Managing a home for someone else in times of need can be very helpful. If a person needs to spend time away from home, passes on, or is no longer able to take care of their home without help, taking on that responsibility can alleviate quite a bit of stress for the parties involved. As homeowners, we often forget how much time we spend maintaining our homes and we constantly underestimate how many idiosyncrasies our homes, in particular older homes, may have.
We all have different talents and taking advantage of those talents during times of need will undoubtedly be appreciated. While I am glad to help when I can, asking me to prepare a meal or clean the home is not the best way for me to help. The best way for me to help would be to take advantage of my current set of skills. I operate an Indianapolis plumbing business and therefore I am familiar with homes, the maintenance they require, and the various mechanical systems inside. If you know someone with a similar set of skills or someone willing to learn, it would be best to put that person in charge of maintaining the home.
The first order of business will be assessing what needs to be done in the home. If it is possible to speak with the person who can no longer keep up with their home, take advantage of the wealth of information that that person may have. Find out if there are any tricks to keeping everything running properly. If it is no longer possible to communicate with the person who has been taking care of the home, your best bet will be for the person who has taken charge of the home to go to the house and assess the situation. Depending on the size and the age of someone’s home, there can be a wide range of issues that need to be addressed. If the home is quite large, old, unique or any combination thereof, it may be best to meet with qualified professionals about any of the systems in the home you are not familiar with. In many cases, if you call the right service provider, they will be glad to speak with you on the telephone about items that may need to be addressed.
While the following list of questions may not suffice for every home, it should go a long way toward getting a person started on caring for another’s home.
- Is the thermostat properly set?
- Is the water softener still running?
- Should you shut the water off to the home?
- Can you shut off the water heater?
- Do we need to leave the power on?
- Is there a sump pump?
- Is there an irrigation system?
- Who is taking care of the lawn?
- Are there any current maintenance needs?
- Do you need to remove/install storm windows to accommodate the season?
- Are all non-essential appliances turned off?
- Are there any running faucets or running toilets?
- Feel free to call Hope Plumbing if you have any questions or if there is anything we can do to help.
-Jack Hope