What do you do to your house?

[onekg]

We have been snowbirds for about 10 years. The wife worked so we were limited to 6-8 weeks. We are both now retired and plan to be on the road 5-6 months at a time. Previously we just had someone keep an eye on the place, flush toilets and check for water leaks etc. I am now getting a little worried about letting the house sit empty for 6 months at a time. What do you do for water, I thought about shutting it off but then you have a chance of p traps drying out. Also how warm do I want to keep the thermostat. Last year I kept the water on and the thermostat at 50. Any comments or suggestions

Ken

[WandaLust2]

We leave the electric on and the heat on 50F. We leave a few lights on on timers so the place doesn't look "abandoned." Water is shut off at the meter in case of electric failure during a cold snap. We never had the traps dry out and we've been gone as long as 5 1/2 months in winter. Bills are paid online. One neighbor picks up the mail and another waters the tropical plants we leave. I leave gallon jugs of water for her to use. We never had any problems.

[path1]

We're on west (wet) side so might make a difference. We put t-stat at 45 and didn't have any problems with P traps. We shut off water at meter. Put freezable(s) from shed near hot water tank(paint). Insulation covers over outside water faucets. Neighbor walked thru house every week. Picked up a Verizon "Jet pack" with 20 giga bites. Works for us in most places in SW. Places where it didn't work wasn't that big of deal. Communication just backed up a couple of days till we got service. All small gas engines were ran out of gas.

Mistakes we made...forgot to disconnect batteries on small class C. Batteries were toast when we got back. Some mail doesn't forwarded for some reason. And couple places didn't change our address even after changing it with them over the phone and on-line. Everything that we could is now on-line. But still couple of places can't get it together with address changes. (Stuff still happens) We didn't bring a set of "good" clothes for (funerals, etc) and suit cases when flying. You can re-new lic tabs up to (I think) 1 year early and there might even be a way to get on-line if out of state, but if you need smog test, our state won't accept other states smog test. At least what I was told. If not taken care before you leave, IMO you'll run around with temp paper plate and expired lic tabs. Just a big red flag IMO. Beyond new batteries for class C and neighbors loving trees that plugged up gutters everything worked out. 7 months gone last year and 6 year before that. Still checking why our elec bill is almost the same as when we are there, with in $10.00. Next year going to unplug elec except couple lights and heater. After reading the owners manual for wives car. Well, I wasn't going to do all the stuff it said to do, so all I did was disconnect battery and filled up tanks with premium on all the vehicles and put in some Sta-bil fuel helper to help keep it fresh. Read somewhere that regular gas falls apart ,but don't know for sure. But we didn't have any problems. But last two winters have been mild. And we brought to much stuff (as always) and will be unloading some out of sunbirding RV. Mostly RV spare parts and way to much cooking stuff. Going to make room for more paper towels and toilet paper. Hate picking those items up by the onezies or twozies. And going to pick up cheap printer to bring along this year, if we go. Wife might need new hip, so Dr's appointments might get in the way this year. Haven't seen very many hips for sale while on the road:)

Happy snowbirding!!!

[BarbaraOK]

Put RV antifreeze into your drains - that will help with keep moisture in the trap. Then half fill a zip-loc bag and place it over the drain. That's what we do with our park model when we leave it for the summer in the heat in AZ. We also cover the toilet seat with large plastic bag, then close and put the lid down - keeps water from evaporating.