Our 1970's-vintage house always seemed a bit too welcoming when howling winter winds swept up Colorado's foothills. Each year, the annual road show staged by Jack Frost and his Chillers would take center stage in our home despite our best efforts to keep these rowdies at bay.

There were plenty of reasons why this happened. Instead of playing the role of picky bouncers, our doors acted more like enthused Middle School kids at a Justin Bieber concert, welcoming the arctic Canadian travelers though gaps in the doorjambs and frames. The leaky windows were no better, taking up the rattling chorus and forcing us to crank up our thermostat. I'm surprised someone from our utility company wasn't outside selling custom "It's Cool to be Cold" T-shirts for this expensive draft-a-palooza. [More]

A few months ago, the front door of my condominium cracked. One too many careless slams cracked the wood right at the bolt, which made it difficult to close, let in cold air, and made it easy to break in. Not a good situation, especially since winter was about to begin! Fortunately, my storm door was working just fine. [More]

Over the past few weeks, my husband and I have been shopping for a new patio door. We currently have a sliding glass door that we have always hated—full exposure to winds from the west and to open fields behind our house mean that we always have dirt and dust getting in through that door, not to mention cold air in the winter and heat in the summer. The final straw was a warped and squeaky track, no doubt aggravated by our dog's constant indecision over whether he wants to be inside or outside (oh, the dilemma!). Since sliding glass doors are known to be inefficient (and ours was already driving us crazy), we decided that a door that swings, rather than slides, is our best bet. Here are the other features we want in a door: Glass, so we can enjoy our gorgeous view of the mountains. Because glass doors are less efficient, we are looking for energy-efficient features such as low-e coatings and gas fills to help control heat transfer through the glass Can be tightly weatherstrippe... [More]