OT Things you would not learn if the weather were not 40something below C....

DAWNE!!!!!! You oughta know better than *that*!!!!! At least it's in a place that will shortly thaw the key out without causing pain. Or did you not wait?

Commiserating in the cold (currently -14F, on our way to

-20something), Joan

Oh dear. It's supposed to warm up here to -20 C or so tomorrow. Positively balmy. I hope some is left over to go your way. Dora in Calgary

DAWNE!!!!!! You oughta know better than *that*!!!!! At least it's in a place that will shortly thaw the key out without causing pain. Or did you not wait?

Joan

yes, the key thawed very quickly in my mouth--but I thought it was very funny! Who would have thought the key would get THAT cold in the ignition during a fairly short drive???? Dawne

No, but from your comment I am apparently doomed to live some of it. It is sooooo cold, but at least Joan, andFred, and I have roofs over our heads and light and heat.

Dawne

Yes - it's definitely something to be grateful for. I was watching CBC and they were doing a report on the homeless in places like Edmonton and in Vancouver. In some ways it is worse in Vancouver, because they are just not prepared for the extreme cold temps.

It was 8C here yesterday, and it is -4C today so we are relatively well off. I went for a walk to the post office, and to pick up the paper, and really enjoyed the briskness.

MargW

See? That's what's great about living in the north....we *know* how to insulate! Against both cold *and* heat! :)

Joan

Another case for the plastic guard on some keys. Can stick to bare flesh.

Whine, whine, whine... try living somewhere with real weather with no insulation in the walls.

Elizabeth - from her unheated, uninsulated, third floor.

Contrary to what you seem to think, houses built a hundred years ago in the East weren't insulated either.

You haven't add the insulation up there yet girl! good thing there are no pipes there

Some were in a sense, with largish (6 to 8 inch) air pockets. Just not most homes. And it did depend on where you were. My grandmother spent many moons researching home building practices while on the local (Millis MA) historical society. Many it was the better off families that built the homes with the air pocket insulation. They also used milkweed (kapok) and newspapers.

Seaweed was the insulation of choice around NS. Unfortunately it dried and dropped down and was not very effective.

Can't blow in insulation on the third floor the way the roof hits the kneewall. Haven't gutted all the rooms yet, so only some are insulated. Pipes don't seem to care, though, since the first and second floors weren't insulated the first few years we lived here and the pipes (which run up the outside wall of the kitchen) never froze - even when we didn't bother to heat the first floor.

Elizabeth

This house has air-pocket construction, but the house I lived in in Ohio was of the same vintage (1880-1890) and the plaster was laid right on the bricks. Burrrrrrrrr!

Elizabeth (not convinced those air-pockets do all that much).

I remember my father explaining to me as a child that they would build a double brick wall with a space between them. That was for insulation purposes. There were some metal tie thingies between the two walls,I remember. Dad was an architect, a chartered surveyor and a civil engineer; he could design anything...but never never ask him to hammer a nail into the wall, or change a fuse. Mum had to do that!

Gillian

Many houses built here in Ontario -- ie, part of the Great White North where today it's about -22 C with the windchill -- in the mid 1950s weren't insulated, likely because heating oil was relatively inexpensive in those days.

Maybe it is just that much warmer near the ocean that it doesn't matter.

But I am seriously amazed by that.

In theory they do. In practice, I'm with you.

My 1895 Ohio house was a frame house, with lath and plaster inside but no insulation. Fortunately the millwork around doors and windows was pretty deep, so as we gradually remodeled it, we simply added a layer of half-inch drywall all through the inside. Worked like a charm. Of course, back then the blown-in insulation was very new, not very reliable and had a lot of fumes which we thought would NOT be good for our small children.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.