I woke up to ice inside the windows this morning

[iceyniceyspicey]

Single glazed house with loads of windows. Freezing as can be. We don't even have central heating, just some archaic vent system and no fireplace or chimney.

I have electric blankets on 2 beds (so we are sleeping together for warmth) and I put sheets over the bottom bunk bed like a den for warmth. throws on every bed (thank you charity shop! I even asked around and got an extra quilt for the settee) we don't have carpet, only in one bedroom and we kept the cut offs for next to my bed (like a runner) and a small mat downstairs.
make shift draught excluders made from old clothes stuffed inside pillowcases.
I hang coats on the back door and lift the mat up to help the edges of the door stop being so draughty.
we bought an airfryer to jeep costs down but now we can't use the heat from the oven (with a broken door that has to be propped shut. but it cane with the house so it's good enough for now)

it's so cold and my toddler refuses socks and lately trousers too! I have a pair of fleece lined overalls for nursery kids to play in the mud. I forget what they are called and I tried to keep him in that but he is so upset pulling it off.
he pulls his socks off and it's freezing (his first proper words aww rolling eyes)

Every window has terrible condensation. Soaking water droplets all over every single one. it takes 3 towels to do upstairs and I have to open the windows to air it out.
Dehumidifiers are out of stock except 300 with I can't afford right now. I need a new oven more anyway!

i feel like a real failure.
Me and my dh spent the last almost 10 years saving up for this house. living in a tiny horrible flat to save on rent. no holidays or driving or luxuries and we managed it.
now the prices are going up and up I can't see us being able to replace the windows for years. I'm wary of debt too, his job isn't as secure as it was pre covid.

just here to rant really

What did you do last winter OP?

It only brings stability if you're able to keep your house safe. What OP describes isn't normal. It's extremely deprived and must be a horrible way to live through the cold months.

I feel for her because no one would want to be in that position. I also empathise as I realise that renting isn't a good option for most people.

But would I buy a place that I couldn't afford to upkeep? Absolutely not. Yes,OP has a property she's got a mortgage on, but her situation still sounds precarious and (unfortunately) not positive.

Well it was the choice of buying this now while prices are rising rapidly around us or renting forever after. In the space of one year house prices here have increased by £50-70k so we definitely made the right choice.

We also didn't know that prices of food and electric would rise so much so quickly. But even if we had we would have done the same. Owning is better than renting for stability alone.

Amazing! I never thought of turning it around.

And tights! thank you!

@Spottedslug thanks 😊
@Ilikewinter it's cheaper to have a mortgage than to rent. if I wanted to rent this house I'd be paying around 900 but mortgage is a third less. So we rented a small flat in and undesirable area and saved for as long as it took. The price if the house we wanted was £95k 8 years ago. That house was sold for £230k last year when we bought this. It was very tricky getting onto the ladder.

We knew it had a vent system, and we worked out that we could afford central heating or a new vent system in about 2-3 years if we were to save at the rate we were saving for the deposit. But everything went up and now we are breaking even, but we were doing OK in summer.
They didn't advertise double glazing but they didn't mention single glazing either and we didn't realise until the first winter we moved in. The joys if being a first time buyer- we didn't think to look! But we did check that the windows opened and closed okay.

I actually leave the clothes on a clothes horse in the empty bath and the window is open always. it's annoying when I want a quick shower though and the clothes are still wet and heavy.

It's really cold when you need a wee at night though ha!

there is a heating system, it's just really old and the windows are draughty so it won't stay warm.

@iceyniceyspicey is there an attic? If it hasn’t been insulated, or not very well, the first thing you can do that will make a huge difference is to collect some insulation from gumtree etc and just roll it out up there. 45ish percent of all heat loss it out through the roof.

The damp does sound fairly extreme. Is it an old stone built house? Or block built, or something else? There are fixes but finding the root cause and sorting that will really help, if you can give some more detail happy to try point you in the right direction.

@BMW6 thank you!
and @thelobsterquadrille cat litter is cheap as chips ill try that! thank you

@pandarific I'll have a look on Facebook, I haven't been up there yet, only dh has and ill ask him to look when he takes the Xmas Dec's back up. I don't know its not stone built.
I'm not sure what it's built from? Ice probably.

Op, for what it's worth I think you're doing amazingly well in such horribke, trying circumstances. Please ignore the judgy types on here, those who can't understand the concept of not having a choice and that not everyone has the luxury of buying a new build well heated property. You've done a brilliant thing buying your first home , be proud of yourself! Yes, these are horrible times but you will get through them. There's been some great advice, try a few cheap remedies - every little helps. And cheap knock off oodies are great for wrapping up in along with electric blankets . Check out facebook marketplace , saves buying new.

I would think a dehumidifier is top of the list. They dry the house out, they do get warm when they are running and Martin Lewis says they dry clothes which I think I agree with him.

if we are not careful we get condensation which then turns into the dreaded mould.

