I don’t often get a pat on the back from my wife for doing stuff around the house. And that seems about right. Far too often, I’m hanging out watching TV in the air conditioning instead of helping out. That’s one reason. The other reason is that I just don’t happen to be all that handy around the house. My dad was the sort who would work on just about anything other than the HVAC equipment in his house. But those abilities just didn’t transfer over to me. So when my wife and I tallied up the total HVAC heating costs last month, she really was so proud of me. And I have to say, that I was pretty surprised that my efforts at winter prep resulted in such significant HVAC heating savings. Our heating costs have gone up just about every year since we owned this house. When we bought the place, it came with a new gas furnace that was just about as efficient as they come. I made sure that the new gas furnace always got the heating maintenance from the HVAC professional each fall. But that was the extent of my winter preparations when it came to the house. This fall, I challenged myself to change that. I followed the list from the HVAC company website and just went one by one until I got the house all sealed up tight. And now, not only did I save a bunch of money, my wife thinks I did a great job and that might feel even better than saving all the money.