Winter Is Coming: How To Weatherize Your Home
Re-Nest
“Now is the time to weatherize your home before the heat is blasting in (and probably escaping out of) your home. Did you know that the amount of heat escaping through cracks in the average house is equivalent to having an open window year round? Inadequate insulation and air leakage are the leading causes of energy waste in homes. Cut down on the chilly drafts, reduce your heating bills, and slash your overall home energy use this winter with the following tips.”

Game Over: LED Lightblubs Win
Old House Web
“An LED is so energy efficient that it will use only $33 in energy over it’s life. The incandescent wastes so much energy in the form of heat that it does not deserve to be called a light bulb, but rather a heater that comes with an incidental light source. It will cost $176 dollars on your energy bill – and that is at current energy rates.”

15 Cool Childrens Room Decor Ideas From Vertbaudet
Digs Digs
“French company Vertbaudet produces awesome products for kids and their rooms. … These rooms feature company’s furniture and elements of decor but you can use their ideas and products of other companies if you want to. Enjoy these 15 children’s room and make your child proud of his or her room.”

3D Wall Art for your Home
Houzz.com
“Walls come alive with 3-D art. Turn a wall into a show; make a statement. Whether it is made of plastic, plaster, clay, wood, metal, or any medium including paper, I am seeing more and more interesting wall art. Take a look at these and get inspired to turn a wall into an expression of your personal style!”

Ice Castles Grown by a Minnesota Man Using Geothermal Heating System
Inhabitat
“Winters in Minnesota are cold and the best way to get through the bone-chilling season is to have fun with it, just like Roger Hanson does. For the last four years the ice builder has been growing ice castles in his front yard with the help of his geothermal heating system, some fancy sprayers and a computer program he created himself.”

The $200 Microhouse
New York Times
“For ingenuity, thrift and charm, Mr. Diedricksen’s tiny structures are hard to beat. Made of scavenged materials, they cost on average less than $200 to build. They often have transparent roofing, which allows a fine view of the treetops, particularly in the smallest ones, where the most comfortable position is supine. They have loads of imaginative and decorative details: a porthole-like window salvaged from a front-loading washing machine, a flip-down metal counter taken from the same deceased washer.”

How Many Recycled Cans Does It Take to Make an Airplane?
The Daily Green
“The good news is that my yearly office cleaning gives me a chance to sort out the hundreds of press releases and news clippings I’ve saved during the year for my annual Top Ten Shocking Eco-Facts blog post. Remember, being the Green Cheapskate, that’s “eco” as in ecological as well as economical.”

DIY Home Humidifiers: Humidify Your Home for Less
DIY Life
“The cold winter weather outside, coupled by indoor heating systems, easily sucks all the moisture out of your home. Low humidity levels can also lead to a host of problems including dry skin, sore throats, along with cracks in paint and wood furniture. Adding a humidifier is an easy way to replace this lost moisture in your home, but at times humidifiers can require high maintenance and more space and money than you would like to expend. Luckily, even on the tightest of budgets, there are inexpensive tricks to humidify your home.”

Recession Buster: DIY Wall Art
Calfinder
“There are some great things you can do in a weekend to revolutionize your living room—and installing affordable wall art is one of them. Check out how.”

diy project: homemade leprechaun spirits
Design*Sponge
“Saint Patrick’s Day is right around the corner; it will sneak up on you before you know it, so you might want to prepare! The tradition of drinking on the holiday comes from a legend called Patrick Pot. This project honors that tradition.”

If you are looking for a luxurious heat-and-relaxation thing to add to your home, but a steam room is too impractical and a hot tub is too much upkeep (and maybe too Jersey Shore), how about a sauna?

According to the Listed blog, they are among the most requested home improvements currently. Listed says:

Saunas have been at the core of Finnish culture for thousands of years, a traditional toasty respite in a cold and snowy climate, according to the nonprofit North American Sauna Society, an organization for those who use, build and sell saunas.

