Millington, NJ

Being the daughter of a mechanical engineer (who was also in the military), we had lists for everything....there was a place for everything and everything had to be in it's place. I wish I could keep up with that philosophy still today, however I can share some of my Dad's ways to winterize a home....I grew up in New England and the winters were cold so he had us prepapred.

Winterizing Your Home

Preparing Your Home for Winter

Here are ten tips to help you prepare your home for winter:

1) Furnace Inspection

•· Call an HVAC professional to inspect your furnace and clean ducts.

•· Stock up on furnace filters and change them monthly.

•· Consider switching out your thermostat for a programmable thermostat.

•· If your home is heated by a hot-water radiator, bleed the valves by opening them slightly and when water appears, close them.

•· Remove all flammable material from the area surrounding your furnace.

2) Get the Fireplace Ready

•· Cap or screen the top of the chimney to keep out rodents and birds.

•· If the chimney hasn't been cleaned for a while, call a chimney sweep to remove soot and creosote.

•· Buy firewood or chop wood. Store it in a dry place away from the exterior of your home.

•· Inspect the fireplace damper for proper opening and closing.

•· Check the mortar between bricks and tuckpoint, if necessary.

3) Check the Exterior, Doors and Windows

•· Inspect exterior for crevice cracks and exposed entry points around pipes; seal them.

•· Use weatherstripping around doors to prevent cold air from entering the home and caulk windows.

•· Replace cracked glass in windows and, if you end up replacing the entire window, prime and paint exposed wood.

•· If your home has a basement, consider protecting its window wells by covering them with plastic shields.

•· Switch out summer screens with glass replacements from storage. If you have storm windows, install them.

4) Inspect Roof, Gutters & Downspouts

•· If your weather temperature will fall below 32 degrees in the winter, adding extra insulation to the attic will prevent warm air from creeping to your roof and causing ice dams.

•· Check flashing to ensure water cannot enter the home.

•· Replace worn roof shingles or tiles.

•· Clean out the gutters and use a hose to spray water down the downspouts to clear away debris.

•· Consider installing leaf guards on the gutters or extensions on the downspouts to direct water away from the home.

5) Service Weather-Specific Equipment

•· Drain gas from lawnmowers.

•· Service or tune-up snow blowers.

•· Replace worn rakes and snow shovels.

•· Clean, dry and store summer gardening equipment.

•· Sharpen ice choppers and buy bags of ice-melt / sand.

6) Check Foundations

•· Rake away all debris and edible vegetation from the foundation.

•· Seal up entry points to keep small animals from crawling under the house.

•· Tuckpoint or seal foundation cracks. Mice can slip through space as thin as a dime.

•· Inspect sill plates for dry rot or pest infestation.

•· Secure crawlspace entrances.

7) Install/Check Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors

•· Some cities require a smoke detector in every room.

•· Buy extra smoke detector batteries and change them when daylight savings ends.

•· Install a carbon monoxide detector near your furnace and / or water heater.

•· Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors to make sure they work.

•· Buy a fire extinguisher or replace an extinguisher older than 10 years.

8) Prevent Plumbing Freezes

•· Locate your water main in the event you need to shut it off in an emergency.

•· Drain all garden hoses.

•· Insulate exposed plumbing pipes.

•· Drain air conditioner pipes and, if your AC has a water shut-off valve, turn it off.

•· If you go on vacation, leave the heat on, set to at least 55 degrees.

9) Prepare Landscaping & Outdoor Surfaces

•· Trim trees if branches hang too close to the house or electrical wires.

•· Ask a gardener when your trees should be pruned to prevent winter injury.

•· Plant spring flower bulbs and lift bulbs that cannot winter over such as dahlias in areas where the ground freezes.

•· Seal driveways, brick patios and wood decks.

•· Don't automatically remove dead vegetation from gardens as some provide attractive scenery in an otherwise dreary, snow-drenched yard.

•· Move sensitive potted plants indoors or to a sheltered area.

10) Prepare an Emergency Kit

•· Buy indoor candles and matches / lighter for use during a power shortage.

•· Find the phone numbers for your utility companies and tape them near your phone or inside the phone book.

•· Buy a battery back-up to protect your computer and sensitive electronic equipment.

•· Store extra bottled water and non-perishable food supplies (including pet food, if you have a pet), blankets and a first-aid kit in a dry and easy-to-access location.

Found this great link I thought I woud share as far as fun things to do in and around New Jersey, from hayrides, to haunted house to corn mazes....Have fun and Happy and (safe) Trick or Treating!!!

http://www.funnj.com/holidays/halloween/halloween.htm

NEW YORK (AP) - Home prices rose for the third straight month in August, data Tuesday showed, a key sign for a broad and sustained housing recovery.

The Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index of 20 major cities climbed 1 percent from July to a seasonally adjusted reading of 144.5. While prices are down 11.4 percent from August a year ago, the annual declines have slowed since February.

The latest index shows a widespread turnaround with prices rising month-over-month in 15 metro areas since June.

"If the increases are consistent across the markets, this is key," said Wharton School real estate professor Susan Wachter before the index was released. "Then we're seeing the formation of a bottom."

However, Wachter along with other industry experts still worry that rising unemployment and more foreclosures could stifle the rebound. Another unknown is whether a temporary federal tax credit for first-time buyers will be extended to help boost sales.

First-time homebuyers can receive a credit of 10 percent of the sales price, up to $8,000. The real estate industry is lobbying Congress to extend the credit past the Nov. 30 deadline. Top Democrats in the Senate are pressing a plan that would prolong the credit but gradually phase it out over the next year.

Not all metros posted gains in August, though. Prices in Las Vegas, Seattle and Charlotte, N.C., all fell to their lowest levels in August. Prices in Las Vegas have plunged by 56 percent since peaking in April 2006, the largest peak-to-trough decline of all 20 cities.

...I have been saying for awhile, it is a combination of the "perfect storm" right now to buy in....decent inventory, competitive prices, and historic low-interest rates...we are beginning to see signs of a fairly balanced market in most price points. The high-end are always the last to be affected in a recession and the last to recover but that will follow.

All about blogging.
If you are twenty-something or younger, you probably don't need to be reading this. You've probably been happily blogging away for what seems like years, all your friends blog, you read their blogs, and they yours. But for those of us over forty (or, oh my gosh...more!), or with families to care for and busy jobs to do, or perhaps our attention has just been someplace else for the last few years, we may not have even heard the term, or if we had, it sounded like "flogging" and not wanting to go there, we just ignored it.

But blogging is growing and for very good reasons, much like email took off ten years ago.

But what really is BLOGGING - the act of producing a blog. What's a blog? That's a little bit harder to answer, but bear with me. The term blog is short for web log, a "log" of diary-like entries published on a web site. We all now know my inspiration for this blog was a cute "chick flick" recently out by the name of Julie and Julia...a little bit of inspiration and a lot of perspiration (mostly by my very patient "tech team" )and here we are!

But blogging I am now finding gives me an opportunity to store those little bits of information that I come across.....computer storage and memory is cheap and my memory not always so reliable (we have pretty much disclosed my age range at this point...which definately has its perks mind you...it's not all bad). If I could I would dump everything I've ever learned into my computer. The computer is more efficient at searching than the brain is, and better at storage. We forget things. The computer doesn't. With a blog, even better, the stored knowledge is on the net, accessible from any browser anywhere in the world.