Every year owners ask about the snow removal on the driveways.  Many want to only have it done when they are going to be using the house.  While a nice idea — it just doesn’t work that way.   If you don’t keep up with the snow, you won’t be able to clear it at all. 

With the temperature swings we have in Central Oregon we have a constant thaw and freeze cycle.   Each time we get any snow the roads are plowed and a berm of snow is left blocking your driveway.   Not a problem until it warms up and starts to melt and just before it melts, the temperatures drop and we get a nice block of ice.  Then nothing but a pick axe can remove the pile.  And of course each time the street is cleared (every 2 inches of snow fall) the berm gets bigger. 

Of course this same melt freeze cycle happens on the driveway and the walkways as well.  So you have a nice ice skating rink to the front door.  Now you are probably thinking — just use ice melt.  Well all studies say no!  Ice melt will eat away at the concrete or bricks and leave you with some year round damage.   So again — you just have to wait out the entire season. 

In some areas you are fined for not clearing the public walk ways and held liable for any slip and falls.  In other neighborhoods you are fined for leaving a car out on the street.  So you really have to have the driveway clear. 

Another factor is the advertisement that the house is empty.  No better way to tell what is going on traffic wise then to look and see if the snow and walkways have not been cleared. 

So please make it easier for everyone and have your walk ways, driveways and path to the garbage area cleared on a regular basis.  We clear only if it snows more then 4″.    

There is a lot of discussions that go on about if the water should be turned on or off in a home when the owners are away.   It really depends on the amount of time the house will be vacant.   

With the water off there is a possibility of seals drying out in the toilets as well as the dishwasher and the insta hot.    We recommend running dishwashers, insta hot and flushing toilets regularly. 

If you do turn the water off - don’t turn the heat off unless you have all the lines cleared.  When you turn the water off there is still water in the shower cartridges, in the area between the handles and the shower head and in the toilets to name a few.  Unless all these areas are cleared out - the heat should be kept on that the house should not be allowed to freeze.   

Installing a simple on/off switch that can be easily accessed is a great way to limit water damage.  The key is to make the switch simple to access.  Too many times the water shut off is under a house in a crawl space or under a couple of feet of snow. 

So the debate continues with no real answer.  It is all about personal preference.

There really is no way of knowing if all your utilities have been setup unless you are in the house.  That is where Home Fridays comes into the picture.  With our house checks we can find the gas that hasn’t come on, the furnace that failed when the neighborhood had a power outage.  You have eyes and ears at the house when you can’t be there.

A sad story about a local home.  The house went through inspection with flying colors, sale went through and everyone was happy.  The utilities were changed over to the new owners name.  Unfortunatley the gas company did not turn over correctly.  The gas was cut off and no heat to the home.  With no one in the house, sitting vacant not a problem - WRONG.  The water was on, the toilets full of water, the showers, the pipes, the ice maker.  Lots of water all over the house - frozen solid.  Within a month of ownership the home goes from  great to problematic.  We will never know why the gas wasn’t turned on correctly.  And had the house been with Home Fridays, we would have found the problem early and possibly prevented any pipes from freezing. 

A few dollars for prevention and maintenance cost or the big ticket for replacement of total failure.  At Home Fridays we are big believers in annual maintenance especially with the furnace and air conditioners.  Every year we have a few home owners that don’t want to have annual maintenance performed on their units.  Some make it through the winter with no problems - their gamble paid off.  They saved a few dollars. But at this moment, with the winter only begun we already had 3 furnaces fail (none of them had an annual maintenance).   Of course the furnaces never fail in the middle of the work day when it is warm out.   They fail on a holiday, in the evening when it is below freezing out.  In our extreme temperatures it only takes a short while to cause serious damage in the home.   Lesson to be learned — regular maintenance is a must and a much cheaper alternative!    

It is cold out - no doubt about it.  Here is what the Sunriver Homeowners Association sent out to all their owners earlier this week.

