Preparing your Home for Winter

If you live in a new Regency Homes home, there isn’t much you need to do with regard to preparing your home for winter. At Regency Homes of Omaha, we build homes in Omaha that need little maintenance. Today’s new custom homes are build with superior materials. Gone are the days of drafty doors and windows. No more putting on storm windows each fall and painting your home is a thing of the past. Still, there are some things every homeowner needs to do each year. Preparing your home for winter used to be a weekend long (if not longer) chore, today it’s more like an afternoon.

Preparing your Home for Winter

• Rake any leaves – If you have a lawn service, then move on to #5. If you don’t, then grab the kids and hand them a rake. It’s best to do the raking in the fall so any snow that falls can easily melt into the soil. With a layer of leaves between the precipitation and soil and you can create a nice bit of mold. If your area permits it you can burn the leaves or bring them to a composting site. Click here for information about composting in Omaha.
• Fertilize the lawn – Again, if you have a service you can move on. For those who don’t  – fertilizing the lawn in the fall will ensure a beautiful lawn in the spring, it’s also simple to do. Head on down to your nearest neighborhood hardware store or even big box chain and pick up your favorite brand of lawn fertilizer. Dump it in the spreader and go to town spreading it all over your lawn. That’s it! You don’t need to do anything fancy – just remember to keep pets and children off the lawn for the manufacturer’s recommended amount of time.
• Turn off outside water – This is a simple enough task, simply turn off the water faucets that are outside. Be sure to leave the tap open so any water left inside the pipe doesn’t crack the pipe when it expands from freezing. There should be a valve to bleed the line between the off valve and the faucet, but it’s still a good idea to leave the faucet open. You may want to blow out any water in hoses as well.
• Store hoses and sprinklers  – Once you’ve emptied the water from any hoses, sprinklers and other attachments, bring them into the garage to store them for the season. We build oversized garages in all our homes so there’s plenty of room to store all your garden accessories. There’s no excuse to leave anything out in the yard.
• Overwinter your Geraniums – Not only do geraniums have a lovely aroma, but they are nearly impossible to kill making them the perfect plant for those who are missing a green thumb. Geraniums can be made to go dormant, and then brought back to beautiful life in the spring.
• Prune back bushes, and hedges – You can do this in the spring too, but why wait? Clean up any dead branches and debris. Don’t forget to compost the clippings.

That’s about it. Getting your home ready for winter is easier than it’s ever been, especially if you live in a brand new home by Regency Homes of Omaha.