April Diehl

Your fall & winter maintenance checklist

The best way to avoid expensive repairs in the future is to keep up with home maintenance today. Here's what to do this time of year. Check the items that apply to your home and locale.

Tune up that furnace. Hire an HVAC professional and make sure everything's checked-filters, chimney exhaust, blower, fuel connections; the works. Inspect furnace filters monthly and change when dirty. Install a programmable thermostat to save on energy bills, but if you have a heat pump, be sure the thermostat has been especially designed for that system.

Shut down the evaporative cooler. If you use an evaporative (swamp) cooler for air conditioning, turn off the water supply, drain the lines so they don't freeze, clean mineral buildup in the tank with vinegar and a brush, and unplug the pump. Put a plastic or canvas cover over the cooler and attach it with bungee cords.

Close the storm windows. Check that the outer pane is up and the inner one down and that both are sealed against the frame.

Insulate a whole-house fan. If you use one to cool your home in summer, close it up with an insulated box or cover for the winter. This prevents heated air from entering the attic, which can create moisture, causing mold and stains on the ceiling below. You can make a foam box yourself using duct tape, weather-stripping, and 2-inch-thick polystyrene foam.

Test the sump pump. If you use one to get water out of your basement, check to see if it's working. If it has a float valve, raise the valve to see if it turns on. If it's water-activated, run water from a hose into the sump to see if it works. For problems, check connections, reset button, and circuit breaker before you call in a plumber or electrician.

Inspect the roof. Look at roof shingles as well as the flashing around chimneys and vents. You may have to call in a roofing contractor to seal gaps and replace shingles. Also, if your area gets a lot of moisture and moss forms on the roof, treat it with moss-killing liquids or granules. Be sure to get the moss killers for roofs and not lawns and follow directions.

Clean the gutters. Leaves and other debris left in your gutters can damage them and push freezing water under roof shingles. Dirt can even collect in covered gutters, so lift covers and clean them too.

Weather-strip and caulk. Look around the house outside and caulk any gaps where window, door, and corner trim meets siding. Remove and replace any old weather-stripping around doors and windows.

Put away the lawn and garden equipment. In cooler climates, put away garden tools, hoses, nozzles, and patio furniture you won't be using till the spring, so they're not damaged by snow and ice. Run the lawn mower until the gas tank is empty.

Winterize lawn sprinkler systems and disconnect hoses. If the temperature goes below freezing in your area, water left in hoses or pipes can freeze and burst them. Drain water from lawn irrigation systems, which may have to be done by a professional. If outside faucets are not self-draining, turn off water at the shutoff valve inside.

Prune trees. Once leaves are gone, cut back trees or bushes near the house where snow may cause branches to rub against the roof or siding.

Cover an outside AC unit. If it's under trees or roof runoff, put a plywood sheet and drop cloth over it. Don't seal off the unit, which traps moisture and creates a nice little home for rodents.

Check drainage around the house. Where ground meets foundation, make sure soil isn't touching any siding and that it slopes away, dropping 6 inches in the first 10 feet. If you have a surface or sub-surface drainage system, check for blockage if you see pooling water when it rains. Remove debris or call a landscape contractor for repairs.

Spend a weekend or two checking up on these items and you'll save energy and catch problems before they cost a ton of money to fix. Good luck! As always, please feel free to contact us at any time about any matters relating to home financing or refinancing.

... Have a great day!

How to find that extra hour.

The truth is, people spend much more time than they realize watching TV, entertaining themselves on the web, and sleeping more than they really need to. If you just try to cut down on the amount of time you spend on the couch or in bed, you can easily find yourself with an hour of time a day available to grow your business.

All it takes is for you to rethink your schedule a little, making simple changes to your usual patterns. Instead of hitting the snooze button, try getting up earlier. This lets you get a pile of work done before the phone starts ringing and the emails begin piling up. Early rising also lets you work with clients and contacts in time zones to the east of you, while it's still early in the day for them. Instead of watching TV, use that time to answer emails, rather than letting emails take up valuable work time during the day.

An extra hour a day for your business gives you an extra 20 hours of work each month, which adds up to 240 hours per year. That's 10 whole days, or two full work weeks. Just think of the value of that in dollars per hour!

What to do with that extra hour.

• Read and learn how to do your job better and how to market yourself better. Dive into relevant information from trade associations. Take a look at what types of marketing your competition is doing. Find out more about how to use all the online and off-line ways to deliver your message. Look at your own marketing efforts, discard what isn't working, and try something you haven't done before.

• Do the kind of serious strategic planning that will set up your growth for the future. Where is your business going? What kind of services should you add? Who else should you be targeting? Can you expand geographically? Where do you want to be in your business -- and in your life 5 years from now? -- 10 years from now?

• Then start executing. Write an article to submit to local newspapers and industry websites. Update the content on your own website and add a new feature, such as a blog. Submit comments to other people's blogs that talk to your audience. Put together an email campaign that links to your blog or website. Come up with a tag line and put it on new business cards. Develop a direct mail list and think of a compelling offer you can send out on an inexpensive post card.

You'll be surprised at how much more you can get accomplished with just a few changes to your work habits and just a touch more discipline. Jump ahead of your competitors while they're still asleep...and make a lot more money with a lot less stress. Try it. And have a great month!

Take time to create a home inventory before disaster strikes!

We all hope we'll never have a theft, fire, flood or other weather-related disaster happen to our homes. But if one of these things should occur, you don't want to rack your brain trying to figure out what you've lost in order to file your insurance claim. The answer is to create an inventory of everything that's in your home. But the time to do it is now - before the loss occurs.

Creating a complete home inventory does take a few hours of your time. You'll want to look at your insurance policies, find receipts, take pictures, write up a list, and then put all these records away in a safe place. But experts advise you to make an inventory of your home's contents no matter what their value. This documents your ownership and the value of your items, which you'll need when filing an insurance claim.

Incidentally, once you've created a detailed list of everything in your home, be sure to compare your values to the coverage provided by your insurance policy. You'll want to have enough money to replace these belongings if they're damaged or stolen. You may be able to buy additional coverage if your possessions are worth more than what's covered in the policy.

A Simple Process

The easiest way to approach making an inventory of what you own is to walk around your home with a digital camera and a notepad to jot down what you're photographing. Even better, use a digital video camera, which you can get these days for about $150. With a video, you can just walk from one room to the next and describe the items out loud for the camera to record on the soundtrack. You can point out if something is an antique and you can mention important features, like the kinds of stones that are in a necklace or the size of a flat-screen TV.

Open up closets, cabinets and drawers to make sure you're not missing any contents. Take close-ups of serial numbers on electronic equipment, appliances, and power tools. Don't forget to photograph and list everyone's clothing and estimate its value. List brands, quantities, and condition along with these values - all this is important information when you're filing an insurance claim.

Get It out of the House

When you're finished, just make sure all your home inventory documentation is kept in a place away from your home. Digital information can be stored online using backup services like iBackup.com or Carbonite.com, which cost a few dollars a month. If you want to save that money, transfer the files to an inexpensive USB "thumb drive" that you can put in your safe-deposit box, someone else's home, or in an emergency bag containing the essentials your family will need if they have to evacuate your home on very short notice. A file containing your receipts and any appraisals of valuable items should also be stored off-site.

All this may sound like a bit of work, but it could mean thousands of dollars to you if anything happens. So good luck putting your home inventory together!

As always, please feel free to contact me at any time about any matters relating to home financing or refinancing.

... Have a great day!