Category Archives: Home Upkeep Articles

Easy ways to keep on top of home ownership

Preparing to Show Your Home on a Moment's Notice

As much as we would love every potential buyer to provide plenty of advanced notice before scheduling a showing, that is not always the case. Follow these quick tips to ready your home for its best showing when you have 30 or fewer minutes’ notice.

Start where the potential buyers will start:
• Make sure that the front door presents well. Sweep steps, if needed.
• Pick up any out-of-place objects and store them away quickly.

Head inside:
• Open window treatments and turn on lights.
• Put any dirty dishes into the dishwasher.
• Make the beds.
• Put any dirty laundry inside the washing machine.

If you still have time:
• Run a quick vacuum to give carpets and floors a fresh look.
• Wipe down counters and tabletops.
• Warm some vanilla on the stove to give the house a welcoming scent.

While we would all like to have our houses in showroom condition 24 hours a day, we also acknowledge that we live in them. Do your best to present your house in its best light and make sure that every potential buyer has an opportunity to view it—accommodate all showings possible.

Downsizing a Home Requires Downsizing Contents

You find that the children have moved out and you do not need that big of a home anymore.  Another thought is that you are going through a life change such as financial distress, divorce, death of a loved one, or illness.  You want to move to something smaller, but the task seems overwhelming.  Every closet and room is full and it is overflowing in the storage building.  What to do with all the STUFF that makes up the years you have been in the home.

You can get experts to help you get moving or sometimes incorporating good friends and family.  The key to downsizing is to sort through your stuff regularly and get rid of what you no longer use.  You’ll thank yourself on moving day.  There is a lot of trash when you have been living in the same place for many years.

Emotional Effects

Think about how much storage space you will have in the place you are moving to.  Space gets even tighter if you are moving to a condominium, nursing home or assisted-living site.  You have to think about the emotional impact of going through your belongings.  There are a lot of memories packed into those boxes in the attic.  It is easy to feel “overwhelmed” and to procrastinate and then become frozen.

Sometimes it is just the act of “getting started” that is the most difficult.  One way to get going is to have a family get-together.  Make it a party where each of the children puts Post-its on what he or she wants.  If  you want there are also companies that specialize in helping with downsizing.  They help organize estate sales or auctions, line up items for donations and assist with packing.  Having someone to walk you through the process is a big help.

Since there is less room for boxes of old belongings in a smaller home, there is also going to be less room for the person moving in.  You have to learn to live in a smaller space.  Before moving try to think about the practical aspects of everyday life.  How much will you miss a yard or having a garden?  Can you get by with a one-car garage or no garage instead of the two-car space you always had?

You will find often times that letting go and making room for that new chapter in your life is quite exciting.  Time to make some new memories!

Prevent Insects From Damaging Your Home

Since recently discovering termites at my home, I thought it would be good to learn more about these pests.

Household pests want the same things you do — food, water, shelter — and will seize any opportunity to satisfy their needs.

You can’t stop every pest from ever flying, crawling, or burrowing into your home, but you can make sure the occasional intrusion doesn’t become an all-out invasion.

Start outside by making sure there is no wood to ground contact anywhere around your home, clear out any overgrowth of vegetation, and at least 2″ to 3″ of your slab shows at all times. Firewood should be at least 20 feet away and five inches off the ground.  Remove any piles of wood and other debris from around your home.

Termites, carpenter ants and powder-post beetles thrive in moist areas, so maintain a Sahara zone around your home’s perimeter.  Even an infrequent puddle close to the house can become an oasis for pests on the prowl for food, so take measures to direct water away from the house.  Drain puddles, don’t over water flower beds, point sprinklers away from the structure, and make sure the ground near the foundation slopes away from your home.  Clean gutters so they don’t overflow.

Deny access into your home by checking for any gaps or cracks that can become an entrance area for pests.  Inspect your home’s exterior and caulk or epoxy to seal any cracks in the foundation or gaps in the structure.  Should you detect any moisture damage, repair it promptly.  Also while you are at it, caulk or install weather stripping around windows and doors as well.

Most of all be inhospitable by not giving the pests anything to eat or drink.  Inspect the base of toilets, around bath tubs and shower stalls, and areas where pipes go through walls, such as under sinks.  Repair any leaks and wrap any pipes that produce excess condensation.  Termites typically feed on wood, but will eat anything with cellulose, so never store paper or cardboard–or wood–in the crawl space.

If you focus on prevention, you can tackle many aspects of pest control yourself.  Also if you currently have a termite contract make sure you follow all of the guidelines of your contract and pay for the yearly renewal.  It is much cheaper to maintain a contract than it is to pay for a new treatment.