Dang! It’s cold out this morning.

Some strong winds out of the north swept frigid Canadian/Polar air into the region last night and the morning temperatures plunged into the single digits. As the clock approaches 10 AM it is still just 7 degrees F outside and, although the winds have subsided considerably, the wind chill brings that down to –7 degrees F.

A couple of things I’ve noticed in our new home.

1) The radiant floor heating is slow to respond to severe cold. You can’t just punch up the thermostat and expect it to immediately raise the house’s temperature. (And once it does reach the higher temp, you better be happy with it ‘cause it’s gonna be a while to cool off if you set it too high.)

2) The doors to the garage and the front entrance need better weather stripping. The cold air seems to be pouring in around the ThermaTru front door. Whether that’s because it got sprung in transit, needs adjusting at the latch (which seems loose) or needs a thicker weather stripping along the opening edge, something will have to be done. But it’s just too cold to keep the door open for any length of time right now so it will have to be done later.

3) Even with a humidifier going full time, it is difficult to keep the relative humidity inside the house at around 50% as recommended to prevent unwanted checking and shrinking of log walls. The radiant floor heat (dry) and the supplemental fireplace hat (drier) contribute to that of course.

Being on the northwest side of the hill, the sun has yet to shine upon the house although it is creeping closer. Once it gets here, things may warm up a bit inside as well as out. Hey, at least it doesn't look like there will be any snow flurries today.

I guess I shouldn’t complain too much. The temperature at the Adirondack cabin has risen to 0 degrees F since a low of –2 degrees F at 7 AM. There is no wind chill up there, however.