Battle of the Windows

Our apartment is a little sketchy. I enjoy the neighborhood, the amount of space is fine, and we have not only a bedroom door (which our last place was lacking) but also a washer/dryer right next to the TV. The guy who lives above us re-did the place himself. Its not bad for an amateur but it does have a few problems. The floors are not even, the front door was not framed out on the inside, we get a LOT of bugs and originally our toilet wasn't working correctly (he fixed that).

Currently our major problem is the windows in the bedroom. These windows leak like no ones business. They let in gusts of wind and bugs and dust. As it has gotten colder our bedroom has turned into an icebox. Last weekend when my parents were here my mom and I attempted to "block" some of this air. We cut large pieces of cardboard and shoved them into the window frames making the bedroom very dark and hopefully cutting off some of the drafts. After placing some curtains in front of the white cardboard it looks pretty nice, and it works ok. Not a decisive battle win but at least better than a draw.

Apparently it doesn't block spiders. I woke up last week with a HUGE spider bite on my face. We looked around the bed and found nothing. The next morning I had a HUGE spider bite on my hand (which is usually near my face when I am sleeping). That night we cleaned the entire bedroom, sprayed it down with bug poison and moved the bed to the other side of the tiny room.

So far I am spider bite free. Victory!

And the upside is we are further away from the windows.

A couple nights ago it got really cold and we could feel the wind falling in the windows (even past the cardboard) and pouring out of the electrical sockets. That night I went into battle with the windows again. I filled the big zip lock clothing storage bags with air, forced them into the window space and then put the cardboard blockers in front of that. After reinforcing this set up with our curtains the bedroom has stayed much warmer than before.

I'm declaring this one a tentative victory, for now.