1. Check your smoke detectors.  If they are more that 7-10 years old, they    should be replaced. The easy way to tell if they are old is if they are yellowed. Write the date you installed the new one on the unit so you can keep track of when to replace it again. As we all know the years just fly by.

 2. Check your CO detectors.  Do you have one on each floor that has a     fireplace or furnace? Is there one within 15 feet of each bedroom? Is it seven or more years old? CO detectors need to be replaced every seven years.

 3. Check to see if your house has CSST- yellow flexible gas line. If you do, it needs special bonding to prevent fires. An electrician, plumber or HVAC  technician can fix this for you.

 4. Have your furnace checked to make sure the furnace is working properly and is safe for the winter.

 5. If you have a fireplace, before using it, have it cleaned and checked.

 6. Clean out the dryer vent line. If you have a flexible corrugated hose, replace it with a smooth metal pipe.

If your yard, or some  portion of it, remains wet and soggy for extended periods after a rain shower, it probably means the natural drainage ways have been blocked and have settled, and there is not enough grade in your yard to allow water to drain properly.

Most yards were originally graded so water was able to flow from the front of the home to the street and from the back of the home into a ditch or storm sewer.  Patios, walkways, mounds of mulch or planted beds and even trees can add to the raising of the ground surface.

If this is the case, you may need to consider installing subsurface drainage around your yard.  In addition, you should take a good look at the landscaping around your home.  Many homeowners who like a manicured yard are often tempted to mound mulch in plant beds, around trees and against their home's foundation, for aesthetic purposes, as well as keeping away weeds or undesirable ground cover.  How could this affect your yard's drainage?

Unfortunately, this practice may produce the unintended result of encouraging water to pool in different areas of the yard.  If water pools around the foundation, it can cause considerable damage to the home.

The fill around your home should be compacted and graded to slope away from the home for a minimum of ten feet, making the ground six inches lower than the ground surface at the house wall.  This will drain surface water away from the wall and help prevent water from standing against the wall.  Planting and mulching around outside walls should be done carefully to preserve drainage away from the wall.

Following these tips can lead to a dryer yard and a dryer home.

Real Estate Glossary

Addendum - Something added.  A list or other material added to a document, letter, contractual agreement, escrow instructions, etc. (See also:  Amendment) CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE OF THE GLOSSARY

We tend to think that only leaves cause us gutter problems.  This is not the case.  Ice and snow cause more damage to our homes than meets the eye.  A careful inspection should be done around your home to make sure that the gutters are secured to the house properly, that the first row of shingles are secured down and that no water ran under the shingles causing moisture to get under and behind your gutters.....behind the gutter is wood and wood does rot.  Careful inspection can relieve you of costly repairs.  Also, make sure all downspouts are clear and water runs away from your home.

Even if you do not have termites, you should have your home regularly inspected.  You will generally have to do one when you are selling your house but all homeowners should think about having inspections done annually. 

Termites are pretty slow to infest and damage a house but if you have recently had an infestation, you will want to get your property looked at every 3-4 months for a time afterwards.

Unlike many other pests, termites are something that it is usually not a good idea to try to deal with yourself.  They are hard to kill, they often reinfest homes unless treatment is done professionally and they can infest parts of the home that are difficult to inspect. 

Signs of possible termite infestation:

• Mud looking material on wooden surfaces - This can often be hard to see but termites will eat away at the interior of wood in your home.  When it breaks or a hole is opened to the outside, they will try to patch it up.  They use dirt as well as their own feces to create a substance to patch these holes and it looks like mud.
• Wings - When termites are swarming, they fly around and ultimately shed their wings.  If termites have gotten into your house or near it after a swarm, you will see large piles of wings.  Wings can be near you house either because a swarm has come by or because your house is infested and the swarm came from inside. 
• Actual termites - Termites can be seen either inside the wood, in which case they usually look yellow or white, or outside as swarmers, in which case they will look like flying ants.  If your house constantly has swarms of termites near it, it is likely that you or someone nearby has a colony in the home.
• Termite tubes - Subterranean termites, which are the kind that cause the vast majority of damage to homes, don't just live in wood like many people think.  What they do is to burrow underground, like ants, where they get the moisture they need to survive.  They then build their colony next to a source of wood for food and then burrow from the earth into the wood going back and forth between each to connect these earth and wood burrows. They then build termite tubes - little tunnels of earth running along your house that let them run back and for between the two.  Look for tubes between the ground and any wood in your home.  Try breaking them in one small spot if you see them.  Usually, there will be little termites running around in it - and if the colony is active, the tube will  eventually be repaired  by the termites even if you don't see it immediately.
• Sawdust - If you see powder that looks like sawdust - that is a common sign of termites.
• Small holes in the surface of the wood - Another common sign of termites.
• Paint bubbles - If the paint is on a wood surface, you may see little bubbles in it from the termites eating the wood underneath.
• Check moist, dark areas - If you want to inspect your home for termites, you cannot just wander around the outside.  Termites want a place where they can get both moisture and food.  Look in all crawl spaces or areas under your house, any attics, your basement, any place you have in your house where you can see plumbing or pipes, cabinets and any place where you can see the foundation.
• Tap at wood with a hammer or blunt object - If it makes a hollow sound, there could be termites.  Especially check structural wood that should not be hollow (i.e. it is pointless to do this to your walls).
• Pick at wood with a penknife in various places - If there are termites just under the surface, it will come apart instead of resisting it..