COLD weather alert for Sunriver homeownersSunriver temperatures took a drastic drop yesterday with area highs in the teens and overnight lows in the single digits. We got a few inches of very dry snow and had wind all day. The dangerously low temperatures are forecast to continue until Thursday. Link to Sunriver area forecast.If your home is unoccupied, you will want to have someone (neighbor, friend, contracted service) check on it this week, probably more than once. Here are a few ways you can help protect your home: Increase the “unoccupied” temperature setting on your heating system. Make sure to run water daily at all faucets and appliances (refrigerators/dishwashers/clothes washers, etc. - particularly those near or against outside walls. Open cabinet doors below sinks. Check the home’s foundation vents and outside faucets to make sure they have Styrofoam covers in place.The November Sunriver Scene contained an article about damage to unoccupied homes - and discussed the possibility that your homeowner’s insurance policy may not cover damage to an unoccupied home (depending upon certain conditions). Here’s a link to the November issue on our Web site. You’ll find the article on page 19.Your association Web site includes a list of contractors registered to do business in Sunriver. So if you are looking for someone to do a variety of home-related tasks - from plowing your driveway to plumbing repairs, this is a good place to start. Please note that inclusion in this list does not imply endorsement by SROA. When you consider hiring someone, you might want to check with a neighbor for a “recommendation.” SROA Registered Contractors list.

With our severe weather in Central Oregon, there is a lot of things that should be done.   Here is a partial list of what we go through at Home Fridays for all our client.

1) Winterize the sprinklers by turning off and blowing out.  If there is a water feature drain it or make sure it has a heater for running through the winter (and turn on the heater). 

2) Gutters should be cleaned out and repaired.  Leaking or packed gutters can be major problem for ice dams during winter.  Gutters falling away from the house are also a convenient place for ice to build up.  Often times plastic clips are used to attach the gutters to the house.  These clips can not stand up to our rough winters and often break.   A metal clip is a safer bet.   If you use heat tape in the gutters or on the eaves - be sure it is turned on.   

3) Foundation vents should be closed and I like to use the styrofoam blocks.  I also cover most of the outdoor faucets.  The hoses should be removed (and moved into the garage).  There are so many faucets here that are not freeze proof - and why not spend the $6 for a little piece of mind.

4)  Annual furnace inspection.  By doing this you can extend the life of your furnace by 30%!  And the amount of damage that can happen when there is no heat — well lets just say a working furnace is priceless.

5)  Fireplaces - chimney’s should be cleaned regular.  All the wood should be ordered and chopped for the year.  Make a visual inspection of the fireplace to make sure no tuckpointing is in order. 

6) Take off the screen doors and window screens and store for the winter.

7) Check garage and other areas for outside pipe exposure (such as sinks, back bathrooms, or pump houses).  Make sure there is a method to heat the area - electrical tape and space heaters are common methods.

Stake out the driveway, walk ways and path to the garbage for snow removal.  Nothing is worse then trying to find the driveway under 2 feet of snow.

9) Change the batteries in the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.   Also, thermostats should have backup batteries replaced (some of them actually shut off when the batteries go dead).

10) Fall yard clean up.  The needles should be cleaned  so the grass does not die.  Trim up the bushes and trees and make sure nothing is on the roof.  Move dirt away from the foundation - making sure it is not on the siding. 

11)  Move the paint out of the garage, making sure it is in a warm place so it won’t get ruined.

12) Move the pots to the garage if they are not freeze proof.

13) The spa should be drained if not using it or checked to make sure the motor is in good condition.  Make sure the lid is in good condition.  A hot tub can evaporate in as little as 24 hours if the lid is left (or blows) open.  So it is very important to have all the tie downs in good condition.

14) Ceiling fans can be changed to run in revers and push the warm air down. 

15) Open all the doors and cupboards getting the ambient temperature of the house consistent. 

16)  We usually turn down the water heater as well if the house is not going to be occupied.

So as you can see there are a number of items to focus on when winterizing the home.  Let Home Fridays take care of winterizing for you!

It is that time of year when the critters are anxious to become your house guests.  It is not uncommon to find the mice trying to get in or the squirrels, even the birds.  We are busy at Home Fridays making sure the houses are secure and all the animals are excluded.  We have found a few interesting guests this year on our regular home wellness visits. 

At one house a racoon has moved in under the 2nd floor deck, above the hot tub.  He has found a perfect dry warm condo.  Unfortunately he likes to tear through the garbage in his free time.  The best way to get ride of ‘Ricky’ is to exclude him from his new condo and allow him to move on to a new area.  We hope Ricky finds a nice new home.

