If the exterior is sound, do the interior first (including the insulating) since the inside is where you'll spend the most time. I've never heard anyone say: "Gee, I really enjoy the exterior of my house."

On my mid-70s rambler, I did the infrastructure stuff first (another foot of insulation in the attic, new roof [I knew it had to be replaced when I moved in], vent fans in the bathrooms and kitchen, replace smoke detectors, and ground-fault circuit interrupters as appropriate. Then I did the inside (paint, carpet, overhead lights, etc.). This last summer and this coming summer: outside (replace deck with patio, replace front walkway, landscaping, buy deck furniture, maybe a retractable awning, etc.).

I figure I see the outside of the house twice a day. I see the inside much more often than that. I don't see the insulation or GFCIs at all, really, but they make life safer and save energy, so they were done first.

Thanks for the thoughts, we are looking at what is going to be most beneficial to complete first in regard to slowing and/or stopping the wind and cold from entering the house. We have had snow and ice on the interior, yes interior walls on the SouthWest side of our home numerous times this winter. My husband gutted our kids room a couple of years ago, insulated and drywalled and a lot of wind still comes through. The cosmetic look of our interior walls are ok, just isn't any insulation. We will need to live in the house with 4yrold and 2yrold during interior tear out.

Before we started renovating our 1970s home we had an energy audit done. Costs you a bit but it is well worth it. Gives you a good idea which kind of renovations give you the most bang for the buck in terms of energy savings, in particular in a cold climate. Windows are actually quite far down on the list because they are so expensive. Insulating the basement is cheap but very effective. We also had ice inside the house, mostly on the pot lights in the ceiling. That stopped after we changed the old fire places that sucked more warmth out of the rooms than putting any heat in. And redoing the roof adding insulation there (we don't have any attic). We also contemplated redoing the siding and adding insulation there but that would have been very expensive with only marginal payback in terms of energy efficiency according to the audit.

You have a very different house than ours so I can't give you any recommendations other than using the information of a solid energy audit.

I agree with you that the warmth is the issue, but it sounds like you can tackle that from either direction--insulation from the inside, or wrap from the outside.

i don't know which one makes the most different. Can you find out from the utility company?

Or whether the absense of wrap will mean the insulation gets too much moisture and degrades, or something? Anything that would tell you, "wrap first, insulate after" or vice versa?

Good luck!

I'm thinking if your DH insulated that one room, but the wind still comes through, you might be better off doing the wrap from the outside, AND looking for caulking issues, etc.

When in trouble with my wife,i often say,"gee,I really enjoy the exterior of our house"!

We actually did the outside of our house first.
It was in more need of repair, and the wind blowing into the house was unbearable.

After we sealed everything up, we had more money to spend on the inside! Heating bill plummetted....

Do you still have knob and tube wiring? If not you could blow in insulation into the walls. You could do this from either the interior side or the exterior if you redo the siding. Also you can add foam board insulation (not sure of the real name) on the outside along with tyvek and new siding to help as well.

Since it seems to be insulation that is your main issue you could do that from either side. Inside or outside. Do you have plaster walls? If so I'd rather not destroy the plaster walls, but rather do it from the outside.

Make sure areas around windows gets caulked and that you also go and caulk on the inside around interior doors and baseboards where you may have any gaps or might feel a draft. This is fairly simple and cheap to do.