The dog days of summer are definitely upon us. Is anyone thinking frigid, frost, snow, or winter? Probably not. But as we move into fall with its mesmerizing colors, cooler temperatures, and seasonal treats, we should be mindful that Winter. Is. Coming. And now is the perfect time to winterize your home.

How and Why You Should Winterize Your Home Now

If preparing for winter were as easy as pulling your cozy sweaters and fall decorations out of storage, this blog post would be unnecessary. But it takes planning. And planning takes time. And then it’ll be too cold to do what should have been started back in September. You know. Like hanging Christmas lights outside while it’s warm enough to do so. So, as the orange, 5-gallon Home Depot bucket says, “Let’s Do This.” There’s no time like the present.

 

Winterize Your Home Inside

Schedule Maintenance of Your HVAC System

The end of October is the ideal time to schedule maintenance for your home’s cooling and heating system. So stop what you’re doing right now and pick up the phone. Yes, stop reading and call your HVAC company. Schedule an HVAC appointment with them now so that they can prepare your system for efficiency and warmth when you need it later. And hey! They’re busy people, too. If you drag your feet on this one, folks, you may not see them before the end of October like you need to.

But if you use a window unit, remove it from the window and put it in storage for the winter. If it isn’t removable, then cover it with a breathable, waterproof cover.

Change Your Filters

Replacing your air filters is easy to do. If your air

filters are dirty and clogged, your house might be costing you more money than it should be. Your HVAC system has a much harder time keeping your home at a comfortable temperature with a dirty air filter. And this will increase your heating bills and shorten the life of your system. How often you should change your filters varies depending on who you ask. But why not change your air filters monthly? Be good to your hard-working HVAC investment.

Fill Your Fuel Tank

If you happen to heat your home with propane or you use an oil furnace, make sure your propane tank or oil furnace is full of fuel. You won’t want to be without heat when it’s dangerously cold outside.

Clean the Ductwork

Your ductwork can be full of debris like dust, bugs, home construction leftovers, mold, toys, food, etc. You’d be amazed. Why not get all that stuff cleaned out before the furnace kicks on and blows even a little of that nastiness into your home?

Check for Drafts

The U.S. Department of Energy says windows are responsible for the loss of 25 to 30 percent of the energy we pay for to heat our homes. That’s a lot of money out the window! But weatherstripping is a simple and cost-effective way to keep your heating costs down and money in your pocket.

Tip:  When you have a draft issue, you need to find where it’s coming from. Close a door or window on a strip of paper. If the paper slides out easily, ta-da! You found it! Make a trip to your nearest home store and purchase weatherstripping.

Apply Insulation Where Needed

This goes for both the inside and outside of your home.

Exposed water or drain pipes in an uninsulated crawlspace, attic or outside wall are especially vulnerable to freezing. Insulate them with foam insulation at least. Wrap them with electrical heating tape first. Then follow with insulation. Burst pipes can cause extensive damage making this home repair one of the most expensive.

Buy an insulating blanket at the hardware store to insulate your hot water tank.

Outlets and switch plates on the outside of your home can be insulated with an inexpensive foam sealing gasket.

Stuffing a piece of fiberglass insulation into the fireplace behind the glass doors will block cold air that comes down the chimney and into your room. Just be sure to remove the insulation when you use the fireplace.

Change Your Batteries

Whenever you choose to change your batteries, you should do it once a year. You can choose to change the batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide devices every fall, or New Year’s Day, or in the spring when you spring forward for the time change. The key here is to check them consistently once a year every year to make sure your devices are working just in case you need them.

Check Your Chimney, Fireplace, or Wood Burning Stove

If your chimney hasn’t been cleaned in a very long time or perhaps never, call a professional chimney sweep. But here’s what you can do to winterize your home inside and out in regards to your fireplace or wood burning stove:

• Clear the chimney of nests.
• Look for leaks in the flashing around your chimney. Check for possible leaks around all the projections on your roof. If anything looks sketchy, hire someone to make repairs as soon as possible.
• Check the flue to make sure it opens and closes completely. Can you lock it in either position?
• Make sure the chimney draws up fire and smoke properly. Roll up several sheets of newspaper. With the fireplace damper in the open position, light the newspaper in the fireplace. Does the smoke rise up the chimney? If it doesn’t, call in a professional to clean the chimney. Something such as creosote, ash, or a nest is obstructing it. And that is not a good thing!
• Inspect the firebrick in the fireplace for open mortar joints. If you find open mortar joints, have them repaired immediately! Open mortar joints can allow a fire to spread into the stud wall behind the firebrick.