In another home the result of poor building practices allowed the birds to get inside the dormers.  The builder had left openings between the roof and a decorative dormer.  The birds and who knows what else, wanted to move in.   Imagine my surprise when I saw a bird on the inside of the window,  pecking to get out!   Thankfully, we got the bird out and the openings closed off. 

Most recently we have been combating squirrels - in a total face off!   They had a great hole in the ground with full access to the home crawl space.  When we closed off the access, they where not happy.  They went all around the house tearing up the foam foundation inserts and faucet covers - all in an effort to find a new point of entry.  It actually looked like snow with all the torn up styrofoam.   At this point the squirrels are going to need to find a new home.

If you don’t have Home Fridays checking on your home and making sure the critters are moving in - then be sure to check yourself and exclude all those unwanted residents. 

It is amazing how much time I spend discussing dryers - do they work, are they hot enough, are they fast enough.  The bigger the house, the more laundry.  The more laundry, the more time it takes to get everything washed and dried.  If a home has more then 4 bedrooms (or some bunk beds) and it used a great deal then a second set might be just the ticket. 

When purchasing a large washer/dryer or a second set - what do you get?  Often we are attracted to the new High Effeciency machines.  We are now getting rebates for purchasing these machines.  I must say the dryers  are not worth it.  The HE machines have smaller motors.  What does that mean to you — longer drying times.  A large duet machine doesn’t even have a drying cycle less then 50 minutes.  So 5 sets of sheets and towels - assumming you can double up would be at least 4-5 loads.  At 45 minutes a wash and 50 minutes to dry — you have 5 hours of laundry!!! 

So how do you reduce this time - put in a second dryer or just use the big style, old fashion, energy hog dryers.  They are hot and fast!  And with 2 dryers - you cut off at least an hour.  Double the machines and you are down to just 2.5 hours.  

Of course there are other ways to cut down on laundry time - request your guests to do 2 loads before they leave.  Limit the number of towels and bedding the guests have access to.  I have found that if the sheets or towels are available - the guests will help themselves and RARELY do they do the laundry.  So if you have 2 sets for every bed and the guests use all those, plus all the towels and spa towels — well you might as well start your own laundry mat! 

It is a sad commentary on the area when home break-ins increase.  Recently we had a window broken on a home - the alarm went off and the intruder was scarred away.  With a quick response by local authorities (because the alarm is monitored and we knew that no one should have been in the house) significant damage or theft was averted.    This house is in a quiet area and it would have been easy access if the alarm did not exist. 

Until recently we had only a handful of homes with alarms.  But now I strongly encourage alarms.  Home Fridays is a great deterrent as we are in the house changing the lighting pattern and giving the house a more lived in feel.  But we are not there 24/7.  And that is when the alarm really comes in handy. 

We usually get the call that the alarm has gone off.  If the owners are visiting or someone is scheduled to be there - we run over to the house.  If no one is scheduled, we let the police respond and then go over.  Sorry, I am just not big and scary enough to drive anyone away from the house!  Sometimes it is a false alarm, but in this recent case it was not.  

We have heard stories about a moving van pulling up in front of a house that was for sale.  They cleaned out the entire house of furniture and everything.  It was months before anyone discovered the theft.  The neighbors - just thought they had sold the house.   Alarm service along with Home Fridays would have prevented that theft.

Another vacation home was slowly cleaned out by the thieves over a matter of weeks or even months.  The final straw - they left the door open.  So the pipes froze and the owner was alerted when he received an enormous water bill.  He drove out to his home and found the door ajar, water running through the house and the things the thief had left, out on the lawn.  A good monitored alarm system along with Home Fridays would have prevented that - our weekly visits will discover any issues and get them resolved.

Many of my clients rent their homes out through out the year to get extra income.    With down turn in the economy and the overall fear factor, rentals seem to be a bit slower this summer.  I recently stumbled across a great blog with lots of owner rental information.  Their article ‘What To Do If Your Peak Summer Weeks Are Not Fully Booked ‘  is great reading and can be found at http://tinyurl.com/qtr3vw   While Home Fridays does not find renters, we do take care of everything for the home between and during rentals.  There is nothing worse when a problem occurs and you are thousands of miles away and unable to resolve.  As the local contact for the guests, we can get the problem fixed quickly.  Whether it is a guest locking themselves out, an oven that doesn’t work or making sure the guests leave on time and the house is undamaged and prepped for the next guests.  Home Fridays is your solution for it all!