“As Fall as surely arrived and is settling in, creating longer and darker days that lead you to increasing hibernation at home, you should really make sure that your house is safe and properly winterized for the cold season.”

Oh I know. In some parts of the country, this season is short, for others it’s looonnnggg and quite severe. We all have one thing in common: we need to take precautions to save money and protect from potential harm and disasters in this cooler season, so we can enjoy all the fun parts of Fall and Winter.

How to Winterize Your Home

Here are 7 tips for (little) winterizing projects for us all that my local real estate agent, Sam McCall, alerted me to:

1. Seal cracks and gaps around doors and windows with caulking and weather strips. Those little drafts can add to an unwanted hefty 10% to our heating bills !! A priority project for some…
2. We all know the gutters and down sprouts need cleaning when they fill with leaves. Again, this is a good preventative project to do as it prevents water from seeping into our homes ~ Which would be much more work to take care of, and it would cost more money…
3. Fire safety: inspect your furnace and replace or clean dirty filters.
4. Another fire safety tip: test that smoke alarm and replace the batteries if necessary. Some of us are blessed with a carbon monoxide detector, so check that one also if that is the case.
5. Just before it really gets cold, it’s time to drain our outdoor hoses, faucets and sprinklers. This prevents bursting pipes.
   
6. Consider this: you may want to invest in a programmable thermostat to vary the temperatures in your home at various times of the day/night. If you program it right, you can really safe a lot of money on heating while you’re sleeping or away from the house, and you can be nice and warm while you’re awake.
7. Now, if you really want to be ‘good’, drain the gas from your lawn mower to prevent costly service problems next summer.

OK. And when we’ve done all this, let’s bring in the hot chocolates!

‘Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!’

p.s. Don’t forget to also winterize your vacation home. This might mean a special, last trip to that wonderful place… Bring the hot chocolate and cookies along!