Winterize Your Home Outside

Check Your Roof

Check for missing or damaged shingles. If you find any, hire someone to replace them for you.

Clean or Replace Your Gutters

And while you’re up there on the roof, check your gutters. They drain thousands of gallons of water from your roof every year, and you never give them a thought. Until they’re clogged. And a clogged drain can cost you. Wet leaves left in the gutters over the winter add a hefty amount of weight and volume when they get wet and freeze. This increases the risk of damage to gutters and downspouts significantly. So give your gutters a little TLC before you’re ankle deep in water inside your home. Clean them and check them every year. And if necessary, replace them before the first winter freeze arrives in November.

Drain Your Outdoor Faucets

This is extremely important to do before the first freeze. Open up the outside faucets and drain the water. And turn off the water supply to exterior faucets inside your home. Then disconnect all garden hoses from outside faucets, also known as hose bibbs or sill-cocks. Consider covering hose bibbs with an insulated cover.

Freezing temperatures outside freeze water and burst pipes inside. This spells damage and costly repairs.

If you store your garden hoses outside, drain them, too.

Prepare Your Fountain for Winter

Do you have a fountain in your yard? Drain it and unplug the pump for it.

Purge Your Sprinkler System

Freezing temps are in your forecast, so hire someone to drain and blow out your sprinkler system. Getting this done by the end of October is ideal.

Protect Your Condensing Unit

Wet leaves and debris can rust and freeze your unit’s internal components. If you’ll cover it with a breathable, waterproof cover through the winter, you’ll protect it and extend its life and efficiency.

Bring Your Outdoor Furniture Inside

Yes, outdoor furniture is meant to be used outside. But if you want it to last longer than one or two summers, don’t put it through snowstorms. Take care of your investment. If you have the room, bring it inside. Or leave it outside with waterproof covers thrown over each piece.

Seal the Deck

Seal the deck with a fresh coat of sealer before winter.

Prepare Your Landscape

You may not have much of a lawn, but since you want to keep it looking great in the spring and summer, you need to fertilize it in the fall before winter. Grassroots are active even when it isn’t growing and needing to be mowed. Fertilizer prevents winter damage. So take care of your lawn now for a greener lawn tomorrow.

Drain the Gas from Your Lawn Mower

If you wait to “rake” leaves with your lawn mower after your deciduous trees lose their leaves, you’ll knock out two to-dos at the same time. “Rake” those leaves until your lawnmower runs out of gas completely. See?

Fix All the Cracks in Your Driveway

If you happen to have a driveway, take the time to fix any cracks that may be developing. Because if water gets into the cracks in your driveway and then freezes, it will expand making the tiny cracks even bigger. Neglect this step and many little cracks will eventually get bigger. And bigger cracks will make your concrete crumble. Again, visit your local home store and purchase some concrete crack sealer (while you’re there getting weatherstripping). Fill up every crack before the weather turns cold and rest easy.

Test Your Winter Equipment

Yes, test your snow thrower now. Fill it with gas and pull that starter cord. What good does a snow thrower do you when it won’t start to throw snow when you need it to? Been there. Done that. But if you don’t have a snow thrower, make sure you know where your snow shovel is and that it doesn’t need to be replaced. And while you’re at it, purchase an ice scraper and snow brush for each vehicle.

So, if you haven’t already started to winterize your home, inside and out, put down that pumpkin spice latte and get busy. Divide this list of to-dos by eight weeks. Then move through this checklist to winterize your home completely by the end of October before the cold winter months arrive.

Are you ready to move? Contact Charles D’Alessandro, your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent with Fillmore Real Estate. Call (718) 253-9600 ext.206 or email [email protected] today.

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 Charles D’Alessandro

Your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent

718-253-9600 ext. 206

[email protected]

Baby Boomers, those who were born from 1946 to 1964, are the largest generation in U.S. history. And they are now surging into what we call their golden years. According to Census.gov, projections of the senior population says that Seniors in the United States surpassed 50 million in November 2016. And this surge in the aging Baby Boomer population presents many challenges for us as a country. Why? Because there will be “more Medicare beneficiaries and higher Medicare spending with fewer citizens paying into the system.” So how will we take care of our seniors?