Exterior water control seems to be the most neglected area of home maintenance.  Any water that collects next to the house may end up in the house at some point in time. 

Here are a few helpful hints for prevention of water problems:

• Do a thorough exterior examination of the house - preferably when it is raining.
• Look up - check the gutters for holes and proper alignment with the roof - make sure the gutters are not bent/sag and that they tilt down toward the downspout.
• Look down at the ground under the gutter - is there a line in the grass or no grass at all?
• Gutters may be overflowing with the water thus collecting along the foundation - gutters should be cleaned at least once a year.
• Check the downspout connections and look for good water run off.
• Check around electrical boxes, underground service cables and compressor units - the grading often settles there creating a depression.
• The slant of the dirt should always be away from the house.
• Mulch makes a garden look pretty but holds moisture.
• If you have evidence of moisture in your basement, you may want to contact a surface water control expert.

Maintaining your home's exterior is vital to it health. Why say "health"?  Because behind your exterior walls there may be mildew, rotten framing materials, insects and/or rain that has penetrated and damaged the structure of your home - without you ever being aware that destruction is taking place.

Recently a home had water penetrate through a window sill.  The homeowner thought this was a one time event.  It wasn't!!  Years of water penetration had destroyed the wall framing - mildew formed and the carpet padding was ruined.  Thousand of dollars were spent to repair the situation when a tube of caulking could have stopped the problem.

The following are suggestions that may alleviate these problems:

• Walk around the exterior of your home - checking all windows and doors for cracked or missing caulking.
• Inspect all gutters and downspouts - leaves will cause blockage which will cause water to back up and penetrate through the gutter board.
• Check downspouts to make sure they are draining away from the home - water should be discharged a minimum of three feet away.
• Look for peeling exterior paint - this is a sign that your home is in need of painting.
• If you have exterior lawn sprinklers, schedule winterization of the system.
• Exterior hose bibs should be shut off in the winter and the valve should be left in the open position until Spring.
• HVAC system should have be  maintenance checked for efficiency.
• Replace HVAC filters regularly and clean electronic filters monthly

• Each degree you turn down the heat saves approximately 3% of heating costs, while each degree you raise the temperature of your air conditioner saves approximately 3-4% of cooling costs.  By changing the temperature by 2 degrees all year, you save approximately 2,000 pounds of CO2 a year.
• Switch to cold water washing and save approximately 80% on energy used for laundry and save an estimated $60 a year.  Hang dry your clothes instead of using the dryer and save approximately 700 pounds of CO2 a year.
• Switch to a laptop computer rather than a desktop computer and cut three quarters off your electrical use.  Also, turn the laptop off at the end of the day.
• Plug anything that can be powered by a remote control or that has a power cube transformer (little black box) into a power strip, and turn it off, and /or unplug, when not in use (Power cubes are 60-80% inefficient.)
• Turn off lights when you are not using them to reduce your direct lighting energy use by 45%.  Stop using heat producing halogen lamps (they can also be fire hazards).  Install occupancy or motion sensors on outdoor lights.
• Switch to compact fluorescent lighting from regular incandescent bulbs and use approximately 60% less energy per bulb and save approximately 300 pounds of CO2.
• Wrap your water heater in an insulation blanket and save approximately 1,000 pounds of CO2 a year.  Insulate your hot water pipes.
• Use public transportation whenever possible, carpool, shop locally and ideally switch to a hybrid or energy efficient car ( you haven't already).
• Keep your tires inflated to improve gas mileage by approximately 3%. Every gallon you save also saves approximately 20 pounds of CO2 emissions.