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How Should I Maintain My Home?

People often ask what it takes to maintain a house in Connecticut. If you follow these suggestions, you will have a ready-to-sell house every month of the year. 

FALL:

• Touch up the paint on the outside of your home. Add a topcoat of mulch to landscape beds, and aerate and over-seed the lawn. Plant tulips and daffodils — the flowers look great if you put your house on the market in early spring. Rake out your flower beds, and clean the yard of leaves and fallen branches before it snows.

• Clean your windows. Ask your window cleaner to clean your interior glass doors and out-of-reach lighting fixtures.

• Clean gutters and leaders frequently. Ice dams form more quickly on debris-filled gutters. Make sure downspouts drain away from the house.

• Service the furnace or boiler. Buyers want to know that your system has been maintained regularly. You can service your air-conditioning at the same time.

• Have your chimney flues inspected before you light the first fire of the season.

• Do you need any masonry work on your stone walls or flagstone walkways? Do railings need repairs?

• Close the pool and have repairs done over the winter. Winterize any irrigation systems.

• Check and replace any old or sagging insulation.

WINTER:

• This is a good time for interior painting because painters are more readily available. Choose warm colors and neutral colors. Winter is also a great time for any decorating project. During the summer, entire mills and factories shut down and it takes longer to get fabrics and furniture.

• Put driveway markers up before the ground freezes. Keep walkways and the driveway clear of snow. If a driveway isn?t cleared, garbage, oil or gas trucks cannot deliver. Clear a path to the fill lines and use a driveway marker for easy visibility and access.

• Forget “spring" cleaning. Do it in the winter. If this winter is anything like last winter, you?ll have a number of days when you can?t go out. Use those days to throw out the junk and organize!

SPRING:

• A spring cleanup of the yard is a must. Fertilize the lawn, plants and bushes. Plant annuals after the final frost (I use Mother?s Day as the first safe day), and freshen up the mulch.

• Service the air-conditioning if you didn't do it in the fall.

• Paint the exterior if it needs it, but not until there is no risk of frost.

• Repair potholes in the driveway. Clean and repair outdoor furniture.

• Does your septic need servicing? If you have well water, consider testing it every year or so. If you are worried about radon, test for that regularly, too.

• Open the pool and have it serviced. Turn on the irrigation system.

SUMMER:

Enjoy! If you have maintained your property and home throughout the year, there should be little to do other than a weekly lawn service and trimming shrubs and bushes as needed.

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