Are we prepared?!?

Hubs and I have not been building as much because it’s getting very much colder. It now reaches below 40f or 4c in the early mornings and things freeze. We have also noticed new problems in our little cabin. It is especially disheartening for Hubs because he’s put a lot of energy into building it and is constantly solving problems. It’s come to a point where it feels like we never get to rest and issues come one after the other. Yet, we are learning, just like before, and it’s a good thing we get to learn the foundations of building while living in a small cabin. At one point, Hubs was ready to have to rebuild a new cabin entirely in a few years to come, so we will try not to spend too much on expanding the cabin. At the same time, we’re still trying to keep up with fixing the problems so we can continue to live in our little home for as long as we can. We’ll continue building more once Spring comes.

We got an inch of snow in the first week of November. It is delightful to see snow. It falls so gently but with some weight that is made perceivable by the speed of which it falls. Unlike the snowflakes I could see when it snowed in Manzhouli, Inner Mongolia, the snow here did not form any pattern of sorts that I could make out.

Snow makes a squishy sound when you step on it. Aside from snow, there’s also frost. It sparkles when it reflects the sunlight. It’s beautiful to see this much snow because it wipes everything out with a blanket of pure white. That is, until you or an animal leaves footprints through it. It is so cold here that even when the snow eventually melts, some of it remains frozen in mounds for weeks.

In preparing the house for winter, Hubs really wanted to make sure we could stay warm. What we had was one propane heater in the house and a mini wood stove in the attached mud room. We had just enough money to purchase some insulation material earlier and he had spread them out around the walls surrounding the bed. I looked at it and thought it looked funny. It wasn’t going to do much insulating if the walls weren’t completely packed with insulation, but maybe it could work. Hubs had covered the insulation with some plastic to keep it in place. With this set up, the temperature in the house would reach 50f at night.

Insulation is costly, running more than $100 for about 8 feet of wall and they don’t always have it readily available at the stores. So we’ve had to improvise and the results are sometimes funny. We’ve also sealed the windows with a plastic sheet to keep the warmth in.

The first thing he tried to do was to put MORE plastic up on the walls. It helped bring the temperature up by another 10f. Then one day, I came home from work and found our house lined with emergency thermal blankets. It looked like we were living in a space capsule and it felt like an aquarium when the light reflected off the foil. It worked though. It brought the temperature up even more. So much so it we started noticing condensation on the walls that collected in puddles on the floor.

What we learnt was that we had insufficient ventilation and insulation. A big temperature difference between the outside and inside of the house means any water vapors in the house would become liquid upon touching the cold surface of the walls. The condensation comes rapidly and builds up to the point where it puddles on the floor or window ledge.

Insulation creates a barrier between the drastically different temperatures. It keeps temperatures, high or low, that way for longer. Without it, condensation like what we experienced can happen. This will become a problem if the wood starts getting moldy or begins to rot.

Ventilation helps keep the moisture from being trapped in the room. Even cracking a window open can help a little. We are looking at installing fans and a roof vent eventually. For now, we are thankful for the heat the propane and wood stove provides.

We sealed the house up so well that it backfired, how ironic!

Unfortunately, we found the wall by the kitchen had started getting moldy too. Hubs found some anti-mold paint and applied it to the surfaces that are affected and that should help.

To solve our need for warmth and ventilation, we finally bought and put in insulation to almost entire house, focusing on the sides that are directly in contact with the weather outside (the areas not blocked by the mud room or our shower room). We make sure there’s ventilation by cracking the door or windows open whenever we feel it’s needed. This has helped amazingly! We now stay warm at 70f or 21c in the house with just our propane heater on low. I’ve gone and found a roof vent but we have yet to install it. It’s a little daunting because we’ll need to cut through the roof which has been doing well so far in keeping us dry.

The night we finally got the house up to 74f, I was doing some work on my laptop while Hubs was already asleep. I had been trying to solve a problem with some computer updates and had finally figured it out. Closing my laptop shut and feeling quite relieved to be done with that, the warmth of the house welcomed me back to the room and I felt immensely pleased, thankful and satisfied that we had managed to solve what was on our minds for months.

Quick update on my parents’ visit

So, it was a good trip.

In November, both our parents came to visit. This was the first time my parents were coming this way and the last time we had seen each other was ten months ago. They had a 16 hour flight to take. It was the first time both our parents were going to meet and it was wonderful seeing them all together, having conversations on their own.

Hubs and I got the house ready the week before we drove out to meet them. We spent a few days in Santa Fe and then the rest of the trip was spent in Taos. The landscape here is hugely different from the small but bustling city I’m from. I tried to ease my parents in to where I now live, but I did not try too hard to manage their expectation nor experience. My parents are amazing for understanding and adapting to everything on this trip.

My mum wanted to come out and camp on the property because that was their point of their visit, to see us! However we explained to her that she may not enjoy herself. I do look forward to making our house bigger and cozier for guests in the future.

We have such a small house that not everyone can fit in it when they come up to visit. We ended up spending time outside and around the property, taking turns to stay warm in the house. This was before we had more insulation put up.

The majority of their time here was spent relaxing and checking out other tourist attractions. We got to visit a native Pueblo, an earthship and my parents walked around town on their own. I wanted my parents’ time here to be fun and eye-opening and for them to get a sense of my daily life here. I think we managed to do that for them.

I had really anticipated their arrival with all my heart and treasured the two weeks that they were here. Knowing their footsteps are left in places I frequent and new places we got to experience together makes living here a little homier. I am a different person around them in some ways. I put up with their smothering love! I am impatient and get mad at them easily, but I apologize and make sure they know I love them too.