Trying To Outsmart The Seasons In My 100-Year-Old Home

My family isn’t the first to live in my house. I like to think that we are keepers of the house until the next family. We live in an early century Craftsman-style American Foursquare. What a name, right? Well, my mom had a saying, “You don’t truly know someone until you’ve lived with them through all four seasons.” The same holds true for a house, I’ve come to learn.

Our house is the opposite of an open floor plan. French doors close off each room on the main level. Up the stairs is a windowless hallway leading to the four kids’ rooms and bath. Another closed door to another staircase leads to the recently finished attic space, now our primary bedroom.

By the heat of the summer, you can hear the white noise of seven window-mounted air conditioning units to keep all living zones comfortable. I eventually removed the French doors throughout the living and dining rooms, mud room and kitchen for airflow. As gorgeous as our front-facing stained glass windows and sidelight are, there is little to no insulation value. Through some renovations, I found my exterior walls have no insulation. Chocolate would melt inside my kitchen cabinets mounted to the exterior wall. I felt spring and summer had the last laugh.

Into the fall months, I removed the window air conditioning units one by one. For a few weeks, we got by with opening our mostly original wood frame windows to let the fall air in during the day and close them at night. The whirring of the AC units was eventually replaced by the pinging of our cast iron radiators. Rooms aren’t heated evenly, so some bedroom doors stayed open; others shut. It was time to DIY heat shrink those same windows to keep the draft out and the heat in. The stained glass was cold to the touch. The exterior walls were chilly. We had to hang blankets on the walls at our beds to keep from touching the chilly wall in the middle of the night. No more melting chocolate at least!

Eventually, we saved enough to initiate our plan of attack. The house was long overdue for a siding upgrade. We paid to have the house wrapped and taped in an insulation board before the new siding was installed — encapsulating and insulating the house from the outside.

The next year, we had the remaining original windows replaced with period-looking but high insulation value modern windows. We also had the stained glass covered with clear plexiglass inside and out, protecting it and adding a bit of insulation value.

Finally, we had two multi-zone mini split heating/cooling units installed, feeding all rooms of the house. This was a non-invasive way to upgrade to a heating/cooling system and still keep our radiator system intact as backup.

We donated the AC units, rehung the doors, took down the blankets, and don’t even think about heat shrink and window tape, and most importantly, my chocolate doesn’t melt in my cabinets in the summertime. We finally outsmarted the seasons in our 100-year-old home.