Getting Your House Winter Ready with Rock Reality

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Height thirty eight thirteen ten dobib A and ask the
experts with Rockrealty online Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's our
ock Wisconsin dot com. Great website to check things out.
If you haven't been on the website recently, nominally had
on over there. Where you're looking to buy, looking to sell,
just looking for something to do. It is a fun
little excursion, a little escape on a crummy weather day.

(00:23):
Nothing nicer than scrolling looking at some beautiful homes getting
some ideas. Maybe just think it is I wonder what
I could do with my house, or maybe you think
you know what I could see myself in that place.
Great data. Head on over to rock Wisconsin dot com.
That's our ock Wisconsin dot com. Join us at the
studio from Rockrealty, the one and only mister Matt. I Man, Matt.
How are you doing this week? I'm doing great? Are you?

(00:43):
I'm doing fantastic? How the truck do on your way
in this morning? Ah?

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Not too bad?

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Not too icy yet?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, not a big fan of the white stuff on
the ground already.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
It was pretty brutal early this morning. Wow, I think
I think the county got blindsided by the kind of
snow that's stuck early this morning and noticing have have
cleaned up quite a bit. We're gonna actually talk about
speaking of winter and uh, cold and inevitable. You know
it's called Wisconsin, you know weather, We've get a little
bit of it all. I will talk about getting your

(01:12):
getting your house ready for winter. Things you can be
doing now, things you definitely want to get taken care
of today. So we'll talk with Matt about that. As
I mentioned, of course, Matt comes. It's from Rock Realty.
If you haven't had a chance to check out the website,
head on over to Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's r
O c K Wisconsin dot com. It behooves you to
check on in this morning. Just take a look at
what's going on there. And one of the houses you

(01:33):
will see at rock Wisconsin dot com is a beautiful
home in Oregon. And Uh and Matt I'd lived in
Oregon briefly and absolutely we loved our time there. It
is a it is like that perfect little it's almost
like a little hidden gem of a community. It's a
very tight knit community, a very close uh community to

(01:53):
everything and sometimes benefits it's not always on everybody's radar.
Let's talk about this really nice house right right on
Hickory Court in Oregon. Yeah, and I agree.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
I mean, Oregon's it's kind of like your ideal suburb
of Madison, right. It's got everything you kind of need
there and it's a quick quick shot at fourteen to
get just about anywhere. So yeah, this is on one
sixty three one six three Hickory Court in Oregon. And
this is a big house. Yeah yeah, I mean if you, uh,

(02:26):
if you're if you've got a big family or if
you're looking to potentially expand to a bigger family. You've
got five bedrooms in this house, three and a half
bath and uh, you know, as we know, shower heads
are important, so they having three and a half baths
is really great. Uh and you know, twenty seven hundred
square feet. So this is this is a beast a

(02:48):
two car garage and it's uh, it's got everything you'd
be looking for.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
It looks fantastic. Is right right near the golf course
as well. Uh. And so there's Bergamonts right right over there.
And the other cool thing two Oregon's got a great,
great little coffee shop, a cool little downtown. Yes, as mentioned,
just a fantastic location again right at one sixty three
Hickory Court in Oregon. Liz Price five two nine nine hundred.

(03:13):
Of course, great opportunity to get in a great neighborhood,
a great area. I got to just pick up phone
this morning and give Annabella call her telephone number six
so eight forty three eighty six at six o'h eight
nine two one forty three eighty six. Annabell Grover is
the listing agent on this five bedroom, three and a
half bath, beautiful, beautiful home and a great neighborhood in Oregon.

(03:35):
And we'll talk a little bit more about this week's
featured listing with Matt in just a couple of a
couple of minutes. And one of the things Matt as
we look to this time of year today was it
is November. I know it always seems to me like
it comes too soon. The snow and stuff. I'd like
just hold off for a week or two. I'd be fine,
but it is inevitable and here, and you know, when

(03:57):
it comes to your house, you can make pretty significant
and savings and and really I'm not just save on
energy bills, but prevent some severe damage by doing some
pretty minor, pretty simple things being part of a routine,
and one of the big things is just kind of
taking a walk around the outside of your house and
just kind of take a look, do a little inspection.
Check those windows, check those doors, and check some other.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Areas as Absolutely, yeah, and uh, doing that regularly is important.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
I mean I recently discovered we had a dead bush,
and I guess I didn't realize, right, So yeah, uh yeah,
heading around the house and and and seeing what you see,
see what you know needs to be taken care of.
You know, we've got a number of items we'll kind
of we'll talk about today, and you know, I would
just recommend you put together a list and don't don't
try to tackle them all, but you know, maybe check

