Travel News Steps to Winterizing a Vacation Home

 

Having a second or vacation residence is the perfect way to 'get away from it all' while still feeling right at home! So how do you protect this valuable investment when the weather turns colder? Effectively winterizing your vacation home is essential. Winterizing is different than maintenance performed during the rest of the year.
Specifically preparing your home for winter can potentially save you a world of trouble down the road. Your home's exposure in significantly colder weather can lead to costly repairs and loss of irreplaceable belongings if the residence has not been properly winterized. Here are several tips to help you prepare your vacation home for winter:

• Purchase A Temperature Alarm Dialer
  These devices, sometimes called Freeze Alarms, monitor the temperature of your vacation home. If the temperature drops below a set point, a temperature alarm dialer will call whatever phone number you have specified to issue an audible alarm message. This is especially handy if your vacation home is a considerable distance from your regular residence. You could potentially program the freeze alarm to dial a trusted neighbor or service man in your vacation home's immediate vicinity, with the agreement prearranged for them to handle the emergency.
• Inspect the Furnace
  Having an HVAC service man in to inspect your furnace and ducts can prevent issues while you're away. Clearing the area around your furnace and heating vents of any obstructions or combustibles as a safety precaution is always a good idea.
• Window and Door Check
  make sure to inspect windows and exterior door every season. Check for cracked and/or chipped windows. Consider replacing old weather stripping and old caulking around all windows and doors. Covering basement window wells with plastic covers is also beneficial.
• Roof, Gutters and Downspout Inspection
  Replacing roof tiles or shingles as necessary will prevent from water/ice from forming in areas it should not reach. Make sure to clear out gutters and downspouts to ensure that runoff will be properly distributed away from the house and foundation.
• Foundation Check
  Do a 'walk around' of entire structure and ensure foundation has no cracks. Some mice can enter cracks no thinner than a dime! Check ill plates for rot or infestation. Make sure to secure all your crawl space entrances. Be sure to remove any debris, including vegetation from the foundation base.
• Landscaping Preparation
  Make sure to re-seal any brick patios, driveways or wooden decks. Trim all tree branches that are very close to the residence or nearby electrical lines. Remove sensitive potted plants and/or bulbs inside or to a sheltered area. Purge any sprinkler systems of water. Protect any air conditioning condensing units with a waterproof, breathable cover.
• Fireplace/Chimney Check
  After ensuring the chimney is free of any bird, squirrel or other animal nests - consider installing a chimney screen to prevent animal or bird entrance during the winter months. Double check that the chimney flue damper is operating efficiently. A flue should open and close completely and be able to lock in either position. Consider having a professional chimney sweep clean the fireplace chimney. After years of use - they can become blocked with possible debris, ash or creosote.

Travel News Thinking of Retiring in Mexico?

We believe that our life in Manzanillo, Mexico defines "the American dream". We have a beautiful 4000 sq. ft. house with a garage, pool and gardens ON the beach. A house like this, at this time, can be built or purchased for just under 1 million dollars. Imagine that in Seattle or Los Angeles.

We have a wonderful lady who does our cleaning and ironing, and a young man who takes care of the pool, garden, and other things we need done. We pay about 200.00 dollars a week for both of them.

There is no "honey do" list to fight over. It is taken care of for us. The first week we were here, one of our neighbors said, "we in Mexico do not do much for ourselves". She is of course from the upper end of the economic scale, but, I have often thought about how true those words are.

So how do we spend our days? What do we do? I remember asking a lady on a plane who was on her way down to Mexico for the 6 months of winter." What do you do all day? " The obvious answer is, whatever we want.


It is the opportunity to figure out what you really want out of life, and do it. We have people who take up art at 50 or older and become accomplished artists. We have groups of women and men golfers several days a week as a social occasion as well as exercise. We have tennis groups and bridge groups. There are plenty of opportunities to volunteer with the children, the old folks, the dogs, or individual families. With each year we have more opportunities, such as the availability of the latest books with e-readers, on-line classes to improve your mind, body and or life, newspapers, of course, are on line. And the best part of our small town is that most of us have time for one another. We are very social (those who want to be) because we have time and not a lot of distractions.

We do have a "Gold's Gym" as well as several others. And an ocean that is warm all year. One of the best parts for me is the weather. I am from Seattle where it is often cold and dark (sorry). Here, it is possible to go outside almost every day. The first summer we were here I was learning to play golf and praying for rain. We only missed six days of golf due to rain. It rains mainly at night, like in Hawaii.

12 years ago we started two groups to help foreigners get to know each other, as we live all over, not congregated in one place. The first was a lunch group for English speaking ladies. We meet once a month and have speakers to keep the rumor mill on track and keep us educated on what is happening in our town. This group is called mujeres amigas, "women friends".

The second group is for couples and meets every week for early dinner and drinks at different restaurants. They are the manzamigos.

Between these two, it should be possible to get to know many of the other ex-pats in a short time.

We have great restaurants with reasonable prices, a big movie theater with 8 or more movies playing. Usually about half of them are in English with Spanish sub-titles. We have a Walmart and Soriana, and Commercial Mexicana for big grocery and department stores. We even have Starbucks and Burger King.