Glenn Haege: The Handyman
Remote monitoring helps keep tabs on home
Many snowbirds are planning to leave their Michigan nests for a few months and want a list of things to do to get their homes ready for hibernation. Other folks want help closing up their cottages. I hope this advice helps.
For years, I recommended putting your house into winter-vacation mode. That meant turning the thermostat to 55 or 60 degrees, turning the water heater down low, and getting a super-friendly neighbor to check the house and flush the toilets two or three times a week.
This is a great technique, but the most unreliable part is the "friendly neighbor." Friendly neighbors are very hard to find. If you find a good one, you should pay them. Even then, eventually your neighbor goes on vacation, breaks a leg or just plain forgets. When that happens, your house is unmonitored.
ﾕ If you want to go high-tech, you can monitor your house continuously. ATT, www.attrm.com, has a remote-monitoring system that includes cameras and can let you check the house from your laptop computer. It will even send text messages if someone enters the house, the temperature changes or you have a water problem.
ﾕ The Sensaphone 800 from Sensaphone, 877-373-2700, www.sensaphone.com, will let you call and get a complete report on the house. There are many add-ons such as a water detector, humidistat and freeze sensors, power-outage monitor and smoke detector. If it senses a problem, the system will call up to eight different numbers to make a report.
ﾕ FloodStop shuts off individual appliances and can be connected to a Deluxe Freeze Alarm, which will also call to tell you if there is a problem.
ﾕ Internet sites such as www.smarthome .com, 800-762-7846; www.alarms247.com, 800-296-3910; and www.intwoplaces.com, 770 -403-1684, are the best places to shop for this type of equipment.
If you don't want to monitor your home or cottage electronically or leave it in the hands of a friendly neighbor, put your home in dry-dock. Dry-dock is full hibernation, "I'll-see-ya-sometime-in-spring" mode.
Putting your house in dry-dock takes a little more time, but it eliminates worrying. Possible water problems are eliminated, but unhumidified air can make wood furniture and flooring very dry.
What to do now
ﾕ Install dusk-to-dawn exterior lights to help keep the bad guys at bay.
ﾕ Start gifting friends and family with stuff from the freezer so you won't have to work so hard before you leave.
ﾕ Ask a friendly neighbor to take a look at your house every once in a while and give you a call if something doesn't look right.
ﾕ Arrange for snow removal.
Two weeks before you go
ﾕ Call police and tell them how long you are going to be away and who will be looking after your house. Make sure newspaper and postal service are redirected to your winter address.
ﾕ Put some lights and radios on timers and plug into outlet-surge protectors.
ﾕ Make sure the furnace filter is clean.
The night before you leave
ﾕ Set up your morning coffee. There won't be any hot water in the morning, so take your shower before going to bed.
ﾕ Call your friendly neighbor and tell him you'll be gone the next day. Make sure he/she has your telephone number and remembers that he should call you, if necessary.
ﾕ Turn off the water at the water main. Drain the line by turning on the cold-water faucets closest to, and farthest from the water meter, and the water heater.
ﾕ Turn off the gas or electricity to the water heater and drain the tank.
ﾕ Turn the furnace humidifier off. That may mean turning the humidistat down to zero percent humidity.
The day you leave
ﾕ Throw out all perishable food. Unplug freezers and refrigerators; prop open appliance doors. Throw out the ice cubes in the freezer.
ﾕ Unplug all electrical equipment you don't need running.
ﾕ Make certain that the appliance timers connected to lights and radios are working. Tune plugged-in radios to a 24-hour station. Give the house that "lived in" look by setting timers on lights and radios to start and stop at different times of day in different parts of the house (including the bathroom).
ﾕ All plants and pets, including the goldfish, have to be out of the house and with a friendly family.
ﾕ The greater the difference between outside and inside temperatures, the drier it will be in the house, so turn the heat down to 55 or 60 degrees. This temperature is warm enough for the house, yet low enough to keep the air from becoming too dry.
ﾕ Your house is now officially dry-docked. You will no longer have to worry while you watch the Weather Channel. Make a note to send your friendly neighbor oranges. Have fun.
