Unbeknownst to me, icy cold air has been invading our bedroom forever. Super icy cold air. So icy that Matt’s neck would cramp up from the cold. Let me back up and fill you in a few things.
I always knew the room was cold. After all, we lack heat in the room and all that. Let me back up again.
Yeah, we don’t have heat in our bedroom. Yes, I’m serious. Did you know we’re hardcore like that? The previous owners ripped out the baseboard heaters (were they Eskimos?!) and we haven’t jumped on that project yet.
Wait…you don’t live without heat in your bedroom? Try it. It builds character. Let me tell you.
We can’t see our breath or anything like that. We popped on an efficient wall heater a couple of years ago, and that has helped the cause. It keeps the room really toasty with the door closed.
So yeah, the room has always been really cold, due to the lack of heat and all, but apparently, we’ve had actual icy, outdoor air streaming in under the window without my knowing.
I thought Matt had the pillows propped up against the window for easier reading or because it decreased pressure on his back. Ooohhhhhhh, my bad - he was using the pillows as a buffer against the stream of winter wind.
My husband, who complains about very little, was fed up. I must either be very unobservant or a human furnace to have not noticed the draft in three years. I’m going with human furnace, because it sounds like a character in the Avengers.
Onto our solution…
We started off by prying the trim off using the back end of a hammer.
The trim is still stained - I know, I know - our bedroom is the only room left in the house with stained trim! The paint is coming soon. The master is always the last room on our list. Seriously. We haven’t done anything in our room except hang insulated roman shades.
It didn’t take us long to see that we literally had no insulation around our energy efficient windows. With the trim off, can you see there is no insulation at all between our window frame and the sheetrock? Crazy.
We headed out to Home Depot to check out our spray foam options. I mean really, what’s a weekend worth without a trip to HD?
We settled on the famous (in the spray foam world) “Great Stuff” for windows and doors.
I know Matt was really excited to get his foam on. We see all the pros on our home improvement shows use this stuff and Matt was itching to give it a try.
After giving the can a good shake, you attach the included “straw” to the nozzle, hold it upside down, and lay it in slowly. Matt wore gloves as per the directions. It’s nasty stuff - smelly & sticky and probably definitely chemical. We try to be as chemical free as possible around here but stuffing organic cotton balls in the gaps probably wouldn’t stop the breeze. Sometimes, you just gotta bring out the big guns.
It goes in like a small bead of fluffy liquid (if that makes sense) and BAM! expands to fill the cracks, eventually hardening after a few hours.
With all of the cracks sufficiently foamed up, we could no longer feel any icy air coming through. Score. After letting it dry, Matt nailed the trim back in.
This was a really easy fix that anyone can handle. It cost us less than $6. The best part(s)? Matt doesn’t need to use a thousand pillows to block the draft, and I’m still a human furnace. Everyone wins.