Help please - from those who own a stick home also

[Longwell]

We are considering not selling our home when we first get our Montana.
For those of you in the NORTHERN climates (we are 1 hour south of Erie, Pennsylvania) what do you do with/for/to your home when you leave for an extended period (such as 6 months)?
We are concerned about the "little things" that can go wrong, such as a roof leak, broken window, furnace going "kaput", electric power going out for a lengthy period (no heat from the electrically-started oil furnace) causing frozen pipes, etc, etc, etc.
All inputs will be appreciated as we plan our future.
Thanks, in advance, to all who take the time to provide inputs.
Larry

[Emmel]

Larry, although we are short timers, 4 months in Florida, we do "shut" down the stick house when gone.
We have city water, which is turned off by the city, and we then open faucets to let out any pressure. Then close faucets.
We turn the furnace to 56 deg and put satellite on vacation. I unplug everything that draws electric that isn't necessary, DVR, desk top computer, tv's and pretty much what's plugged in an outlet. I also removed batteries from all remotes.
Our electric bill for the 3 months we were gone this last winter was $8 each month. Our water bill was nil and it cost $3 to turn it back on. Our water bill also has a $12 a month garbage collection fee that we did NOT have to pay either!
We have mail forwarded to our southern winter home.
Our daughters live close by so they drop by quite often to check on things, that is a must if for nothing else but a secure feeling.
Hope this helped a little.

[Mrs. CountryGuy]

Emmel summed it up very well.

Drain the water, we turn down heat to 47, propane, it still costs a fortune to keep at that temp. Reluctant to turn all the way off, for the drywall and wood and furniture (some antiques).

Our electric bill was about $35.00 a month last time we did this, 18 months ago. Wish it had been $8.00

We put RV pink down the drains, and get as much water out of the toilets as we can, then run pink in there too. Also pink thru the washer and the dishwasher.

Call the local police and see what you have to do to get on their more frequent drive by list.

If you don't have family, hire a house sitter, ours comes in every 2 weeks, give or take and bless her soul will dispose of any dead mice.

OHHH, set traps. Put down plastic then paper bags, then trap. If you have to ask why this method, well - - - - ewwwwww.

I have offered before and a few MOCers took me up on it, I have a detailed list I can email you. Email me, NO PM'S. I will email it back to you.

Enjoy!! When do you guys hit the road???

[richfaa]

Well Larry you are talking to the right folks here. We are in North Ridgeville, Ohio, Northern Ohio and I was raised In New Castle, Pa just a hop skip and a couple of Jumps from Grove city, Pa your area. Our weather is the same. We have been wintering for 3 years now and we close up the stick house for 6 months over the winter.You might give us a call and we can talk in depth but here goes.

First find some trusted folks, Family, Friends that you can trust to look in on the house from time to time. We have neighbors on both sides of us as well as across the street That keep a eye on things as well as checking out the inside on a regular basis. They also park their extra cars in our driveway and keep it clean of snow.We no longer have or need a land line phone. We use cell phones. We turn off the water at the meter which in our case is inside the house. Open all the faucets, Purge the Johns of water, Pour RV anti freeze in all the elbows. In our case if you use no water there is no charge. The sewer and trash collection can be suspended.

Turn off all the electrical breakers except the ones we need. Un plug all appliances, tv's etc. We keep the thermostat at 50 degrees.
Call police and let them know the home is vacant. As far as power going out during a storm. If the folks(neighbors) power goes out so is ours and you need to trust them to check your home out when he power returns. Worst case there is nothing in the house that will freeze if the power never gets back on.
The most important thing is to have trusted folks to watch over the house on a regular basis. One neighbor stored his golf cart one side of our garage. Another stored his corvette in our driveway another his Motorcycles on the other side of the garage and was free to work on them during the winter . They all used our driveway as needed. Our snowblowers were available to them if needed. In return they watch over the house and keep the driveway clear. In fact we are now on the road and they will mow the lawn, etc. They say we are the best neighbors ever as they can use all our stuff and the garage. That is a start.. We can talk about it.

[OntMont]

It probably depends a lot on whether you are in an urban or rural area, and who might be around to look in on things. Check your house insurance, they probably have something to say about leaving a house unoccupied for a length of time.