Unlike a steam shower, saunaing can be a communal activity (the Embassy of Finland in DC has a sauna that becomes a centerpiece of cultural events and parties) and unlike a hot tub, there’s not constant mixing of chemicals and worrying about drowning. It’s healthy and feels wonderful in the winter.

Best of all? It can cost as little as $3,000 to make a closet into a small sauna. The larger or more luxurious the sauna, the more it can cost.

Would you consider adding a sauna into your home?

Image courtesy of Video4Net on Flickr

Spring may be on its way, but we’re only in mid-February: plenty of time for winter’s last icy gasp. To help you out, we’ve assembled a few wintry things you can do in your own backyard. These may take some work, but think of the neighborhood bragging rights!

How to Build Your Own Backyard Luge
Popular Mechanics
A detailed guide picturing every step of the luge-building process. You’ll be ready for the Olympics in no time.

How to Make a Backyard Ice Skating Rink
eHow.com
Ready to play some hockey but don’t want to pay for ice time? Play under the stars in your own backyard! This guide covers materials needed as well as the how-to.

How to build an igloo
Boy’s Life
Who needs a treehouse when you have an igloo (Marvin window optional)?

In one of the 30 states hard hit by the monster storm? We hope you are safe, warm and at home! With Punxsutawney Phil failing to see his shadow yesterday on Groundhog Day, we are supposedly due for an early (and much-needed) spring! If you’re going stir crazy, we’ve gathered up some links around the blogosphere to warm you up.

Remove Snow (Without The Backache) With The Wovel
Charles  and Hudson
“The Wovel has been independently tested by the University of Massachusetts and shown to perform at equal or better than your standard snowblower. Also, the Wovel has been shown to need no more force than you would normally exert walking, which is great for those of us unable to chuck that heavy wet stuff about like powdered sugar.”

Hunt, Gather and Host: Winter Picnic
Design*Sponge
If you feel like some ambitious winter entertaining, this beautifully photographed post will give you some ideas!

All About Gas Fireplaces
This Old House
“There’s only one thing better than a roaring fire on a wintry night: a roaring fire that needs no tending, requires minimal cleanup, and doesn’t leave the rest of the house freezing cold. That’s what you get with today’s gas fireplaces.”

10 Things to Do Around the House When You’re Snowed In
Apartment Therapy
Stay busy around the house with these tips from Apartment Therapy.

Winter is fast approaching, and it’s time to get your house in order. These tips can help you save some money — either in terms of saving energy or simply preventing damage — and help save some sanity, too.

Around the house

It’s probably not a good idea to head into the cold season without getting a thorough heating system check-up. Better to get it done before a problem comes up. If you’ve had problems with ice dams forming on your roof — or if you’re simply motivated to make sure you never have that trouble — consider bringing in a home energy auditor or weatherization contractor to help identify possible problem spots and their causes. These tips and more courtesy of Charles & Hudson.

Check out the video above, too, for more advice from home improvement expert and Today Show contributor Lou Manfredini.

Energy efficiency

Re-Nest shares some good tips on saving energy around your home this winter. They’re certainly of the basic and practical variety, but that only makes them more useful, no?

• Insulate your windows (weatherstripping around the edges and/or insulting film over the entire window)
• Let the sun heat your home as much as possible during the day
• Bundle up a bit: wear slippers or warm socks and throw on a sweater while keeping your thermostat a bit lower

And of course, if your windows are old and drafty or otherwise out of good working order, consider replacing them with highly efficient windows from Marvin.

Lawn and garden

Don’t forget about the outside of your home. Make sure your lawn and garden are ready for the frigid onslaught of winter. Re-Nest reminds us to be sure to rake leaves before winter rains and snow come to prevent disease and other problems with your lawn. And of course, composting those leaves will leave you with some great topsoil when spring rolls around. Don’t forget to add a protective layer — leaves, mulch or a ground-covering plant — to insulate your perennial plants from as much as cold as possible.

For the serious gardeners among us, Charles and Hudson has even more tips on how to get ready for the cold — to save headaches and trouble come springtime.

What suggestions do you have for getting the house ready for winter weather?

