6 Winter Chores I Only Did After Buying an American House

Laurence, you need to get a gasket for the bottom of your garage door. Critters and cold will get in. There should be no gap at all at the bottom. Go back to Lowes, but remember to measure the width of the door before you go. Get a gasket that is long enough for a one-piece install . No gaps!

Have you experienced the unbridled joy of having the snowplow come by just as you finish shoveling, thus extending that delightful chore?

I grew up in Wheaton, Illinois, which is not too far from you, Laurence. Every year, snowstorms would routinely pile snow up in front of our front door, making it impossible to open. This was not a problem for my mother, who simply dressed me up in my snow gear and pushed me out the front window with a snow shovel and told me to take care of it.

Something we did with our dog in the winter is we would hang a hand towel on the back door where we let him out and we’d tell him to stay when he came in and we would wipe his paws so he didn’t get snow all over the house. This especially helps in the Spring when there’s tons of rain and dog’s paws get muddy. Your new puppy is adorable!

In every apartment I have lived in, I have had control of my own thermostat. Yes, I’m in the US with central A/C & central heating.

We sprinkle kitty litter or sand on the sidewalks, salt eats away at your concrete and kills the grass. My town puts sand down in the intersections instead of salt. I am in Illinois also.

I literally laughed when you referred to yourself as being in charge of the thermostat. Being married means that a man might be the operator of the thermostat, adjusting it to a temperature that someone else chooses, but that he has lost the right to decide what it will be set at. This is particularly true at night when someone has to get out of bed to do so.

Columbia County NY resident here. Our thermostat is set at 55 day and night. When we were kids the house we lived in was not insulated so we slept in sleeping bags in the living room where the wood stove was. Mom would put our clothes in the dryer and we got dressed in our warm clothes in our sleeping bags. When it was below zero out side you could see your breath in our bedrooms. When we took a shower we turned on an electric heater in the bathroom a few minutes before showering. That way it was a nice toasty 60 degrees by the time you got out to dry off..... the good old days 😊!

I live in Kansas so I'm very familiar with mid-west weather. I suggest that you stop using salt on your walkways because it's corrosive and can damage and cause pitting over time. We now use a non-corrosive ice melt with a Calcium Magnesium base. You may want to check out the pet safe liquid melts that are easier on pet paws.

We’ve had a mild winter in Illinois as far as snow goes. I’ve shoveled maybe 4 times. Watch out for “heart attack snow.” When it’s like shoveling wet cement and you’re sweating through your parka, watch out. The lady I bought my house from had one husband die after shoveling right in the yard.

Laurence, you might want to look into pet safe ice melt. Salt can get in between their paws and it'll hurt them. You should be able to find paw safe ice melt wherever you got the salt.

Here are a couple more winter chores you may be looking forward to: 1: Winterizing the house. That means drying off and putting away any outdoor objects that don’t always handle regular freezing and thawing so well, like concrete garden decorations. It also means putting plastic film over any drafty windows and hunting out tiny gaps to make sure rodents don’t move in and cover everything with their excrement. 2. Ice scraping. Since your car is in the garage, you won’t have to scrape it that often unless it gets stuck in an ice storm or a quick freeze when you’re out and about, but it’s good to have a scraper with some knuckles on the back for getting into that really crusty stuff. You sometimes have to chip and scrape ice off the walkways because it’s too thick for the salt to take care of. They make a special tool for that. 3. Sanding sidewalks. When it’s too cold for salt to melt ice, you have to sprinkle sand to put a grippy surface on the ice so people don’t wipe out. You’ll want to keep on top of sweeping because it’ll demolish your floors if it gets under your chair legs.

Oh wow! I always had control of my thermostat as a renter in the US (St. Louis, MO). But as a homeowner I REALLY miss the landlord shoveling the snow…

68 at night, 71 during the day! We live in the chicago area too. Find pet-friendly salt (usually it looks blue) for the driveway if you walk puppy around often. Salt is basically to prevent ice..and it's uber important to keep it all shoveled because you don't want a liability for the delivery drivers and mail-folk or anybody walking to the door

Roof shovels also seem to be quite amusing for people who grew up in the south that don't get tons of snow. I found that out when a relatives spouse came to visit in the winter and we had a storm and used one. They were so fascinated they took a picture of it and shared it with their family and friends.

74. You need a minimum of 2 shovels. You should have a shovel near each exit so that you can shovel your way to your car or garage. The odds of all home exits being blocked by deep snow is small, since exits face different direction generally. However, back in the blizzard of 78' Lake effect snow caused 4+ ft. of snow blocking the front door and 3+ ft. of snow blocking the back door. We had to remove the glass and screen from the back door and use the shovel that was nearby to start clearing out the snow through the screen.

You do realize that Arthur is going to have to be in all future episodes, right? Also, since you have a dog, use calcium chloride instead of salt. Arthur's paws will thank you.

For me, my heat is set at 68F (20C). And having more than one snow shovel is not as strange as you think - I have 4 plus a snow blower. It's just in case the snow blower or shovel breaks or when I have help over at my place to shovel snow. It's also a good idea to keep one in your car for the winter along with extra blankets and emergency road flares if you ever get stuck.

I have never lived in the Midwest, but I have shoveled a fair share of snow back East. I found that your method works best if there is only a relatively small amount of snow on the ground (1/2 - 3/4 inch. Go out, clean the walkway, & sidewalk, and go back inside to warm up. Wait until it builds up again. Also, I have found that the use of sand helps, and doesn't kill the grass like Salt tends to do.

For everyone that is confused about the landlord controlling the heat from past videos it looked like he was renting what we would call a two or three flat apartment building that were built pre war. They are roughly the same size as a standard two or three level townhouse today so unless they have installed modern a HVAC there is likely only one heating system for the entire building much like most townhouses would have. The big difference is that a modern townhouse is for a single family whereas the flats have two or three separate apartments.