I've not yet worn my hat indoors...
Cold vicarages seem to be a hot topic for discussion. Since I posted last week I’ve also remembered a couple of other techniques that we use to keep the frostbite at bay.
- Our electric blanket. Not yet on the bed but absolutely essential for later in the season. With cold feet I cannot get to sleep at all. The poor man’s alternative is the good old hot water bottle. My mother has bought a large selection to be set aside for visitors. The children like them too, especially when they have covers in the shape of racoons.
- My teasmade. I have a hot cup of tea every morning (Roiboos, without milk, so much less hassle than having to fetch semi skimmed). This is also a great encouragement to prayer and bible reading. What else to do whilst tea-drinking first thing? It’s sometimes a battle to switch off the Today programme, though.
Quite a few commentators have mentioned the ‘sell the vicarage and buy something warm and modern’ option. This is appealing in many ways but also has its downsides. The expectation is that a warm modern vicarage is a pleasure to live and work in and doesn’t cost a bomb to heat or to maintain. However, not all modern vicarages are chosen well – it seems that some are poorly located away from the church or community, and houses that are not specifically designed as vicarages can lack rooms of the right size or configuration.
In our diocese cold vicarages have been identified as a source of clergy stress and there are plans afoot for double glazing. In the meantime, please continue to share your warmth tips.
The Vicar's Wife 
I can’t imagine that there are very many houses in your parish that would make suitable vicarages at all. And the advantages of yours – with the proximity to church, the size of the garden, the ability to offer lodging would seem to me to outweigh any disadvantages of needing to wear extra layers and use electric blankets in the winter.
Also, over lunch I was skimming through EN’s interview with Garry Williams and was pleased to notice a short piece about St Luke’s and their plans for door-knocking in advance of the Passion for Life next year.
Hi Ros. Glad to hear you like our Vicarage. One of the great things about the inner city is that door to door visiting is still a great way to meet people – lots are at home in the day and are happy to chat. We’re hoping to start doing a little more here too.
We’d picked up EN in CLC on Friday and were delighted to see the piece on St Luke’s.
Back in 2007, I can still remember a few initially (slightly) terrified missioners from Oak Hill returning to base and saying “I’ll be doing some of this when I get to parish.”
I’m off to light the fire…
I vote for electric blankets they are great.
In my teens I had a bedroom with very draughty sash windows (bomb damage from the war when a V2 landed at the end of the garden) and I found this stuff that was like cling-film, you taped it to the window frame, and then blasted it with a hair-dryer, which made it shrink and become tighter. It kept me warm through a very cold winter.
I also read a few days ago that having your bookshelves against external walls can add a little bit more insulation. Probably doesn’t do a huge ammount, but if I know one thing about vicars, it’s that they tend to have quite a lot of books!
Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could get diocesan grants for extra insulating books…
I have that cling film stuff on the windows at the back of my house at the moment. It ‘s good and does make a real difference to those rooms…you can buy it from homebase – about £6 a pack 🙂
This sounds like a good idea for us. Found the link on their site.
The important thing with the cling-film stuff is to make sure that little fingers don’t press it to see what happens. Yours may have enough self-control to manage that, but there are 30 little fingers at home which would end up in the naughty corner if we went for it. We have a very draughty conservatory (sounds grand but isn’t) which is unusable in the Winter.
The size of the windows in our vicarage makes the cling film option a no go … but actually, our windows are double glazed. It’s the open chimneys that create the draft!
My tip for keeping warm is that warm feet make you warm all over … so furry boots, hot water bottle under the desk etc … and close the curtains as early as you can.
Being cold in the bathroom first thing in the morning is what persuades us to turn the central heating on … so I have a fan heater in there now – a quick blast saves heating the rest of the house so it’s fairly economical.
****Brrr**** Makes me cold to even think about it!
Drat. What with big windows and little fingers completely lacking in self control, cling film may not be an option (tho’ maybe we could try it in the utterly Baltic downstairs loo…).
Hot water bottle under the desk sounds like a good call. Will recommend to the Vicar. Our bathroom tactic is heated floors – weren’t that much extra to the overall cost and we’re planning to be here a few years, DV.
I think we should start a campaign for dioceses to put wood burning stoves into the drafty open fireplaces. I’ll post about ours soon – they have been our top heating solution.
Hi Vicar’s Wife 🙂
I don’t live in a vicarage, but in a small Victorian terraced house, so I guess we are a little warmer from being hemmed in on both sides! But we hold off putting the heating on as long as possible! Although this year with a baby (grandson) in the house we will have to start sooner than usual!
I layer up with lots of thin layers inclusing a thermal vest! And a cardigan which you can easily take off for those times when you do feel too warm. I also sometimes wear a triangular cotton scarf in the house as I find having a warm neck makes a huge difference! And as admin says, having warm feet makes a huge difference too ~ I have some lovely ethnic knitted slipper socks with leather soles which are fab!
I bake a lot too, and hovering round the oven when it’s on is a great way to keep warm! We also have one of those very cheap electric heaters which cost 2p a minute to take the chill off the baby’s room. The cold bathroom first thing I accept as a kind of penance, and it certainly is reviving in the morning!
I really like your blog and its informal and chatty style 🙂
Mrs.Pogle xx
Hello Mrs Pogle – a warm Vicarage welcome to you! I’m so pleased you like the blog. I recently discovered the benefit of a scarf in the house too. But we definitely lose out by not having anyone else’s place adjoining our house. Not so many Vicarages are terraced, alas.