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You went to the ocean and fell in love. No, not with each other, but with the idea of purchasing a property by the water. In fact, your vacation beach house plans include one day possibly retiring to your cozy place by the sea.
To be honest, this type of instant love of a beachfront property isn’t unusual. More than a third of people indulge in their own vacation beach house plans by bidding on beach apartments, condos, or houses when they’re on a trip.
As long as you can afford the down payment and second mortgage, you’re probably going to go gaga being able to sneak away to the water whenever you like. However, before you kick back and relax, make sure you take some steps to ensure your vacation beach house plans come together beautifully and without headaches.
Below are several checklist to-do items that you’ll want to consider as part of your vacation beach house plans.
Protect Your House from Weather
If you’re going to have a home along the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico, you’re going to want to make sure it’s protected from serious weather. Every year, hurricane season affects the eastern United States, as well as some southern cities and states. Plus, some areas are prone to flash flooding from intense storms that can come without warning.
In order to make sure your house can handle whatever Mother Nature dishes out, be sure to outfit it with additions like hurricane safe garage doors and window coverings. You might also want to get the gutters cleaned out. After all, the more secure your new home, the more certain you’ll be that it won’t be too damaged by a threatening storm or incredible downpour.
Be aware that if you’ve bought a home in a place where severe weather tends to happen frequently, you’ll probably want to pay someone to take care of the house if you live far away. Certainly, this is an investment. Yet it will give you tremendous peace of mind, particularly if you live far away from your beach property.
Invest in HVAC Services
Although being at the beach can feel completely comfortable without heat or air conditioning at certain times of the year, you’ll have to kick on the furnace or air conditioner eventually. When you do, you’ll be happier if you followed your vacation beach house plans to the letter and called heating and air conditioning services providers.
Even if your beach home came with new HVAC equipment, you’ll still want to get yours checked at least twice a year. Usually, good times to contact your HVAC maintenance technician is in the spring and fall. However, depending on where your beach house is, you may want to create a unique schedule.
Additionally, if you’re lacking air conditioning, consider adding it. Air conditioning doesn’t just increase the comfort of a living space when it’s hot outside. It can also reduce humidity, which is important if you’re living by the ocean or another waterway. What happens if your home isn’t outfitted with ductwork? You’re still in luck: You can look into having window air conditioning units or ductless mini-splits installed.
Have a Locked Storage Closet
Do your vacation beach home plans include renting out your cottage, apartment, or townhome on occasion to travelers through a popular site like Airbnb or a local property management company? You might want to create a space that renters won’t be able to get into, such as a large locked storage cabinet or pantry.
Having a small area under lock and key allows you to keep some of your personal items at your beach house so you don’t have to travel back and forth with them all the time. These could be anything from special reading materials to personal decorations that you only put out when you’re residing in the home.
Be sure you’re very clear with any guests that your private space is off limits. The vast majority of travelers will understand and comply with your expectations. They’ll just be pleased that they get to take some time to relax at the beach!
Consider Roof Inspection and Replacement
Your roof protects and shields your vacation home from all sorts of weather. For that reason, you’ll want to make sure you take the time to call a roof inspection service company. Have the roof inspector check out your roof thoroughly. Inspectors should climb onto the roof and take pictures of anything they see that you might have to fix, such as asphalt shingles that have come apart.
If your inspector suggests that you need a new roof and you’re not so sure, feel free to get a second opinion. Chances are strong that your vacation beach house plans probably didn’t include paying for a replacement roof. Therefore, it’s best to hear from someone else before deciding whether or not a full-scale replacement project is going to be necessary. Of course, if you do find out it’s inevitable, you may want to secure financing to help pay for the project over time rather than all at once.
Replace or Deep Clean the Flooring
Having a house by the sea can be wonderful and relaxing. Nevertheless, high humidity and tracked-in sand can wreak havoc on carpets and textiles. Even harder flooring, like linoleum, may peel under the constant exposure to moisture.
After buying your home, give the flooring a thoughtful once-over. Is it time to replace it? Could it benefit from a replenishing deep cleaning? Take these matters seriously, because dirty floors can cause a home to smell unpleasant. They can also affect a space’s indoor air quality. You certainly don’t want your dream vacation palace to become a spot where you don’t feel like you can catch a deep breath.
Pest Control Services Are a Must
What is the last thing you want hanging around your lovely home and threatening to ruin your best-laid vacation beach house plans? Mice, insects, birds, bees, and other unwanted critters. Consequently, make sure you not only bring in a pest control person, but that you pay for their services year-round.