We just spent the weekend putting away all of the summer items around our home.  Outside patio furniture, decorative hanging baskets, even the lacrosse net that our kids use.  And once again, we have discovered we do not have enough space.

Our goal this year is to actually park two cars in the garage this winter. Living in Chicago, it makes for a cleaner get-away when the cold hits and the snow flies, so we made some purchases to help get organized with all that stuff.

First we purchased some hooks to hang all the kids’ bikes from the ceiling of the garage. Ours is tall enough so that the front of the car fits right under the hanging bikes. These hooks cost a couple of bucks for a pair and just screw into the wood framing. If your garage has a drywall ceiling make sure you find the framing with a stud sensor so you get a strong hold.

Then we invested in some outdoor storage boxes and a shallow, tall outdoor storage shed. The boxes are for all the chair pads that we have on our outdoor furniture. We actually got those during the summer — so that when it was raining we could easily pull the cushions and throw them in the box to keep dry — but they will work great for the winter as well. The storage shed is about 6 feet tall and is about 3 feet deep. It actually holds a lot of stuff when you pack it carefully.

With a little time and effort you can get organized this winter as well.

[photo]

Getting your home ready for winter
Home Renovation Guide
“Turning on that furnace for the first time after months of inactivity is often a shock. It can literally be a shock to your heating system, or it might be a shocking experience when you get your first heating bill! But there are common sense things you can do to get your heating system ready for winter. And, take it from a technician who visits a variety of homes every day, most people do not adequately prepare their home for the peak winter months. Here is some advice to consider before the next big chill.”

Just how important is a home energy audit?
CalFinder Blog
“Everyone wants to make their home more energy efficient, but most have no idea where to start. That’s where home energy audits come in handy. By completing a DIY audit or hiring a professional home energy auditor, you can begin cutting your energy dependence and lowering utility bills at the same time.”

Squeezing the most out of a small space
This Old House
“Karen Shen and Kevin Costello loved the extraordinary craftsmanship of their four-story 1904 Renaissance Revival brownstone in Brooklyn, New York, site of the current This Old House TV project. But to save money, the couple is renting out one and a half floors of the house, leaving about 1,500 square feet of narrow living space for them and their three boys. … Squeezing a family of five into a two-floor apartment posed several logistical challenges, but they managed to make a compact space feel like a roomy home. Here are a few of their best solutions for making a small house feel bigger.”

Design dilemma: 10 simple ways to save energy
Home Design Find
“When it comes to saving energy at home, a lot of us think we need to undertake major renovations or completely replace inefficient appliances to really make a difference. Costly measures like buying new windows or new energy-efficient refrigerators come to mind. Actually, though, there are a number of very small steps you can take to help reduce your energy and water use while helping you save money, too. None of these steps require that you buy a new appliance or invest thousands in home renovations.”

Spring has sprung (at least for the moment), but here’s a look back on a winter pastime.

When the snow falls in record amounts, what on earth do you do it? Ed Hagele decided to build an igloo for a good time. But it needed a final, special touch. In order to let the sunshine in, Ed decided to add a window to his building masterpiece. Luckily, Ed had an in when it comes to windows. One of his parents, Re Hagele of Hagele Architects had a sample of a Marvin window that he could use.

Ed’s beautiful igloo was a great addition to the Hagele backyard until the snow melted…and one of the more unusual “applications” for a Marvin window!

Snow and winter weather seem to be in the news a lot this week! We at MLuxe care about your health, safety and happiness, so here’s some information about how to stay safe and sane in the Snowpocalypse!

Charles and Hudson makes a good point in a recent posting: there’s a lot you can get done around the house during a snowstorm. Keep your pipes from freezing and check for drafts around the doors. You might be going stir-crazy around the house, so do some fun stuff like creating a patina on a mirror.

Of course, you’ll need to keep your driveway and sidewalks clear, so get prepared for some shoveling! Those of us from northern climates know the special exhaustion that comes after shoveling. CNN has a good run-through of the problems that come from shoveling and what to do to prevent injuries.

Stay safe and keep warm!

Photo courtesy of letmeFLYAWAY on Flickr.