the foundation. That helped a little. But this year I had a middle-of-the-night brainstorm to not only close the vents, but add some insulation to seal them off completely. I bought some foam insulation and got free plywood scraps from Home Depot and envisioned lining the plywood with the insulation, cut to fit the vent openings, then paint to match the house/foundation. Neal said the plywood wasn't thick enough, but I think he just didn't want to be bothered. Instead, he attached the insulation with a wire, and now I have cute pink rectangles bordering my foundation.

In the patio area outside our bedroom, he noticed there was some mortar that had crumbled away from the cinder blocks, so he neatly and discreetly stuffed those cracks with pink insulation, too.

Cute, huh?

I must say, I can already feel the difference in the temperature around my ankles. Sure hope the brown/pink combo stays in vogue.