Home maintenance checklists?

[slug*bug]

If you own, do you have a checklist or a calendar of periodic home maintenance tasks? I'm a soon to be a new homeowner and am not sure where to start building a checklist.

We are under contract to buy and completed inspection this AM. Our inspector was (as it sounds like most are) really helpful and made lots of suggestions, comments about areas of the house requiring maintenance, etc.

We've never owned, so I really appreciated his suggestions...but after thinking about everything he mentioned, I'm also starting to feel overwhelmed and wondering how I'm going to organize all of the new to dos.

What do you do to make sure things are well maintained? Any tips for keeping on top of things?

[tarheels]

Maybe google for one? When I bought my first house, the inspector gave me a VHS tape and a 3 ring binder full of stuff. Maybe there's a Dummies guide?

Off the top of my head:

- annual HVAC inspections
- termite contract, if necessary
- open/close the foundation vents seasonally, if necessary
- gutters cleaned, if necessary

By "necessary," I mean if the house has ____. Like here, they don't built houses with gutters - weirdest thing ever to me, so I don't need to clean the gutters on this house because there aren't any!

I probably do more, but I can't think of them.

[ktzmoh]

we don't have a comprehensive list- but wejust put alerts into our iphones for things that should be done every x number of months (like reseal grout)

[emoflamingo]

Change your furnace filter! The packaging on the filter should say how often to do it.

Definitely agree with the HVAC inspections. You can catch issues early that way and save money.

(I am awful at remembering both of these things.)

[slug*bug]

Jun 29, 2012 15:09:52 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

we don't have a comprehensive list- but wejust put alerts into our iphones for things that should be done every x number of months (like reseal grout)

How often do you reseal your grout?

Slightly off the grout topic, but our inspector mentioned that once a year, he actually pulls the caulking from around his showers and recaulks. Anyone else do this? It doesn't seem like a bad idea, but I've got two little kids and I'm like the odds of me remembering to do this w/o a calendar...ever...are...what? Zero?

[thewop]

We don't have a checklist, but we do certain things regularly as genral maitenance. Like, we generally take good care of the house so it's just natural to do certain things on a regular basis. I dunno. I guess once you're a home owner for a while you just...do it, kind of like a routine. Furnace filter/inspection, gutters, washing the siding, weeding, trim branches, grout seal, etc. Once you get familiar with the house it gets easier to remeber things.

[ktzmoh]

Pardon my French, but I can't remember shit these days. I rely on technology and I have software that reminds me to do all sorts of things . I use that to remember when house stuff needs to be done.

My MIL has one of those perpetual calendars she keeps with lists of things to be done on a regular basis.

[Deleted]

I use a few checklists from Martha Stewart's website that are sort of cleaning/home maintenance combined. I pulled her lists in Excel to make them smaller and customize them for our fridge. I took a bunch of stuff off that doesn't apply to our house, added a few things she didn't have, and changed the frequency of a few things that I didn't agree with. But it was a good jumping off point, and it's on the fridge, so we see it all the time, and we check things off so we don't miss something/repeat each other's work. We have weekly, monthly, season, and yearly lists.

ETA: www.marthastewart.com/274764/cleaning-checklists/@center/276998/organizing-checklists

[thatgirl]

Your home inspector will (should) provide you with a binder customized to your house and his finding and it will have such checklists.
An invaluable manual for the homeowner!!

[mariesd]

MSN.com has monthly maintenance checklists that I like to look at. (Not that I do everything on it, but it's a good resource).
Here's June's, for example: realestate.msn.com/june-home-maintenance-checklist

[lgrac]

I am jumping in a little bit after this conversation started, but if anyone is still following this one, I use an automated checklist made by Allstate.

www.allstate.com/tools-and-resources/maintenance-reminder.aspx

[IIOY]

Jun 29, 2012 15:25:23 GMT -5 slug*bug said:

Jun 29, 2012 15:09:52 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

we don't have a comprehensive list- but wejust put alerts into our iphones for things that should be done every x number of months (like reseal grout)

How often do you reseal your grout?

Slightly off the grout topic, but our inspector mentioned that once a year, he actually pulls the caulking from around his showers and recaulks. Anyone else do this? It doesn't seem like a bad idea, but I've got two little kids and I'm like the odds of me remembering to do this w/o a calendar...ever...are...what? Zero?

OMG we are at 8+ years and counting, LOL. How difficult is it to pull grout out? (I realize this is an old thread, BTW).