WHO LOOKS AFTER YOUR STICK HOUSE?

[JH Sechelt]

Thanks azstar, good post.

Can relate to NOT having "Desert vegetation" here on the wetcoast, oops I mean Westcoast .
But we can grow swampy things pretty good. Heck we even have a couple of palm trees in our yard.
I guess the best thing is to have someone who is reliable staying at your home, but if not I can see the value of
turning off the water. That could cause a lot of damage if gone un noticed .

J&D

[boylanag]

We are fortunate because we live in a condo sub and are well watched over. Our home phone is forwarded to my cell phone and our mail is sent to a UPS Store mailbox and forwarded to us whenever we call for it.

[Ozz]

A neighbor that kills our fish, birds, Ferrets (by neglect)and leaves our house a mess, and it only cost me $400.00.

We gave away the remaining 2 birds, looking for a home for the rest of the animals.
Not as fortunate as many of you, sorry to say.

[5ER]

We have been part/full timing the last several years so we use a mail service while we are gone and switch the mail back to our stick home when there.

[Dave e Victoria]

Note to AZSTAR and others. The toilet thing is important in the desert. Even a few weeks will have the water evaporated in toilets and the result is an open hole to the sewer. We float a small amount of cooking oil on the surface and the evaporation stops. This is basic high school physics and it works. The oil floats on the water and does not evaporate so the water can't get out to evaporate. My daughter only stops by every other week and that is enough to dry the toilets without the oil.

[azstar]

Howdy Dave,

Thanks for the info.

Did consider the Cooking Oil. I probably should have done an experiment last year but the thoughts I had were, would the Cooking Oil grow bacteria?, and Would it stain?.

Sounds like you answered these questions.

If all true I would use Cooking Oil as the EverPrime is a little pricey. $18 a qt. I have enough EverPrime to do the job this year, but I think I'll leave a pan out with water and a covering of Cooking Oil and see how it works out. We are gone for 4 mos. June 1 thru Oct.1 and leave the House temp. set for 90deg.

Happy Camping

[sailer]

We have houses in 2 dif states and you can hire house sitters any place ,, they will come in and check as often as you like ,, the fl house we have them inside every 2 weeks for $40.00 month works great as we get a report by e-mail

the north house in northern wis has a lite in the window for the neibor to see daily as if the heat goes down tooooooo far he calls a guy as he can't go in but never worry or you will never leave , if you are maried to the house get a divorce

[clutch]

We are lucky and have good neighbors that check the house each week and send us the important things that come in the mail. WE let them park their trailer in the yard where we used to park ours for the winter months. They get a parking space and we get looked after so it is a good deal for both of us.

[dandt]

We have been leaving for 4 months each winter and are very fortunate to have GREAT nieghbors. They collect mail and forward monthly, water inside plants and check for freezing problems. We are gonna fix the headache Nov 07, by selling it and going full-time. When we feel the need for roots again we will look for a condo somewhere!

[syplace]

We live in our owner/occupied duplex. Have great renters. Bank pays everything directly. All other mail forwarded. Daughter checks in once in a while to see everything running okay. The rent affords us the opportunity to travel during winter. We usually leave in October & return about April 1st. We like to have one place as "home base" & go out from there. Our rent runs about 250. including elec.

[vabluebird]

Last winter everything worked out great at our stick house.We left Nov. 1st, returned Thanksgiven to be with family by flying one way, and drove the car back to FL. Our neighbor watched the house and checked it everyother month. The only problem was the odor on return. We will have to try the cooking oil this fall. We will be leaving last week of August to go to VT and then across country to SD. The last Thursday of Sept we plan to be in KY at Bill Monroe's bluegras festival and leave from there to go to FL for the winter.

We set our mail up so it's forwarded to a Post Office box in Fla when we leave here. Most mail I have stopped by having it on the internet. All bills except credit cards are paid automaticaly. We don't go too far in the summer. It's nice to have a home place to come back to and we now call it our summer home. We thought of going full time but don't like to travel that much. Being a full time tourist would be too much.