Hahah that’s awesome your wife sounds like a hot shit, cock gingerbreads and all.
With the lack of insulation in the basement - you could put up the plastic sheeting and staple it to the boards. It’s not as strong as insulation but it’s easy and should provide some barrier. You just need an air gap between the plastic sheet and the actual floor and that acts as enough of an insulation barrier to provide extra warmth. They do it in Alaska with their walls. I may watch a little too much homestead rescue and Alaska shows lol. The walls in Alaska have insulation in them of course but the plastic sheet with the air gap is a great technique since it’s very cost effective. Should work with 4 mil or 6 mil plastic. 10 mil would be great but not sure how hard it is to find. You should be able to insulate the basement enough for maybe 100$ for staples and plastic. We did it on our shitty Windows and it makes a difference to block out the worst of the cold.
That’s a nice and fun family activity for sure! We did gingerbread turkeys the other day for thanksgiving and it was fun. The black frosting ended up being poop and the kids had more fun with that than anything 😝
Unfortunately, the ceiling in the basement is concrete, so it holds the cold very well. It is nice in the Summer! :D
We will have someone come in and have a look at what can be done as a stop-gap measure in a couple weeks I hope. The plan is to put in these thin insulating bats, but they have to be drilled into the concrete, so takes some effort and, they are not the cheapest. However, +100K to heat the basement, they would be there a while....
Gingerbread turkeys?