While our almost 60-year-old house didn’t exactly fail it’s energy audit, we came out of the experience with a long list of things (most fairly small) that we need to update or fix around our house.

We did find out that our insulation was very lacking. We also found out that all of the vents in our bathroom vented directly into the insulation, which is not a good thing.

While our EnergyStar windows and doors are a great improvement, we are still losing lots of heat (or cold, depending on the season) through the many faceplates on our exterior walls.

The windows that we didn’t replace, because they were covered over, or were much newer, were not caulked.

And the skylight we recently installed to bring some natural light into our bathroom, needs to have a blanket wrapped around the pipe connecting it to the ceiling. We installed it right before the winter, if you can call this a winter, began. The audit man said that in the summer, our bathroom would get really hot if we didn’t insulate the tubing.

So, this weekend we headed out to get foam insulation for our faceplates. We had to ask 3 different workers at Lowe’s, and finally ended up finding them ourselves. They are pretty cheap. I believe you get six for about $2. They make some for electrical outlets and light switches. You mainly need these on exterior walls, although I think my husband just went ahead and put them on almost all of our electrical and lightswitch outlets. Since our house is older, we do have some funky shaped outlets. We’re trying to come up with a way to insulate those.

Still, this is a very cheap and easy way to winterize your home. Good luck finding the covers at your local hardware store!

We then fixed the bathroom vents so they no longer pump moist air into the insulation. My husband did this, and said it was easy. I’m not sure if it was, or not. It didn’t take him very long.

We also bought a water heater blanket to cover the skylight tubing and caulk for the windows that weren’t upgraded. Since it was a busy weekend, my husband didn’t get a chance to do those, yet. (I’m 9 months pregnant and not about to climb into our attic, or our crawl space — pretty sure I couldn’t fit into the crawl space if I tried.)  But we plan to do more this weekend.

We do have several more improvements to make, but those aren’t quite as easy as the ones tackled this weekend. I plan to update as we go through this experience.

While we paid for this energy audit, we can get reimbursed for that amount, depending on what we spend doing the updates.

Usually, before you head to the doctor, you try to eat a little more healthfully and drink plenty of water, right? I do. But what do you if your house is prepping for the “exam?”

Tomorrow, we’re finally taking our electric company up on it’s (not free) offer of a home energy audit. We’ve replaced almost alll of the windows and doors with energy efficient models. We’ve also invested in some EnergyStar appliances. And my husband put some extra insulation around our nursery.

The problem is that our nursery is still colder than the rest of the house in the winter, and warmer in the summer. My husband thinks that the walls might not be insulated. We’re hoping the energy audit will tell us.

We realize that this is mainly a way for the electric company to get business for certain affiliated contractors, but hopefully we will learn something interesting about our nearly 60-year-old house.

I promise to update you on the recommendations, and let you know if our house makes the “grade.”

I love finding fun, neat ways to reuse waste. We usually compost our coffee grounds, but I read a tip over the weekend that I could use old coffee grounds to fade cellulite!

Apparently coffee grounds can pull water out of fat cells and shrink them.

To try, mix 2 tbsps of coffee with 4 tsps of olive oil and massage the mixture onto cellulite for 2 minutes.  I don’t think it will be possible to then put these grounds in the compost bin, but it’s not a large amount.

I’m excited to try this soon!

Have any of you tried using coffee grounds for natural cellulite removal?

Did you get new electronics for the holidays? Maybe upgrade your TV? We didn’t. We are very, very cheap. We have two TVs that are pre-flat-screen era. They work pretty well, and we plan to keep them until we have to upgrade. I really don’t know the exact age, but I’m going to guess that they are both 10 + years old.

Over the holidays, I read an article that was about the ten things a TV salesperson won’t tell you about flat screens. One of the items was that the flat screens of today aren’t meant to last more than 5 years! I know we’re considered a throw away society, but it seems crazy to me that a TV won’t last longer than 5 years.

I realize that some people are major technofiles, and will want to replace or upgrade in 5 years or less, but I assumed those people could donate their old TVs, sell them or trade them in. I guess they are now expected to just toss them.

Maybe the article was more about the sales pitch, though. According to Real Simple, the average life span of a flat screen TV is 10 years. This article also recommends not touching your flat screen, because this will pixel burnout.

Another way to extend the life of your flat screen? Ezine @rticles recommends adjusting the Contrast and Brightness levels and keeping the TV in a cool, well-ventilated area.

You should also avoid mounting your flat screen above a fireplace.

