I wonder how much of an impact on my heating the hole in my living room wall has had. I went looking the other day for the cable tap that I remembered had been in the living room or dining room, since I knew the cable installers who put in my last round of cable had disconnected it, but I figured it was still there.

Nope. To the right of the breakfront, behind the recliner, I found a hole in the baseboard. Not just barely big enough to slip some RG-6 through, but practically big enough to shove a wine cork into. The hole wasn't to the outside, but into the garage -- which is almost as bad. There was definitely a cold draft coming through it. Can't help but wonder if that single hole has cost me hundreds of dollars. It might also have been a good rodent entry vector.

The cable guys came yesterday morning, and used the hole to run new cable in. I've stuffed a napkin in to fill the rest of the space for now, but I'm thinking I'll want to add something a little more solid and stable to patch it more thoroughly. Caulk?

The garage gets below freezing when it's really cold out, so this has also made me wonder if I should be doing more to insulate the wall between the garage and the living room and basement. Maybe a big horse blanket hanging on the wall. :-)