diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 77fc2f8963c3..625d2f4c077d 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -178,6 +178,8 @@ script:
       pip install $PRE requests==2.9.2 linkchecker
       linkchecker build/html/index.html
     fi
+
+before_cache:
   - rm -rf $HOME/.cache/matplotlib/tex.cache
   - rm -rf $HOME/.cache/matplotlib/test_cache
 
diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index df916cd9de9b..653e7d5ebd00 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -63,6 +63,10 @@ platform:
 # all our python builds have to happen in tests_script...
 build: false
 
+cache:
+  - '%LOCALAPPDATA%\pip\Cache'
+  - '%USERPROFILE%\.cache\matplotlib'
+
 init:
   - cmd: "ECHO %PYTHON_VERSION% PYTEST=%USE_PYTEST% %CONDA_INSTALL_LOCN%"
 
diff --git a/setupext.py b/setupext.py
index 3f6430cb15dd..1b2506da2c6b 100644
--- a/setupext.py
+++ b/setupext.py
@@ -1146,12 +1146,15 @@ def do_custom_build(self):
                     os.path.isfile(tarball_cache_path)):
                 if get_file_hash(tarball_cache_path) == LOCAL_FREETYPE_HASH:
                     try:
-                        # fail on Lpy, oh well
-                        os.makedirs('build', exist_ok=True)
+                        os.makedirs('build')
+                    except OSError:
+                        # Don't care if it exists.
+                        pass
+                    try:
                         shutil.copy(tarball_cache_path, tarball_path)
                         print('Using cached tarball: {}'
                               .format(tarball_cache_path))
-                    except:
+                    except OSError:
                         # If this fails, oh well just re-download
                         pass
 
@@ -1165,12 +1168,12 @@ def do_custom_build(self):
                     os.makedirs('build')
 
                 sourceforge_url = (
-                    'http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/freetype'
+                    'https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/freetype'
                     '/freetype2/{0}/'.format(LOCAL_FREETYPE_VERSION)
                 )
                 url_fmts = (
                     sourceforge_url + '{0}',
-                    'http://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/{0}'
+                    'https://download.savannah.gnu.org/releases/freetype/{0}'
                     )
                 for url_fmt in url_fmts:
                     tarball_url = url_fmt.format(tarball)
@@ -1186,12 +1189,15 @@ def do_custom_build(self):
                     raise IOError("Failed to download freetype")
                 if get_file_hash(tarball_path) == LOCAL_FREETYPE_HASH:
                     try:
-                        # this will fail on LPy, oh well
-                        os.makedirs(tarball_cache_dir, exist_ok=True)
+                        os.makedirs(tarball_cache_dir)
+                    except OSError:
+                        # Don't care if it exists.
+                        pass
+                    try:
                         shutil.copy(tarball_path, tarball_cache_path)
                         print('Cached tarball at: {}'
                               .format(tarball_cache_path))
-                    except:
+                    except OSError:
                         # again, we do not care if this fails, can
                         # always re download
                         pass