Hey Cora, what are some simple things that I can do to keep my home safe while I am flying away for a few weeks out of the Alaska winter. Signed, Snow Birdy!
Dear Birdy, well this is actually a really great question and we have covered this before in this column, but I think everyone needs a reminder. Yes, yes, packing the bathing suit and making sure Fido and Fifi are taken care of is of critical importance, so it taking care of the house.
1) Consider new batteries. This is number one thing you need to do – CHANGE THE BATTERIES IN YOUR THERMOSTATS! Put a reminder in your phone, send yourself a card, when ever it takes, but before you leave your home in winter, change the batteries in your thermostats! This one thing has caused a multitude of damage for homeowners all over the north. When you change them, reprogram them as well! If you are going to keep the heat low while you are gone, don’t go lower than 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Sometimes, as you know, we get cold snaps and it’s hard for that heating system to keep up with the cold – don’t put it on 40! At least 55 degrees no lower. You may want to have your heating system checked before you go. Change your filter, vacuum vents. When you pull out of that garage to drive to the airport, I want my naggy voice in your head saying “did I change the thermostat batteries?”
2) Consider a house-sitter. I have pets, so I like a house-sitter because I know that my pets are happier with someone there, not just a person stopping by to feed them. They are very social and need to have someone there so they can continue to complain on a regular basis. This is also good because the chances of a freeze up, goes way down. Your house sitter will call you if the heat is off! Also, my house sitter picks up the mail, receives packages and makes the house looked lived in even while I am out of town. I always feel better being gone when I know my pets and my mail and my house are all happy!
3) Consider a NEST system. Or something like that. These are great for monitoring all systems and things while you are gone. Anything from cameras outside the home, to lights, to monitoring your heat! It’s like having a house sitter, but it won’t feed the cat, not yet anyway. Lowes, Home Depot, Amazon all sell these things and you don’t have to be a rocket surgeon to know how to set it up. Even my 64 year old brain can do it.
4) Snow removal. Now, it might, just might snow while you are gone. It’s a long shot, but you need to be prepared. If you are the person who plows your own driveway, then guess what? It’s going to snow while you are gone. In fact, it’s going to snow and snow and snow….just because you are gone! Have that person lined up to plow your driveway – you don’t want your house to look abandoned. Plow baby Plow!
5) Consider baking banana bread. Yes, I mean you! Bake some banana bread for your neighbor and let them know that you will be going out of town. Ask them to contact you if they see anything unusual, like water gushing from the front door, the roof on fire, or a wild crazy fireworks party going on! Do this even if you have a house sitter. Make sure your neighbor has the house sitters contact information. Be prepared to do this in return for your neighbor and if you need a really good banana bread recipe, call me, I have one!
6) Consider locking your garage door. Now this might sound strange, but I am going to speak from experience here. Your garage door has a lever, just a simple metal bar that slides into a slot on the rails of the system. You may want to slide that lever over when you leave here is why. We have experienced our garage door opening one it’s own. All kinds of random times. Get up in the morning, the garage door is open, and it’s been open for hours. Come home from work, the garage door is open, and I know that I saw it go all the way down before I left. What we discovered was that our neighbor, a few doors down, had a keyless pad for their garage that must have been on the same frequency as ours and every time they used it, our garage door would go up – never down! Just up! Now, after much research, I discovered that you cannot change the frequency because I guess they are controlled by the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) which makes sense because I know my garage door is anxious to fly away someday! It’s also controlled by the FCC (Federal Communications something-ur-other that starts with a “c”) So I guess if I mess with anything, I will end up in some underground bunker near Area 51 in the high desert of Navada! The neighbor agreed to stop using he key pad until we can figure out how to fix this – but if we were on vacation – our heating system would have froze up and our cat’s would have been mad!
If course there are a plethora of other things to check before you leave – but these were tickling my brain for some reason. Now, go and have a nice vacation, enjoy yourself, swim with dolphins and eat things you never do at home – and call me when it’s time to buy a new home or sell the old one, remember experience matters, and I am full of it! LOL.