(04:42):
off a few of them.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
Yeah. It's funny too, Matt, when you mentioned the uh
you noticed you had a bush that was no longer
with us. That is is kind of that walk around.
I think sometimes the reality is everybody's busy, right life.
Life is you got kids, you got grandkids, you got
you gotta you got all these other things where it's
like your time is so is so stretched. But something

(05:05):
simple as a walk around kind of noticing those type
of those type of things can really can really save
you and really help things out. And you know, you
think about you mentioned having like a dead bush and
other thing you'll start to notice is like in this
time of year, I know, the mice are doing the
same thing. We are looking for warmth, a little holes,
little and it doesn't take much from else to kind of.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
I discovered that when my internet went out. Oh yeah,
and I couldn't figure I mean, I trouble shot it forever.
And then we discovered that and this is going to
be a great segue, but we discovered there was a
gap in one of the boxes that needed to be
caught because they were getting in there and and chewing
up the cable there for the TDS fiber.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Oh they liked that stuff. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
So, yeah, one of the things when you're when you're
walking around, you can check for gaps around window frames,
doorages and you know, just see if you have any
sort of air infiltration. I know we had the garage
service door. You know, I had a little bit.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
Of a gap for us.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
And yeah, that also you know can help keep rodents
out and such. And you know, you can apply cock
to like seal any cracks in some of those window
frames or the doorframes.

Speaker 1 (06:12):
One of the things Ms Preble loves to do is
she orders every year these these little weighted insulator decorative
things that she loves. Any door that faces in the
outside of the home, she'll buy these little and there
they got like sand and some there to kind of
hold up against there. I don't know if they're really
all that effect, but they look really nice anyway. But

(06:34):
that is something to'll be looking for, is weather stripping
or other things just to kind of keep the air,
the warm air inside and the cold air out.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, and it'll become more and more
apparent the colder it gets outside as to where those
gaps are. But yeah, in the in the near term,
you can kind of just look for any sort of
light infiltration or you know, take a look at especially
on the exterior doors, take a look and see, you know,
if if one in a corner of the door is
sticking out a little bit further than the other. And
then you can always adjust the hinges too. That's something

(07:03):
that you can do to make it a little more secure.
But yeah, blocking drafts under the exterior doors, it's right
here on my list, Sean, Yeah, and your wife is.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
On top of it. Yes, I think I know what
we're getting you for Christmas this year. I'm talking this
morning with Matt Heyman of Rock Realty Online Rock Wisconsin
dot com. That's Rock Wisconsin dot com. Great day to
check out the website, even if you're just curious. It's
always cool to see what's out there. It's a nice
little escape as we look at kind of crummy weather
this morning, it's cool to see what's going on out there.

(07:32):
But thinking about buying home, think about listening home all
I got to just give them a call. Six' eight
six seven three fifty four hundred. That's six' eight six
seven three fifty four hundred. One of the things I
think about too, like if you're buying a new home
and one of the great things your agent can help
you with is maybe the previous owner removed the storm
windows and had them stashed somewhere. Sometimes your agent can

(07:53):
kind of be like, hey, do you guys know where
they have the storm windows? I think a lot of
folks put them up above the garage or some o
their area during the summer months. But definitely a good
question to be asking but also you don't have them,
it might be a good conversation happen to maybe do
a little upgrade there.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah, yeah, I mean we've we see you know, typically
in basements are like you said, maybe in some upstairs
garage storage. We'll we'll find the screens up there in
the winter, and we'll find the storm door windows panels
in the summer. So make sure that, yeah, when you're
buying house that you know where those are located and
make sure that they have them. Replacing them might be

(08:29):
a little difficult, depending on if that model is still available.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
So exactly one of the things too, you can do,
and I don't know if I've just bought into the
marketing or if it's absolutely true we do it is
putting the that that film on the windows, like especially
our big we got the like a lot of folks
have a big window with a big picture window. Is
you put that on there. It's fun to put on.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Well, you know, kind of poke it and stuff else.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Yeah, I get out the hair dryer and you just
watch it go from all wrinkling, it gets.

