House help please

Brie2010

Our house is perhaps the worst heat regulator ever.  (We rent, not own.)  It's two stories and it's impossible to keep it at a reasonable temperature upstairs and downstairs.  We have our thermostat at 72 degrees right now, and it's sweltering upstairs (we slept with the ceiling fan on and both woke up drenched in sweat), but cold and drafty downstairs.  We have a patio door that we think is letting a lot of air in on the sides/around the doorknob, but we're not sure how to seal it off temporarily so it doesn't look totally tacky and we don't get fined by the landlord.

Any suggestions?  We're so uncomfortable already and it just started getting cold here. This will be a bit of a post and run but I'll be back later!

brookelynpaisley

I personally would go to the landlord and tell him the problem. You have a right to rent a comfortable place to live in and he may have a solution.

Brie2010

Yeah, we have a call in to our landlords but they're pretty worthless.  (We've been trying to get one of our walls painted that's two different colors since May.)

cvl105

They have that plastic window cover stuff that is supposed to help.  I've never used it, but I think you can definitely see it around the trim once it's on. But you can always put up a curtain rod and a curtain to cover it and make it look nice.

Brie2010

Hmm.  Where do you get this plastic stuff?  It sounds like what we need.

Brie2010

Ahh, cool.  I'll send FI to check it out later!

sucrets4

I just said to DH last night that we needed to get that plastic stuff.  We have a little thing in our LR that juts out about 2 feet and it's all window.  The tree is there, and last night when I was decorating, I could feel the draft.  Stupid crappy windows.

Nebb

mag basically just said everything I was going to. I would ask the landlord about the window plastic stuff though because the stuff you use to adhere it to the windows can be a bittch to get off sometimes. BUT its a cheap solution to a possibly expensive problem so I dont think they should have an issue with it.

JK10910

I've used the plastic at almost every place I've rented.  It's cheap, fairly simple, and I've never had a problem getting the tape off, unless the paint is already peeling--then sometimes it takes some paint chips with it.  But you'd have to seal off the whole door, if it's coming from the door knob area.  Unless I'm just not picturing it right in my head.

I second thermal curtains.  Though they can get a little pricy, they last forever and work pretty well.