I also have been working on my "keeping room"--an 8x11 room on the northernmost corner of our 120 year old wood-frame home in Indiana (It has a window and about 1/3 of the floorspace is the stairwell to the basement. While the stairwell is "old" I am not convinced it is original to the house--it may have been added when a bedroom upstairs was converted to a bath as the plumbing runs through this room behind a false wall and the waste pipe is boxed in (and nicely stained to match the woodwork). This basement configuration is not the best because this is the cold part of our basement (and we haven't done a good job weatherproofing our basement yet) and there's no way to shut off the basement from the laundry room. Since there's plumbing in the basement and this room (it's a laundry room/pantry now, I need to keep my room above freezing even though it doesn't have a heat run (and I wouldn't want to heat it since it's really part of the basement), I need to keep it above freezing. The room had an ancient (1960?) in-wall space heater (from the time when it was a bathroom) which was broken, and since it's a laundry room and there is a lot of fabric in the room, I don't really want a space heater in there. The first thing I did was look at the window--it was 8' tall, missing its storm, rattled and the glazing needed some attention (about 40 years ago!). I realize that's not your problem--is the gas still good in your window? You could also try a thermal curtain on the window if that's not enough. The second thing I did was caulk the trim and patch every crack in the room. Then I painted. The paint wasn't necessary for R-value reasons, but it seems to me the room was "tighter" after I painted...it felt like all the little cracks in the plaster were "sealed" after I sealed, primed, and painted the plaster. Tomorrow we have a windy zero day coming...that's my test to see how much better the room is... my basement has offset rooms also, and they do not match the floorplan of the house above--and 2 of the front rooms are over crawlspace. I think that your next task should be to figure out what's underneath your keeping room since it could be wind blowing... if the floor in there is wood and has "gaps" maybe you can feel a draft (with wet hands)...or you could take a bright work light and point it at the floor, then go down in the basement (at night if it's not too creepy, lol)with the lights out in the surrounding rooms...so that the work light on the floor will be a "beacon" calling you to the room. A more invasive way to do this would be to drill a hole in the floor (in a place you don't want to look at every day, lol! maybe in the joint between two boards or in a knothole where you can patch it later. If that doesn't work, you may want to try to measure from some landmark like your kitchen water pipes...or if you're not afraid to pull up a floorboard (I am!)...that'd be cutting to the chase... The other thing I was wondering is...my keeping room's ceiling is a kneewall attic...it got much warmer in the room when we insulated the floor of that attic. All the rest of my house is 2 stories with a huge attic, but this room (and part of my kitchen) is 2 rooms below and 1 above with triangle attics on top of the 2 rooms below, so they are cold. What's the ceiling of your room?

It could also be your ceiling that is changing in relation to the walls. That is why crown mouldings are traditionally only attached to the walls and not both sides of the wall-ceiling joint. It allows for seasonal variation.

Hiya, I'm sorry I've been missing - I am home. :o) I feel pretty yukky (I think the hotel recirc air messed up my lungs), and I've been trying to get the quilts done. I haven't read all the threads yet, but will do so in the next few days hopefully and post there. Looks like lots of people have been posting - nice to see. :o) bre, thanks for the info on your deer. It's neat that they are so tame. Do you ever worry about hunters? Chris, thanks for the update on your paint, and the pic. :o) It looks GREAT!! It looks lighter than what's on my walls. Perhaps you have more light there ... I am so glad that you're happy with the colour! It's always a bonus when DH likes it too! lol I haven't gone through all our pics yet, but here's one that I took on the way to the wedding this weekend (picture on the fly so not great quality, sorry). The trip was great - roads dry and mostly clear (thankfully). Had to stop while one small avalanche was cleared, as well as where they were doing some avalanche control by blasting (what an awesome sound that was). ~Missy

Bon, Really, it isn't even time to put any warm-season edible plants in the ground yet except for corn in far southern OK, but I wanted to start some zinnias and basil and a few other warm-season things indoors. I don't even remember the OSU-recommended dates to start putting warm-season plants and seeds in the ground---probably April 10th for most things. Since I plant by the combination of soil temp, air temp and forecast, I don't remember the OSU dates as well as I should. I've got everything in the ground that I can plant at the present time except for a few flats of flowers I'm raising from seed, so I'll play around with starting a few herbs and flowers that I can put in the ground 4 to 6 weeks from now. Having had high temperatures this week in the mid- to upper-80s, I am worried we'll get too hot too early so went ahead and planted beans and corn this week. It is early for the beans, but we are unseasonably warm and so is our soil, so I think I'll get away with planting them early. It still is too cool for peppers, melons, okra, squash, cucumbers, southern peas and the like. Some years it gets so hot so early down here that plants that are heat-sensitive, like beans, start dropping their blossoms almost as soon as they start making blooms, so if there is anything I'll push in the ground a tiny bit early, it is bush beans. I don't rush pole beans or Lima beans quite as much as they don't seem to tolerate being planting a touch early as well as the bush beans do. Most of the veggie gardens we drive by on a routine basis on our way to town are either plowed or rototilled and bare, some with big puddles of water standing in them, so not many folks here have planted anything yet. A couple of them aren't even plowed or rototilled yet. I wouldn't have planted anything if I didn't have raised beds that dry out more quickly. I wouldn't dare put anything in the grade level soil yet because it likely would just rot. Even folks near us who usually get their onions in the ground here no later than the OSU recommended dates (and often much earlier) don't have onions in the ground yet. As far as Fred and I know, I'm the only person who's planted onions already, and it is getting terribly late in southern OK to plant short-day types. This may be the first year I've ever had my onions in the ground before everyone else. I just keep an eye on my soil temperatures, my air temperatures and our 8-10 day forecast when making planting decisions. I won't plant if the soil is too cold for whatever it is I want to plant because seeds won't germinate and transplants won't grow while the soil is too cold. Our soil has been shockingly warm this week in the raised beds, which made planting beans and corn possible. I need to tackle the weeds growing in the mulch in the grade level areas because those areas are too wet to work so they haven't been touched since autumn and are growing a healthy crop of cool-season weeds. It is warm enough that 4 o'clocks, daturas and the dreaded bind weed are sprouting. Ugh. I hate bind weed. Today is so windy and cold that I may not go out to the garden at all except to harvest asparagus. I might spend tomorrow catching up on the weeding in the grade level soil if it is dry enough. It it is too wet and big clumps of soil come up with the weeds, I'll just have to wait another day or two for it to dry out more. I will tackle the clean-up of the back garden next week. It is all grade-level soil with no raised beds, so has been too muddy for me to venture into it at all. The perennials back there are up and growing well, though, so apparently the constant moisture hasn't bothered them. So, what's a gardener to do when they can't garden? Starting seeds indoors is about all that's left to do on a day like this.