Two kinds of products live here: our own PDF guides, written for northwest suburbs homes, and the gear we recommend to neighbors, with links that pay this site a commission at no extra cost to you.
Free PDF
A seasonal checklist for northwest suburbs homes: what to check each season, what can wait, and what to call a pro for before it turns into an emergency. Print it for the fridge or keep it on your phone.
Free vs paid
The free checklist covers the seasonal basics for any northwest suburbs home. The paid guides below are the deeper playbooks: the New Homeowner Starter Bundle at $29, the storm and outage playbook, the full year maintenance calendar, and the contractor hiring guide, each with worksheets and step by step detail the free checklist does not include.
Get the free checklist first. If you want the worksheets and the full systems detail, the paid guides are right below.
Instant-download PDFs. Print them, or keep them on your phone.
PDF - 64 pages
Everything a first year in a new house actually requires, in one printable bundle: the shutoff map, the seasonal checklists, and the filing system for warranties and manuals.
PDF - 28 pages
Built for Chicago area winters: how to keep pipes from freezing, run a generator safely, and know exactly when a problem stops being DIY and becomes a call to a pro.
PDF - 36 pages
A month by month calendar tuned to northwest suburbs weather, with the task, the reason it matters, a realistic time estimate, and a hire-it-out flag for each item.
PDF - 22 pages
The exact questions, license and insurance checks, and contract clauses that separate a smooth project from a horror story, written for Illinois homeowners.
Two ready-made kits: the storm and outage kit, and the new homeowner kit. Order from the shop form below and we email you the current links for the exact picks.
Power
Enough to run a refrigerator, a sump pump, lights, and phone charging through a winter outage, while staying quiet enough for a suburban lot. Inverter models also produce clean power that is safe for laptops and modern furnace controls.
Power
In the northwest suburbs the outage and the flooded basement often arrive together. A battery backup keeps the sump running for hours after the power cuts, which is exactly when the water shows up.
Electrical
The thin orange cords most garages hold are not rated for a space heater or a generator feed. A 12-gauge cord carries a real load without heating up, and 50 feet reaches from a safely placed generator to the house.
Electrical
One lightning strike or utility surge can take out a furnace board, a fridge, and every charger in the house at once. A panel-mounted protector guards all of it, and any licensed electrician in the directory can install one.
Bundle
The kit we tell every new buyer to assemble in week one: cordless drill and driver, stud finder, level, utility knife, plunger, flashlight, and a fire extinguisher for the kitchen. It handles 90 percent of first-year surprises.
Bundle
Slow leaks under a water heater, washer, or sink do more damage in the suburbs than storms do. Detectors that phone you at the first drip turn a flooring replacement into a towel and a phone call.
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