We live in a house that’s basically like an icebox. It’s built of granite and has no cavity walls and a woeful track record of warmth. Our heating bills are at least three times what they should be for a house this size and we still can’t get the internal ambient temperature anything like what most people would consider acceptable. I’m sitting here and the temperature in our lounge, with the heating on and the fire lit is only 13ºC.

One day, when we’ve got proper jobs, we’ve been planning to have it externally insulated with a layer of insulation around the building then rendered on top. It’s a relatively new technique and we’re convinced it’ll solve our cold and damp problems… at least, that’s what we thought. It’s incredibly difficult to find objective information about these processes as most of what’s published online is manufacturers/suppliers trying to sell you stuff. It’s hard to get a fix on how much it’ll cost or how effective it is. It’s especially important to get it right in our location because of the extremes of weather we have.

Now we’re having a bit of a wobble because DM heard a programme on the radio suggesting it may not be as great as we’d thought. The bloke who made this comment writes a blog and DM found out that there is a question mark over how much you can save in fuel from this approach and the blog's author suggests making sure that all of the nooks and crannies where bad weather gets into the house are blocked up and therefore preventing cold drafts from coming in and heat from escaping is a much better option for most.

We know we have draughts so DM (eco man)'s been out today and bought some foam filler to block them all up. I came home to find silicone all over the front lobby floor and this standing on the shelf in the utility room. I decided it was quite an interesting image so here it is. Since I started writing this, the temperature has risen to the dizzy heights of 15ºC and I’m considering stripping down into a bikini and skipping around the room!

STOP PRESS: In a day of real mixed fortunes for my bid to become a teacher (don’t ask), two of the highlights were a school governor telling me her daughter loved my PE lessons because she loved doing the dance warm up with me and another child said the only bit of PE she enjoyed was the bit where I shook my tail feather!