Speaker 2 (08:56):
Really nice and yeah, you know, you know you have
a you've got some pretty bad draft when it bows
out and looks like a bubble.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
Yes, yes, exactly. Little things you can do, of course
to keep that house comfortable during these winter months, as
talking this morning with Matt Hetman and servicing your heating
system is a big one too, And this is one
of those. And I know we've got we've got plenty
of folks to remind you here on the station that
having an annual inspection is good. There is nothing worse

(09:22):
than going to fire up that furnace for the first
time or that that first really cold day, only to
find out that something's not working well in Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
Agree, and that's actually something I'm planning on doing here
shortly myself. Is you know, it's always good to have
an HVAC company out to take a look at it.
And if nothing else, they can replace the air filter,
which should happen, you know, usually every six months or so.
You can do it a little a little more often,
but that tends to be like a good cadence. But
other things that they can check when they're out there

(09:50):
are you know, seeing to make make sure that the
unit's draining properly and right getting rid of the condensation.
Maybe you've got an april air unit that helps humidify
the house something like that, to make sure it's operating properly,
to make sure that it hasn't gotten some line build
up and it's not actually uh, you know, putting that

(10:11):
moisture in the air over the winter. Because one thing
to keep in mind as it comes to the furnace
and you know a humidifier is the dryer your house
gets over the winter. It's making for an extreme and
between summer and winter, and that will cause any wood
items to shrink and expand. So whether that's wood floors

(10:32):
that suddenly have gaps or doors that no longer close
in the house. Sometimes you can alleviate that by keeping
the humidity levels consistent throughout the year. So making sure
that you have someone taking a look at that system
as well as important.

Speaker 1 (10:45):
And I know the the the heating and cooling folks
that that that simple inspection is pretty it's it's it's
a pretty affordable, especially we consider the alternative. It's one
of those things that is just like you know, you
pay a couple few hundred dollars and you have that
peace of mind. Yeah, gosh, what a what a great
value that is.

Speaker 2 (11:03):
I would also recommend you if they're going to schedule
that go ahead and let them know what type of
furnace you have before they head out there.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
And a lot of times they.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Can have that air furnace filter right there on the
truck and get it done and taken care of.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
And one final thing too, as we talk about heating
and cooling a carbon monoxide no joke, and you want
to definitely make sure that that you're you don't have
any issues there and test those those detectors as well,
don't you.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah, we've had we've had issues in the past, like
serious issues and people getting sick with carbon monoxide. So
even though it's colorless, orderless, all of that, it is
a real thing. It is a real thing. And uh
it's something that is You want to make sure that
detectors are working, make sure they're placed in the right spots,
batteries replaced, all that.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
What's interesting is your body cannot differentiate carbon monoxide from oxygen.
So like I think a lot of people assume, like,
well I will cow for all your body has you
you don't none of those like carbon dioxide a little different,
like you feel winded and but carbon ox side your bicycle.
Everything's great and then all of a sudden you start
hallucinating and gosh for bid, bad things can happen, So

(12:06):
you definitely want to check out leagues. Also get detectors
because they are super talking about things that are super inexpensive.
You definitely want to invest in a couple of good
cover monoxide gas leak detectors as well. Talking this morning, Matt,
I'm at a Rockrealty online rock Wisconsin dot com. That's
our ock Wisconsin dot com. Great website to learn more

(12:27):
about rock Realty. Also a great website to perue spend
a little bit of time seeing what's out there. You
can also check out rock listings dot com that's rock
r ock Listings with an s dot com. Great website
as well to learn about some fantastic stuff going on
at Rockrealty. Speaking of rocklistings dot com, got a great
promotion going on right now, Matt, Yep, we do. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:47):
If you know you're worried about the move and you
want to make it as easy as possible, we are
offering free mobile storage for our clients and we've opened
up that to both sellers and buyers now. And you
know what that entails is you would have a delivery
from Totally spaced Out, which is a mobile storage local

(13:09):
mobile storage company privately owned, and they will drop it
off in your driveway or wherever you choose to place
the container. You can fill it up at your leisure.
You can even store it with them in the meantime
and when you move to your next location, they'll drop
it back off for you.

Speaker 1 (13:25):
One of the biggest I think for folks I don't
feel like moving is because of like it's like that rushed,
chaotic day. The great thing about the promotion they've got
at rocklistings dot Com is you can load it up
at your ease, just put a couple of things in
each day. And of course also if you're listing your home,
you can really declutter your house quite a bit. It's
great promotion that they're doing with rock Realty Again. You

(13:46):
can learn more online rock listings dot Com. That's rock
Listings dot Com. Continue our conversation now, talk a little
bit more about some things to take care of before
winter gets here and before we really run into some issues.
We'll talk about things like pipes, gutters, down spouts. We'll
hit all those areas. We'll do that next. As ask
the experts with rock Realty continues right here at thirteen

(14:07):
ten wuib I eight fifty four thirteen ten wu I
b A and ask the experts brought by Rock Realty
hanging out with Matt Hetman of Rockrealty Online Rockwisconsin dot Com.
That's roc K Wisconsin dot com. Talking this week with
Matt about some things you give men right now to
get your house ready for the cold winter months. I've
talked about just kind of doing an outside inspection, a