Plan Now to Take Care of Our Seniors Later

Aging happens. Since aging is inevitable, shouldn’t we take steps to take care of our seniors financially and medically? Shouldn’t we make sure their living needs will be met when it does happen? It’s kind of like Christmas, it comes every year, inevitably, so make a plan in January and start saving to make sure your gift-giving and festivities are not a financial burden.

What about your aging parents? Did they make sure they would be taken care of financially and medically as seniors? Did they make sure their living needs would be met in their golden years? If they didn’t, you need to start planning for their future now.

Start Here

No matter where your parents are in their golden years, plan now to take care of their financial, medical, and housing needs. I recommend you seek the assistance of an elder care attorney. They advise on legal issues and financial arrangements and draw up legal documents for you as well.

Get your parents in to see their doctor for a geriatric medical assessment. This will determine their overall health and whether or not there are any health problems that need to be addressed. Knowing about current health issues or the possibility of those that may occur in the future will help you plan ahead for their care. Your parents’ healthcare team can help you make sure their living arrangements are safe and that they will serve their needs in the years ahead.

Implement 5-Point Personal Security Plan

Seniors face many decisions later on in life. And although it isn’t particularly enjoyable to do, make time to talk about your parents’ money, healthcare, life and death, independence, and their home. Planning ahead makes the future easier for them and you if and when the time comes to deal with the following five issues:

• Money – Saving for retirement is important. Make sure there is enough money for your parents to live on and enjoy life in their old age. You also want to make sure that their money is protected, that they can get to it if they need it and that they have enough to take care of themselves. Prepare a will or trust document and decide what should happen to their money if they were to die.
• Healthcare – More healthcare may be needed in their old age than when your parents were younger. Health insurance coverage is important to have. Consider even a second plan to cover costs not covered by Medicare. Make sure you understand the coverage and that there is enough money on hand to cover whatever the plan doesn’t. Store their health and life insurance policy information in a safe place that you can access if necessary.
• Life and Death – A debilitating illness such as Alzheimer’s disease, heart attack, terminal illness, or a serious stroke can quickly deplete your financial resources. And when they happen is not the best time to make important decisions. Prepare for such health crises in advance. Advance directives and other important documents should be in order before a health crisis hits. Determine your parents’ end-of-life wishes and get them documented legally.
• Assisted care – One’s independence is priceless and tough to give up, no matter how old you are. It’s hard not to be able to take care of yourself, but that point may come to your parents. While your parents are healthy and able-bodied, encourage them to make decisions about potential living arrangements. Depending on their condition, would they prefer a nursing home or assisted living facility, hospice care, home health care, and some other available care option? They should choose which option they would prefer according to different situations. Then, talk about how each option will be paid for.
• Their home – Their home may be comfortable and easy to navigate right now, but what if a wheelchair or walker becomes necessary? Are there stairs to the bedroom or laundry room? A house with stairs could become a big problem if your parents were to develop health or physical challenges. Assess their home’s layout. Consider selling their home and buying a ranch-style home with access to everything on one floor. Remodeling or safety modifications may be a possibility. But now is the time to purchase a home with a ranch floor plan or remodel.

Final Thoughts

Your parents might not be physically able to participate in many social events, but always ask,
invite, and keep them in various circles of social life. Depression is easy for seniors to develop if they feel alone and no longer productive. Let’s take care of our seniors today and all year long:

• Check on them regularly
• Encourage their independence as long as possible
• Include seniors in your everyday social activities
• Encourage them to volunteer and be active in the community
• Be vigilant! Check for signs of elder abuse

Start planning and taking action today for their best tomorrow.

No one really likes to think about growing old or planning for the life you want to live in those golden years. But putting a plan in place now will give your parents and you great peace of mind later. Do you see how important it is to take care of our seniors today as well as all year long?

Charles D’Alessandro cares about our seniors who live in Brooklyn. Let’s take care of our seniors in Brooklyn now for their best life later. Contact Charles D’Alessandro, your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent with Fillmore Real Estate. Call (718) 253-9600 ext.206 or email [email protected] today.

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 Charles D’Alessandro

Your Brooklyn Real Estate Agent

718-253-9600 ext. 206

[email protected]