Home and Preparedness Audit

It's been a while.

As I get started with the blog again, I am at a point where I am not starting from scratch, but I don't have a good view of exactly where I am. We have food storage, but I am not sure exactly how much. We have 72 hour kits, but some things need to be replaced, and I need to check them. It is good that we have something, but not being sure of your assets is not a huge confidence builder.

One thing I have been meaning to do for a while is to go over the entire house, and make a list of all needed and desired changes. This goes well with the preparedness, because some of the changes are preparedness related.

To tell you a little bit about the house, it was built in 1970. New earthquake requirements went into effect in 1978, so we are not bound by code there. We replaced the chimney the last time we re-roofed, so it is reinforced, but the house is almost certainly not bolted to the foundation, and I don't think we even have a cripple wall, but if we do I am sure it is not reinforced.

It is a wood-frame house, which is good. Other things that I like about it is that it is not in a flood plain or at the base of a hill, it is not in a tsunami zone, and the power lines are underground, so it is pretty rare for us to lose power, even in bad winter storms. (Also, it has four bedrooms and a large front and back yard. We have four people and dogs, so, that works well.)

Right now, my first need is to audit my home. This means going through the house room by room, then around the house and the yards, and take note of what needs to be done, and whether it is cosmetic or convenience or for safety or for energy efficiency, and establish priorities. It also makes sense to note whether they will be major expenses or projects, or fairly minor ones. For example, yesterday I painted the bathroom. This was a pain, but it took one day and cost about $40, so that is not major. Changing out the toilet seats is a minor cosmetic detail, so not important in that way, but is also inexpensive, takes only a few minutes, and I can do it myself.

At the same time, I need to go through and audit myself for emergency preparedness. What do we have? Where is it? What condition is it in? How important is it? How difficult would the upgrade be?

Going through that process should give me plenty of projects and writing material, especially in setting priorities for what needs to be done before the end of the year, and what feels like it can wait.