We are rural. We shut off our water pump and winterize the plumbing much as you would for a trailer. (I made provision for this in our plumbing. We leave mouse bait at strategic points around the house (but not where a dog or kids might find them)

Shut off unnecessary electrical uses, leave a few lights on timers. Put all edibles in the freezer. Put utensils and things that mice could get into in containers.

Put a thermometer near a window so that temperature can be checked by an outside observer (relative or neighbour). Try to talk son into clearing snow, at least some of the time.

Redirect mail, change or suspend services not required.

There is always the possibility that we could be flooded if there was a power failure during a storm or spring thaw. We just have to take that chance. We do have a generator available if anyone can get over to run it for us during a power failure.

While we are away, I monitor the weather at home and listen to local news via sat or internet, if things sound bad, I call home, and if the answering machine picks up the call, then I know that at least the power is on. I think you can buy monitors that can call a given number in case of low temp. or flooding, but we don't have these (yet).

There are probably more things, it will be interesting to see what other people do.

[HughM]

When we had a house up north I took all of the above precautions and then some.
Sta-Bil every motor you have, lawn mowers, vehicles, gas golf carts, boats, ATV's, generator, chain saw and weed eaters.
Then I turned off city water and drained both water heaters. I had a additional cut off on my side of the meter just in case someone turned on the city water it would be cut off on my side of the water meter.
Then I opened all water facets and let them drain out the low point. I then blew out the water lines just like in the Monty.
Stopped garbage service, paper, and took sat receiver with me.
I left a light on in the front window that my neigbors could see and it was on a timer. A very low wattage bulb in the lamp. When the light didn't come on my neighbor would know that night that power was off.
Then I changed all bills to my Florida address for the winter. No need to forward anything it came directly to me.
Worked for me for years.
Hugh

[clutch]

We live in North Idaho and just turn off the water heater and make sure the freezer is empty and unplugged. We turn the heat down to 50* which is as low as our thermostat goes and give the key to a neighbor. The neighbors check it weekly and if anything goes wrong we have insurance so we don't worry about it.

We also have the internet turned off and the Dish network put on vacation. We drop the liability on the vehicles that we leave home in the shop.

[dsprik]

We shut off the fridge and prop open the doors. We blow out the waterlines and winterize the low point drains in dishwasher, washer, sinks, toilet. Last year we turned the propane off at the tank. This year we will have all new furniture in here so I will probably leave some heat on unless someone convinces me that I really don't need this protection. As Carol mentions above in these northern climes (we are in NW Lower MI - snowbelt) even low heat can be VERY expensive.

Also as Hugh mentioned above, we also Sta-bill the boat, lawn mower, etc.

We have family a few miles away that can check on the house weekly. Also neighbors...

[JimF]

All the concerns addressed above are exactly why, after the 1st winter away, we sold our house. Now, no worries, be happy.

[steves]

As stated by many above there are many ways to "winterize" the house. Complete shut down and antifreeze of the water lines is the safest but also is the most difficult and is not practical to do in some homes. That said - I have a two story large colonial with water lines running through the wall and in between the ceiling servicing the 2nd floor. Additionally I have an oil fired furnace with a water baseboard heat system that requires a water feed.

Complete shut down of my home and systems is not an easy task to accomplish. What I do when we leave for 3 - 4 months in the winter is to:
1. Shut off the water valves to my domestic water lines for both floors.
2. Open all the taps and let all the pressured water drain out.
3. Flush the toilets and put in some cleaning solution
4. Set the temperature in both my heating zones to 50 degrees.
5 Install a Honeywell Winter Watchman that turns on a yellow light which I place in a window and will activate when the
temp gets below 45. I am fortunate as my daughter lives across the road from me and can easily see this light when it's
on. You can check out the Winter Watchman at http://www.accentshopping.com/product.asp?P_ID=150460 (priced at $24.98)
6. Give my furnace repair number to my daughter....and yes it works as my furnace did go down last year and the light save
me from freezing any water lines.
7. My son-in-law does a walk-though once a week just to check everything out.

Note - There a Honeywell Deluxe Freeze-Alarm that will dial pre-entered phone numbers when the temp falls below a setting and is priced at $119.95. you can see the details at:
http://www.accentshopping.com/vwtype...96/type_id/159