The first truly hot Saturday of the year, every garage door on the street goes up at once and somebody drags out the cooler. By Sunday, half of us are talking about a trip down to Florida. Planning a day at a florida surf park is easier when you aren’t wondering about the coffee maker back home the whole afternoon.
I learned the hard way that a week away goes smoother when the house is ready before the car is loaded. Here are seven jobs, ordered from a 20-minute fix to a weekend project, with a note on where a handy homeowner should stop and call a pro.
1. Set the thermostat and put a few lights on timers
Don’t shut the air conditioning off for the week. A closed-up house in a humid Arkansas summer turns damp in a hurry, and damp is how musty smells and mold get started. Raise the thermostat a few degrees above where you keep it at home, and the system can still pull moisture out of the air without running all day.
Plug a couple of lamps into plain plug-in timers so the house isn’t dark every single night. If your AC has been struggling or making odd noises, get a heating and cooling technician out before the trip, not the morning you leave.
2. Test the smoke and carbon monoxide alarms
Press the test button on every alarm in the house. If one chirps, stays quiet or sounds weak, put in a fresh battery and test it again. Do this the weekend before you go, so there’s time to buy a battery if you’re out.
That’s as far as the do-it-yourself part goes. If an alarm is wired into the house and keeps acting up after a new battery, or you ever notice a burning smell or a warm outlet, call a licensed electrician. And if a carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone outside and call for help from there.
3. Empty the fridge and take the trash out on your way out the door
Walk through the kitchen with a trash bag. Toss anything that won’t last the week, like milk, leftovers and that half-bag of lettuce. Wipe the counters, and put crumbs, cereal and pet food in sealed containers, because ants find an open box fast in summer heat.
Carry the kitchen trash to the outside can as you leave, and ask someone to roll the can to the curb if pickup day falls while you’re gone. A full can sitting out all week tells the whole street the house is empty.
4. Hold the mail and hand a spare key to someone you trust
A mailbox stuffed with envelopes and a porch stacked with packages is the loudest sign that nobody’s home. Ask the post office to hold your mail, and set your online orders to ship later or to a pickup spot.
Give one neighbor a spare key and your phone number, and tell them which days you’ll be gone. One person who knows the plan is worth more than any gadget.
Neighbor to neighbor: Trade house-watching with the folks next door. They keep an eye on your place in June, you keep an eye on theirs in July, and nobody has to hire a stranger. Write the dates, your phone number and the location of your water shutoff on an index card so it’s all in one spot.
5. Find your main water shutoff and decide whether to close it
A leak you’d catch in ten minutes when you’re home can run for days when you aren’t. The main shutoff is usually where the water line enters the house or in a covered box near the street. Find it now, while nothing is dripping and nobody’s in a hurry.
If you’ll be gone a week or longer, close the main valve and open a faucet to let the pressure out of the lines. If the valve is stiff, rusty or won’t turn easily, don’t force it. A valve that snaps off is a bigger headache than the one you were avoiding, and that’s a job for a licensed plumber.
Leave the water heater alone beyond what its manual says. Gas and electric supplies aren’t weekend projects, so if you’re unsure what to do with the heater while the water is off, ask a plumber before you touch anything.
6. Mow, tidy and tie down the yard
Mow the day before you leave, not the week before. Summer grass keeps growing while you’re gone, and tall grass is exactly where ticks and chiggers wait for your first warm afternoon back.
Put the hoses, lawn chairs, grill cover and the kids’ bikes in the garage or shed. Summer thunderstorms can roll in fast, and a loose chair has a way of ending up against somebody’s fence. Soak the tomatoes and any new plants the evening before, and ask the neighbor with the key to check on them once.
7. Walk the outside of the house and write a repair list
This is the weekend project, and it pays off most when storm season comes back around. Walk the whole outside of the house slowly, from the ground, and write down what you see. Bring along:
- A notebook and pencil
- Your phone, for photos of anything that looks off
- Binoculars, for looking at the roof from the yard
- A flashlight, for the dark spots under the porch and along the eaves
Look for shingles that are lifting or missing, gutters pulling away from the house, downspouts dumping water next to the foundation, gaps in the caulk around windows, and soft or peeling wood on the porch and trim. Photograph everything and keep one list, so it’s waiting for you when you’re home and rested.
Here’s where do-it-yourself stops. Roofs, high gutters, and anything to do with the foundation or the structure belong to licensed professionals, and a hot, slick roof is a bad place to find out you’re wrong. Fresh caulk on a window you can reach from the grass is fair game. Everything else goes on the list for a roofer or contractor, and asking around for a recommendation beats picking the first name you find.
One more thing
Before you go, knock on the door of the neighbor who lives alone and let them know you’ll be away. Offer to bring in their trash cans when you’re back, and pass this list along to the family down the street who’s packing the minivan right now.
And once you’re there, wherever your family swims or surfs, whether it’s a beach, a pool or a park, read the posted rules before anybody gets in the water and follow what the staff on duty tell you. Then put the house out of your mind and enjoy the trip.
Safe travels, neighbors, and save us a seat on the porch when you get back.
