Sealing Up the Home

Back in January something really strange happened in Texas - temperatures dropped to below freezing one night. That was the time my pipes froze. It was cold and it sucked. To combat the cold, I, obviously, turned up my heat.

My electric bill that came for that time period nearly gave me a heart attack; it was double what it normally was. I immediately signed up for an Energy Audit through the City. They came out and did their stuff. I live in an old house with very poor insulation - it's basically inside, wall, outside. It's nowhere near current standards. Besides getting new windows and doing a huge undertaking to insulate, it was recommended to do some simple caulking of the baseboards for a quick ROI.

I of course didn't do it right away. It warmed up to normal Texas-winter-standards. And it wasn't hot enough for the AC...until Friday. I was dying and finally turned the AC on for the first time.

That spurred me to finally get down to caulking. It was a learning process, with the first room turning out somewhat-acceptable. But then I really hit my stride and caulked my bedroom, the second room, the dining room, and the side door in the kitchen. I've sealed my house to escaping cold/hot air the best I can.