If you have upgraded, then hopefully these tips will help you extend the life of your flat screen.

Do you have any other suggestions?

We’ve posted earlier about how you can recycle your rechargeable batteries and other e-waste at Best Buy, but now you have one more option!

You can recycle your rechargeable batteries, CFLs, and plastic bags at Lowe’s. Apparently this program has been around for more than a year, but I just today found out about it. I haven’t seen the recycling area in our store, but we are usually trying to keep two little ones from getting into any and everything in the store. I plan to look this weekend, and drop off a few CFLs and batteries.

Have you recycled anything at Lowe’s?

Now is the time to start prepping your home for the winter.

Caulk or weather-strip your windows and doors.

Seal gaps in floors and walls around pipes and electrical wiring.

Cover your outside water spouts.

Clean your gutters.

Cover, or put away your outdoor furniture and grill.

Check your insulation, and install more if needed.

Have you started winterizing your home?

The motor in our ceiling fan died last month. The lights still worked, but the fan no longer whirred. We’ve only been in the house a couple of years, and bought new globes for the light when we moved in — it didn’t have any. Other than the motor, the fixture was ok.

But when we started looking for a replacement motor, we couldn’t find any. Our answer? You have to buy a new one. Really? Not only was that wasteful, it was also more than we wanted to spend.

So, we headed to our local used building supply store — they have everything from doors, cabinets, countertops, toilets and sinks to lights, lamps and fans.

My husband had to dig, but ended up finding a motor that looked like it might work. The guy that worked behind the counter was shocked and tried to sell him a whole fan unit. He ended up selling us the fan motor for $1.

And the new motor worked! It took some finesse, but it works well. We saved lots of money, and didn’t waste any more of that fan than we needed to.

I realize that not everyone has access to a used building supply store, or has a spouse that is comfortable and knowledgeable with most things electrical. Still, it’s surprising how difficult it was to even find small replacement parts. I guess we really are a throwaway society.

I try to use our canvas bags whenever possible. I have lots of them just hanging out in our trunk, and it’s pretty much become a habit to use them when we’re out. Once used, I pile them by the door to go back into the trunk.

This is a great habit for people to get into, but there’s another habit that also needs to kick in — the one of washing those bags!

Studies show that reusable bags can be a breeding ground for food-borne bacteria. Why? Well, we carry raw meat and produce in those bags. If those items leak and we don’t wash them, then we run the risk of spreading contaminants each time we use those bags.

It’s also a bad idea to carry dirty, wet clothes or sneakers in those bags and then use them to carry groceries.

So, it’s a good idea to wash those bags often. Also, put your raw meats in a plastic bag before putting them in your bags. And maybe designate which bags should carry dirty clothes and shoes, and which should carry groceries.

My allergies have kicked into high gear recently.  There are lots of reasons for the uptick in the itching, sneezing and watery eyes.  While I try to go natural whenever possible, I learned several years ago that just going the natural route with my allergies was out of the question.

But the medicine isn’t enough right now. I’ve created a hybrid of natural and medicinal remedies to work.

The first line of defense? Using a saline nasal rinse, or neti pot. I prefer the squirt bottle to the neti pot, but they are both essentially the same.  You mix warm (not hot!) water with a saline packet and then squirt it up your nose. It sounds gross. It’s not. The feeling is similar to when water gets up your nose at a swimming pool.

This rinse is easy, pretty economical, and it does work. The saline rinse helps curb the itching in my nose, and even my eyes, pretty quickly.

I will say that the rinse doesn’t work for me when I’m stuffed. I still attempt it, but it’s very uncomfortable.

Showering before bedtime also helps keep my allergies at bay — at least overnight. I take time to use a gentle shampoo on my eyelashes and eyebrows. 

Our mattress and my pillows are wrapped in hypoallergenic covers, but I’m not sure how well these really work.

I also keep saline eye drops on hand for those moments during the day when the itchy eyes drive me absolutely crazy.

What natural remedies do you use for your allergies? Trust me, I welcome any, and all advice on this matter!

We are in the market for new checks, and I was surprised to see a green option. What makes them green? They are printed on recycled paper.

 The company I found is called Check Gallery. I’m glad they offer green checks, although I’m not so sure the need for checks will be around that much longer.

I have several friends who use online checks, which sounds greener, but banks then print those checks and mail them out. And I doubt they use recycled paper.

What do you think? Still use old-timey checks? Prefer e-checks? Thinks checks will soon be obsolete?