Many pest control experts offer low monthly fees in exchange for seasonal external and internal space spraying and other services. You’re better off paying the fees, if you can afford them, than to wait for an infestation to occur. Prevention is always easier to swallow that dealing with problems after they’ve become too extensive.
Care for Your Property Properly
When you first envisioned all the fun you’d have at your property, outdoor maintenance probably wasn’t part of your vacation beach house plans. Still, it’s important for you to consider the outside upkeep of everything from your front yard to your patio overlooking the surf.
With this in mind, consider how you’re going to care for your lawn first of all. Will you hire someone to do the mowing, or do you intend to stop by weekly to do it yourself? How about the flower beds and weeding? The last thing you want is for your beautiful vacation beach house plans to go awry because you failed at the upkeep of the property.
Another consideration you’ll need to make if you have trees is tree care in general. While most trees don’t need a lot of work to stay magnificent, some do require a little TLC from time to time. For example, you may need to hire a tree pruning service to make sure that tree limbs aren’t dragging across your roof or wreaking havoc with power lines.
Have Electrical Systems Assessed
Before you signed on the dotted line to make your vacation beach house plans come true, you probably hired an inspector who made sure your home was safe and sound. Nevertheless, do yourself a favor and contact ac electrical contractor. The electrician can conduct a more thorough investigation of the wiring in your home.
Why does it matter, as long as your home inspector gave you the green light? Sometimes, inspectors miss small items that electricians won’t. Plus, you may notice little signs of electrical system issues like flickering lights or sparks coming from one of the outlets when you try to plug in a small appliance. You’ll want to get any of those issues fixed, especially if you plan to allow your beach home to sit empty for weeks or months at a time.
Fix Any Driveway Cracks
It’s a fact of life for any homeowner: Driveway cracks never get smaller. While they may stay the same size for a while, they’ll inevitably start to get bigger and bigger. This means if your vacation home driveway features a ton of cracks today, it’s not going to repair itself.
Paying for driveway paving doesn’t have to break your budget. Depending upon the type of pavement you have, you might even be able to partially or fully make repairs yourself. However, you’ll at least want to get a specialist to come out and give you some feedback. It might also be good to know why your driveway has started to crack. Are large tree roots pushing it up? That might mean that you’ll just have to repair it again sooner rather than later if you don’t take care of the roots. Or is there a moisture or soil problem happening near the foundation of your home? This would be a reason to get a contractor out to see what you can do about the problem.
Make Sure Your Water Is Clean
Have you tasted the water at your beach property? You might be surprised to find that it has a chemical or bitter taste. This could indicate that you have hard water, or that your water needs to be treated.
You can have a water and sediment test performed to figure out what’s happening with your water supply. You’ll be glad you took this step before you did any laundry! Some minerals can turn water a strange color and leave rust-colored stains on clothing and other fabrics.
What should you do if you discover that your water is not potable? Talk to a plumbing provider about installing a water purification system. By purifying your water, you’ll reduce the likelihood of having problems. Plus, your standing water in toilets won’t begin to take on an odd smell, which could affect the way the whole house smells.andlt;’pandgt;
Have New Gutters Installed
Gutters help drain water out and away from the sides and foundation of your home. Yet they’re often overlooked in favor of other maintenance projects.
Take time in the early spring and early fall to clean out your gutters. You may also want to make sure that you don’t see any signs of your gutters not working or coming loose from the side of your property. Ideally, your gutters should extend several feet beyond your house. If they don’t, just run to the nearest home improvement store to buy some inexpensive plastic or metal extenders.
What if you notice that you’re missing gutters along certain areas of your home? Call a gutter installation company immediately. Without gutters, you’re increasing the chances of standing water against your foundation.
Pay Attention to Unusual Musty Odors
As you’re reviewing your vacation beach house plans and jotting down areas to think about, be certain to remind yourself to pay attention to the way your property smells. Do you notice a musty odor coming from any rooms or spaces in particular? You could have a mold problem.
Mold isn’t something that will just disappear. As long as it has the right amount of humidity and temperature, it will continue growing. Over time, mold doesn’t just make a home smell questionable. It also can cause allergic reactions for the people living or visiting there.
As soon as you suspect or see mold, get in touch with a mold remediation specialist. The specialist will be able to help you safely return your vacation property back to healthy working order.
Although it might seem tedious to have so many responsibilities as part of your vacation beach house plans, they’re necessary. Not only do they ensure that you’ll be safer, but they protect your exciting new investment.
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