(14:29):
little walk around to your home, checking those those windows
and doors and look for little holes and other things.
Also the importance of servicing your your heating system and
something that can be and I think we've talked about
this in a slightly different context. I've seen the videos
though in the past of what happens when pipes burst.
It's not a pretty thing, is it, Matt.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
No, No, it's not of a head firsthand experience.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
Oh they're serious, man.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
We had an exposed Fawcett outside Fawcett's bigot uh and
on the inside they're just they never put some good
insulation around it. So as a result, the valve there
froze and luckily we caught it early as it was
spring into our and luckily at the time unfinished basement,
Thank goodness.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
It can be messy, but you do and you do
as you mentioned insulation. I think a lot of a
lot of homes now when the valve itself sits back
on the inside of the house, which helps, but they'll
just make like little they kind of look like socks
with a drawstring that you can put over to kind
of give them a little insulation.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
Yeah, on the outside, So you definitely, if you have
the ability, you want to shut off the valves to
those outdoors bigots. But you know, on the inside of
the house, I think what's important is just being aware
of which plumbing is on an outside wall and then
either making sure it's insulated in the wall behind or
some things you can actually do is like keep the

(15:53):
cabinet doors open under your sinks and such so that
that warmer can get in there, because I don't think
many of the cabinets actually have heating vents inside, so
you need to make sure that warm air gets in
there so that you don't have an issue.

Speaker 1 (16:05):
Our house growing up, it had the water pipes ran
from the basement to the second story on the outside
back of the house and on bitterly cold days, those
pipes they would freeze, and so you got in the
habit of just slightly turning on a little drip and
you wouldn't think it would do anything, but just that
little drip running throughout the night with the water moving

(16:27):
prevented it. I still remember days getting ready for school
down at the basement with a heat gun blowing it up.
Then just trying to get those pipes warmed up a
little bit. That is, as the kids would say, no bueno,
no bueno for sure. Yes, what about gutters and down
spouts and good gutters? Good down spouts are a godsend.

(16:47):
When they don't work right or when you run into
issues with them, they are no fun. And you definitely
want to be checking on those this time, you don't you.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Yeah, I think we have some fifty degree weather coming
up here, Yes, and that would be a good time
remove some leaves, twigs and debris out of the gutters
and the down spouts, maybe even flush the gutters with
water if you can still get your water on outside.
And you know, I think you know what gets lost
is when those get filled up, it just drips over

(17:16):
the edge and it ends up right by your foundation,
and some of the biggest issues that we see is
either around this time or in early spring when the
ground's still frozen. But you're getting rain and you're getting
these things getting pooling up right by the foundation, and
that's where you have some basement issues. So if you
can preemptively get up there and make sure those gutters

(17:37):
are clean, especially houses with mature trees, it might be
more full than you know.

Speaker 1 (17:42):
And you mentioned some of the weather coming up sixty
three on Saturdays, So.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
There you go. That's probably you're telling me I have
to go outside work.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, I'll be I'll be over man, I'll be just supervised. Yes.
Talking this morning with Matt Heatman of Rock Realty Online
Rock Wisconsin dot com. That's R O c K Wisconsin
dot com. What again, to the website, You're going to
see a lot of beautiful homes, one of which is
are featured listing this week at one sixty three Hickory
Court in Oregon and mad As. You mentioned a lot

(18:10):
of space for everyone. Five bedrooms, three and a half baths.
This is a great neighborhood in a really nice house
in a great area, isn't it. Yeah, it is.

Speaker 2 (18:17):
It's listed for five hundred and twenty nine thousand, nine
hundred and it's got twenty seven hundred square feet. Some
of the other just kind of features. And you know
your primary bedroom as a goat to walk in closet.
You've got a double vanity bathroom in the suite up there,
you've got a porch that overlooks the yard out of

(18:38):
the primary suite. And you know, you got the two
car garage, You've got a mudroom, laundry room, and outside
there's a lot of amenities too.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
Did you mention there's a pool out there. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:49):
So it's what I like about that is even though
it's not in ground, it's kind of half exposed. They
recessed it into the slope of the backyard. And they
also included an deck there, so you've got two decks
in the back and then you also have a fire pit.
I mean it's uh, it's I mean, you buy it
now and by it by summer you're ready to have

(19:10):
a great outdoor experience.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
What a great, what a great beautiful home this is.
Of course, call Annabelle, she can uh she say, hey,
annabel I want to see this beautiful house in Oregon.
Oh I get just give her a call nine two
one four three eight six. That's nine two one forty
two eighty six. I forget to learn more online Rock
Wisconsin dot com. That's r O c K Wisconsin dot com. Matt.
It's always great seeing you, my friend. You enjoyed this
beautiful day, you too, sir. It just comes your way

(19:32):
next right here on thirteen ten wu ib A