I swear by shutters!

[Brygun]

When Novrus was doing his house shutters were important. The pic attached doesnt show the complete "first house" as its missing a few walls still.

I do like having the sleeping spot in a C or U shape of walls. This used to mean that only one enemy at a time could rush you. (That code may have changed though I think its for the worse as tactical planning should be useful)

The north shutter looks out to the where the main animal pen ended up. This lets me also RP looking in on the animals.

RP (roleplay) wise I like having doors and shutters to air out the house/room anyway.

Novrus too had a battle where he fought through shutters and doors. The pic shows the  main door to the east. The southern half of the room has/will have a door to west. This one had traps placed outside to deter its use of entry.

Actually... I block the main door with trees and a few traps. Lever traps are reasonable things to reset once you go inside.

The Novrus house you see is actually the "first house" meant for the first winter. Later it will be the sauna and smoke house. The south part is where I can hang meat to smoke. The north part is the suana section with a sleeping bunk.

Shutters do not affect the insulation of a place. It is reasonable to assume that if you need to be warm you would close the shutter. Opening the shutter wouldnt instantly empty all the heat from a room. Even if the air turned over 100% the belongings and inner walls are still warm radiating heat back into the air.