My shoulder hurts, my wrist hurts, and I need a bath, but two of the doorwalls to the deck are all tucked in for the winter. I promised to show you how to make Giant Draft Protectors from comforters. I didn’t take enough pictures, but the ones I did take are embarrassing enough, so it’s probably just as well.
This is the front door – an insulated steel frame with one stationary panel and one that opens inward. Leaks like a sieve. It’s nice and clean right now, but it’s usually covered with noseprints at Cowboy level.
I found some thermal panels on sale, and thought they couldn’t hurt. Besides, they’d probably look a little nicer from the outside. It was easy to hang them from those slick magnetic rods. I still need to hem them, of course. I need to hem everything.
I mounted a drapery rod a few inches above the doorframe, and added clip-on rings. (That makes it sound easy, doesn’t it? Ha. I do fine with the drill, but I am not handy with a screwdriver. Thus the sore shoulder and aching wrist.) Attaching the comforter to the clips was easy. Accidentally pulling it loose from the clips will probably be easy, too, but I reasoned that this arrangement is going to get a lot of tugging back and forth, and with luck the clips should let go before the fabric tears. We’ll see.
Below is the sliding door in the “dining area.” It, too, is nice and clean for a change. It would have been nice to sweep all the leaves off the deck before taking the picture. Ah well. Anyway, this door doesn’t get much use in the winter. I like to look out occasionally, so I wanted to be able to pull the comforter aside. I installed another drapery rod here, but this time I used curtain rings I already had and some pin-on hooks.
As there wasn’t room to put the rod above the doorframe, I attached it at the sides, even with the top of the frame, and pinned the hooks a few inches from the edge of the comforter. Once they were hung on the curtain rings, it was easy to tuck the extra fabric over the top of the rod.
I know it looks different, but this comforter is exactly the same as the other one. It may be tacky, but it’s matching tacky. I have some standards. Miss Puss thinks it looks OK, so that’s all right then.
All of that was a good start, but I still have to do the shrink-wrapping and blow-drying. Not tonight.
Torch Lake Views 
uphilldowndale
November 13, 2010
Why would you sweep up the leaves on the deck? They will only be replaced by more, in an instant.
You need a screwdriver attachment for that drill!
It all looks very snug ‘as snug as a bug in a rug’ as they say around these parts.
Gerry
November 13, 2010
I would be happy to let the leaves stay there if they stayed dry. Sadly, they get wet. And when they get wet, they get slippery. Slippery Is Bad.
My drill does work as a screwdriver. However, I have only two sizes of driver bits and they never seem to be the size of the screwheads I am attempting to drive. I wonder if I could find a set that would fit the drill . . . Hmm.
Fee
November 13, 2010
It does look very cosy, Gerry. I would love to have your view out into the finery that nature provides, but suspect I will remain a transplanted country kid til the end of my days (lottery win notwithstanding!).
Gerry
November 13, 2010
I love the view from my house too. When I visit Rob the Firefighter and the Lady Alicia I love the urban views. It’s all good. But I think it’s important to get outdoors and on water wherever I am. Too long away from water and I begin to feel odd.
P.j. grath
November 13, 2010
What are you talking about, Gerry, apologizing for how it all looks? It looks neat and tidy and warm and cozy–you did a great job!
Do you do laundry at home, and do you see a surge in your electric bill when you start drying clothes indoors? This is a big challenge for me.
Gerry
November 13, 2010
Thank you. I don’t wash laundry at home. It’s a long story involving the numerous quirks of this house and the tenuous water supply. However, I often dry laundry at home on one of those zig-zag wooden drying racks, plopped down in front of the wall furnace in the winter. I hang some things from the shower rod on fat plastic hangers, too: sweaters that I’m supposed to dry flat, jeans, stuff like that. Adding a little humidity to the dry winter air is a good thing. I suspect that I could cut the electric bill quite a bit if I turned off the computer, but . . .
Karma
November 13, 2010
It indeed looks cozy and warm and a very clever idea. I have a drafty sliding door as well, but it is the door from where the dogs are let out into the yard several times each day. I can see a set-up like this getting dirty and ragged looking in my house very quickly, unfortunately! (My sliding door is currently covered in dog-nose-prints!)
Gerry
November 13, 2010
Yes, well, that is the problem with our “front door” too. I’ll have to document the progress of deterioration in the comforter . . .
An artist friend lives in a delightful but drafty Victorian house and closes off part of it during the winter with clear vinyl shower curtains across selected interior doorways. She said she got claustrophobic if she couldn’t see the whole house! I find a fair number of kindred souls up here.
Wendi
November 13, 2010
Nice job Gerry! You are one very resourceful woman. But really…isn’t winter months away? (Please let me remain delusional.)
Gerry
November 13, 2010
It is. It is months and months away. And when it arrives, you can remember how really hot it was in Egypt and count your blessings.
isathreadsoflife
November 13, 2010
Winter can come, your cozy home is ready but of course it (Winter) can wait a little… What a great job you did, Gerry! And what a good idea ! I love your deck in the birch trees. The common point between your front door and ours ? nose prints at a beagle´s level. Low or high level depending on what is going on behind the door…
Gerry
November 13, 2010
I’m pretty sure nose prints on the doorwalls are universal among dog owners. I’ve decided to think of them as a design element.
I’m glad you approve the weatherizing. I am positive that there are better solutions than comforters bought on sale at KMart, but those solutions are beyond my abilities with needle and thread OR drill and screwdriver!
Cindy Lou
November 13, 2010
I must say that I was surprised to NOT see nose prints! But thanx for reminding me to do my own windows so they look like yours.
Now snuggle in for winter, fine friend…it’s a lovely cozy nest!
Gerry
November 13, 2010
Thank you. Now I’d best go do the windows in the dog room, too, just to maintain my new reputation.