After 7 years of being together – and I know that as I write this, it will read extremely bizarre – but DH and I don't argue about life events, mother in laws, romance etc. We argue about...temperature!
Jokes aside, this is really getting us both down. For several years of our marriage, I have worn coats at home. It's only when friends visited and commented how cold it was in our home and if they could borrow jumpers, I began to be quite vocal about how much physical discomfort I am in at my own home after a long day's work. We've had arguments over my £12 tiny fan heater by my feet as he is very concerned that the electricity bill will shoot up if I use it up to an hour every day.
Fast forward to winter 2019 and we bought and refurbished a house, over the course of almost a year. Throughout the build, I wanted to ensure the house would be sufficiently heated through insulation and the right size radiators for every area, to the point of paranoia. Again, money came to the equation and even though I could very much afford it, DH simply put his foot down and did not want to get the right size or number of radiators and deterred me from overseeing builders when it came to insulation (we've subsequently discovered that most of our internal walls have no insulation at all - a building regs no-no that I am trying to resolve with the contractor).
So after promising that our new house would be efficient and different to our old house in terms of heating, it's turned out to be worse. Truthfully, I dread waking up these mornings as it's unbearably cold to the point I might as well be camping outside. The trouble is, DH grew up in cold weather and finds it invigorating so he simply won't have any of it and shouts at me to put on a jumper, when I'm in fact wearing 3. I am not even allowed to buy a tower fan heater for our bedroom. He wants to wait until next winter to 'save' and find more 'permanent solutions' (he did say this morning that he might try and get a new window for our bedroom next winter as it's the only one with single glazing - I find that's a positive step but most other rooms have double glazing, yet, they can't keep the heat in; we simply don't have the right insulation or number of heaters). I am trying my best to find innovative, cost-saving solutions that won't require breaking the bank or dreaded building disruptions but everything I say just turns into an argument.
I'm entering my third trimester and perhaps it's the thought of taking maternity leave and staying in this house an entire winter that is making me even more miserable. Neither of us like these daily arguments. Honestly, if I was just able to buy 1 cheap tower heater as a temporary solution and use it for half an hour in the morning and half an hour before going to bed, I would keep my mouth shut.
AIBU?