Winter

Parking:

In winter the only parking available is in the garage or the driveway well INSIDE the street snow plowing line. The maximum number of cars that can be accommodated in winter is three: one in the garage, two in the driveway ***but only if they have 4WD or chains so won’t skid into each other!*** Do not park on the street or you will be towed.

The driveway slopes DOWN toward the garage. In icy conditions, be careful not to slide into the building. Recommend: Put on chains, and back slowly into the driveway, having opened the garage door first. (There is a switch inside the garage next to the side door; there is also an extra garage door opener on the wall rack inside the front door.) There are wheel chocks, a tub of sand in the garage, a towing strap, and traction pads in the garage.

There is “weather emergency” overnight parking available at the Trout Creek and Northwoods Recreation Centers. You must park along the edges of the respective parking lots that parallel the road, and you must fill out a permit found in a mailbox labeled “emergency overnight parking”, leave one part on your dashboard and return the other part to the mailbox. Cars must be moved by noon the next day.

Plowing:

We have contracted with Elements for plowing the driveway. They usually plow at ~3 AM and again at ~9 AM to clean around cars that have been moved. If you arrive late in the day and it has been snowing, be advised that you may have to shovel a berm left by the city plow and down to the garage (only shovel as much as necessary; Elements will take care of the rest later). There may be some snow left by the garage door that can interfere with its operation, and Elements does not shovel to the front door. Shovels are inside the garage. It’s much easier to shovel while snow is fresh, before it gets walked on. Do NOT park on the street except only briefly!

Elements posts their plowing plans on their website.  Please refer to the site to understand if they’re plowing and their schedule – they will wait for decent snow accumulation, schedule edge cleaning days to widen the driveway, etc.

The garage door gasket might be frozen down, requiring that it be “popped” loose from the inside with the garden spade. Watch when you close the garage door that it stays closed; if it reopens, chip any ice from the edge of the garage floor, the track, or the door gasket. On a similar note, snow build-up in the various sliding glass door tracks can cause those doors not to close properly; please brush out any debris and double-check that the locks have actually latched.

Water and heat:

In winter the thermostat should be set to “Eco” mode when you leave. The water heater is a tankless unit and should not be adjusted. Similarly, we have a smart water valve and it should not be adjusted without checking with the owner.

Woodstove:

Open damper (pull out slider at lower left) at first, then close it (push in) as fire gets hot. A small fan set on the stove will start to turn as the stove heats up. A ceiling fan upstairs can be (manually) switched on. Be careful not to allow burning logs to roll out of firebox. More wood is out the back door downstairs on the wood pile and in a kindling box. An axe are in the crawlspace. Don’t split wood on the decking, use the chopping block at the end of the wood pile. Please leave the wood pile covered, and bring more wood in to warm up for the next user. Leave the ashes for us to remove, they need to be COLD.