The dehumidifier for us is a priority, we have single glazed windows, and parts (extensions done in the 1950s - before our time here) of the house wasn’t built to the best quality.

The bathroom gets the coldest, I have two heart shaped three tea light holding which sit beautifully each end of the bath (cast iron bath - not plastic) and when it gets colder light two more on the windows.

I’ve got all the Poundland Christmas tea light holders out for Christmas and they really heat the room up.

Good luck

@Spottedslug thank you! It's much better than our old tiny flat!
and @ScroogeMcDuckling I have loads of tra lights I'll light some up.

Thank you everyone loads of great ideas and we are comparing dehumidifiers now, they do seem to save lots of money in the long run. My dad had to spend a fortune on damp treatment so I am wary.

Also it's a lovely house, it not in the best area but it's the best we could afford and it wasn't half as cold last winter. It's been below freezing here for the week!

Its not bad for me because I can sit in the blanket with an electric blanket or hot water bottle and I don't ever take my socks or trousers off! But babies will be babies and they don't connect the dots between taking their clothes off and being cold!
I can't believe I didn't think of tights and putting a onesy on backwards. It's worth the judgemental 'why aren't you rich' posts just for that alone.

OP I grew up in a house with not central heating, it is tough so I sympatise (we rented and my dad's landlord refused to out in central heating - still hasn't).

We had a wood burning stove in the living room and an Aga in the kitchen. Bedrooms just had oil filled portable heater that were put on an hour before bed and an hour in the morning.

How did we cope? Well in the winter we pretty much lived in one room - the living room. We dressed warm - wool jumpers, tights under trousers etc.., hot water bottles in beds, warm PJs and socks.

We had draft excluders around doors, long warm curtains on windows and external doors.

It was an drafty old farm house with sash windows, so condensation wasn't an isue but I remember windows frozen inside and once apples we were storing in the mainly unheated dining room froze one winter.

It was miserable and all consuming.

I hope you manage to save enough for new windows and heating, at least as you own you have control over that

I’ve lived with the ice on inside of windows thing - you have my sympathy!

For the clothes, think carefully about what you wear. Fleece for example practically comes out dry! Wash less often - a bit of dirt is fine on clothes you wear around the house - as long as they don’t smell, don’t rush to wash. Then, check out if it’s cost effective for you to use a launderette tumble dryer. For bedsheets - again, some fabrics come out almost dry.

Winter will pass.

As for the oven, I’ve just looked on eBay, how about a mini oven. You can pick them up very very reasonably priced, (under £20) and some are practically new, also you can pick up slow cookers very reasonable too. People buy them, use them once and put them in the cupboard. You just have to think slightly different when using them, but they are economical to run and buy, and great when the oven is not available.

Freegle is also another godsend, I’ve had a couple of beautiful pieces from it.

It sounds like a beautiful house you’ve got, again like the slow cooker it’s going to take abit of adjusting to, but once you’ve worked it out with a dehumidifier or two.

i don’t know if you have a fireplace, but getting a fire going really drys the house out, but another trick that I do, the old electric fires that has the lights under “plastic coal” and glows orange tricks you into believing it’s warm. Also a pillar candle in a empty, cleaned baked bean tin (on a trivet or tile) once lit for an hour or so, really warms up to.

weve had 20+ years of a stunning beautiful house, but when it was bought it needed full renovation, and I suppose if it was ever sold the renovation would still need doing 🤣🤣

Where do you live? Have you checked with your local council about funding for home improvements to save energy?
www.gov.uk/government/collections/find-energy-grants-for-you-home-help-to-heat

In terms of minimising clothes washing, wear jeans and wool jumpers that do not need to be washed that frequently and then next to the skin wear easy dry base layers. Uniqlo heat tech products are warm and dry very quickly.

In this very cold dry weather, washing can get partly dry outside. I have had a clothes airer outside all today and will finish it off inside tomorrow with a dehumidifier.

Would you consider renting it out snd moving to a small flat for 6 months? Your children’s health is at risk so moving to someplace you can afford to heat for six months might be the answer.?

Even assuming OP was allowed to do that, why on earth would anyone want to rent a property with no central heating in the middle of winter?

What year was your house built out if interest.

Buy fleece and teddy bear fleece fabric clothes and bedding if you can afford it. They are often made of recycled plastic and are amost dry when you remove from the washing machine. I have always had a lot of fleece as I hike as a hobby, it’s brilliant.

I changed in to fleece pyjamas when I get home. So sometimes my jeans are only worn for a very short time. Jeans and other items are a PITA to dry to varying degree, fleece is the easiest.

Have done this for years, it meant my smart work clothes didn’t need to be washed so much so they kept their shape and substance for longer.

Can you get a job? My neighbour works evenings and early mornings and is at home with the kids for the “9-5”. Even if you worked in the day and only made a small amount on top of what you pay for childcare it would be better than nothing surely? At the very least you’d be out of the house and warm all day!

Just a thought - I think I read somewhere on MN that candles exude moisture??