Cabin Chronicles

Minnesota snow storm continues today

The Snow Storm of Christmas 2009 is still going strong here in Crosslake! Today is Saturday December 26, and it has been snowing for a full three days now. I just took this photo of the snow coming down on the Adirondack chairs by the fire pit and wanted to share it with you. Two of our caretakers are out plowing driveways and clearing walkways of snow with shovels and snow blowers. Earlier this season, the caretakers helped some of our customers mark their private wells and septics with flags. Doing this allows the wells and septics to be easily spotted underneath the snow if they need to be serviced during the winter. This is something all homeowners should be doing on their own if they do not have a company like us to do it for them. We have more helpful snow and ice maintenance tips on our site. It sounds like our customers are having a great time enjoying the fresh snow at their cabins this weekend. They’re hopping on their snowmobiles and creating ice rinks to go skating. Is it snowing where you live?

Christmas Eve 2009 Minnesota snow storm

We are having a white Christmas here in Minnesota at Home Halo! This is fantastic. It’s like a fairy tale Christmas in this town. It’s so fun to drive down the snow-covered roads and look at all the evergreen trees coated in snow and see the beautiful log cabins with big snowflakes falling all around them. Of course, I am working when I do this! We have been busy getting homes ready for guests that are visiting over the holidays or homeowners that haven’t been to their cabins since last summer. We have also been plowing driveways and snow blowing and/or shoveling walkways to house entrances, propane tanks, and anything else that should be accessible for the maintenance of the home and the safety of the homeowner. We have had about 5 or 6 inches fall today, but reports are predicting much more snow over the next 24 to 48 hours, possibly for a total of 20-plus inches when the storm ends. Merry Christmas Eve!

Today was fantastic! I got a concierge job baking someone a pineapple upside-down cake. My fellow concierge co-worker got stuck doing some outdoor work, and it was zero degrees today! So, while he was outside working on a wood project, I was in the warm kitchen making goodies for one of my favorite customers. These cakes are so pretty, and they are easy to make. I made a video of how to make one of these great cakes so I could share it with you. These cakes are the perfect dessert to accompany a holiday meal. Here is the recipe I used:

3 tablespoons of salted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar (packed)
maraschino cherries, cut in half
pineapple rings
boxed yellow cake mix

1. Melt the butter in the microwave. Then, pour the melted butter into a round cake pan. Mix in the brown sugar until blended. Arrange pineapple rings and cherries in a pleasing manner. Set aside.
2. Mix the yellow cake according to the directions on the box.
3. Pour the cake batter into the cake pan on top of the sugar/butter/fruit mixture.
4. Cook according to the directions on the cake mix box.

That’s it! Quick, easy, and beautiful. It’s great served warm or cold. I like it plain, but it can be topped with whipped cream, ice cream, or rum sauce as well.

The former Pillsbury Estate, Southways, on Lake Minnetonka is up for sale by way of a sealed-bid auction. The deadline for delivering sealed bids on this 40,000 square foot home is December 9 at 3 p.m. central time. There is a lot in the news right now about this sale, but what about after it’s sold? Whoever purchases this magnificent estate, whether it’s a family or a corporation, they are certainly going to need some help maintaining it! With 13 acres and 1,700 feet of lake frontage, the groundskeeping is going to be an ongoing task. And, how about maintaining the inside of the home? Wow! How would you like to clean all those bathrooms? There is a caretaker’s cottage on site. Thank goodness, because the new owner of the estate is going to need one! Depending on the situation, it may need an entire staff to help maintain the property, or a domestic couple at the very least. If we were caring for it, the first thing we would do is create a household manual. The property is actually being offered for sale as five separate parcels or as an entire estate. Either way, domestic help will likely be necessary. And domestic help is what we offer at Home Halo.

Conventiently, this estate is near us. We have many customers that live on Lake Minnetonka. It’s located only a couple hours away from us here in Crosslake, and several of our clients who have cabins in Crosslake also have homes in Minnetonka. If you’re not familiar with Crosslake, when we say cabins….we mean sprawling estates that people refer to as “cabins.” For more information on the estate and the sale/auction of this property, you can do a Google search to see who is selling it. I emailed the company asking them for a good photo for the blog, but they didn’t respond to me, which I found quite rude, so I removed their link! If you’re thinking of buying it, remember we’re here to offer you professional and reliable domestic help after you purchase it! Video courtesy of Fox 9 at www.myfoxtwincities.com

Today we installed a lock box for one of our customers. These are great devices, and they're a wonderful alternative to keeping a key hidden under a mat or in a flower pot! If you must keep a key on your property, make sure it is locked. Click on the slide show above or click here if you’d like to buy a lock box. This will take you directly to a home and cabin shopping mecca. You’ll find a variety of reasonably-priced lock boxes in different shapes, colors, and styles.

Dead bees cover the cabin floor

So, it’s winter now, and if you’ve had bees nesting in the walls or foundation at your cottage over the summer, they’re dying now and making a graveyard of your beautiful seasonal home! As it gets cold out and the insects die off, their dead bodies start to pile up on your floors. This can be quite unsightly! How would you like to pack up your family and friends for a winter break at the cabin only to find it riddled with dead insects??!! We can’t tell you how many houses we have found dead bees and wasps in this year. There was no way for anyone to know the little guys had made a nest in the walls until now. I’ve included a picture of one of the homes we checked on our route today. We’ll clean these up for the customer and arrange for pest control service with one of our trusted vendors this coming spring so this doesn’t happen again.

Home Halo Advertisement

This ad says it all. I’ll be honest. When I first started working here, I wondered why people would pay us to watch their homes while they were gone. However, after seeing firsthand what can go wrong, I sure understand why now! It’s only two weeks into our busy season, and already we have seen a furnace break down, a major rodent infestation, and an electrical problem! It’s really shocking that so many things can go wrong with an empty house. You’d certainly expect it with a pet left alone, but who would guess all the trouble a house can get in when it’s alone. I guess houses can misbehave too.

People tend to love their homes, especially cabins, as much as they love their pets. So, of course, the homes shouldn’t be left all alone. Besides the emotional impact of problems with a house, there is also the price of repairs. The amount we charge to watch over and care for the home is very small compared to costly damage from problems that are left too long. Sure, most homes are insured, but if you’ve made any insurance claims lately, you probably know insurance is almost never there for you when you need it! 

If you’re leaving your home for the season, I really suggest you try to find a professional and reliable service like ours that can watch over your home, which is probably one of your most valuable investments.

Seasonal Home

The majority of our seasonal customers have headed for warmer weather, so this week we’ve been busy starting up our seasonal home watch packages this week. We got several new customers this year, so we’ve been busy. Usually when people leave their homes for the season, they have a checklist of things that need to be completed before their departure. We know that not every homeowner has a list, so we put a handy list on our site. You can access it by clicking here.

If this is your first time heading south for the winter, be sure to check your homewoners’ insurance policy for any vacancy clauses. This is extremely important for the snowbird “newbies.” If you have further questions or aren’t sure whether or not there is a clause after looking through your policy, contact your insurance agent. Often times, insurance companies refuse to cover incidents if your primary residence has been unoccupied for 30 days or more.

Starbuck on Halloween

This is Starbuck. She is one of the caretaker’s pets. For Halloween this year, she dressed up as a nurse. It’s fun to celebrate Halloween and other holidays at the vacation home. Halloween is a particularly nice time at cabins in the woods. They make a perfect spooky setting!

We will be working for just a little while this Halloween. We are going to be passing out candy at a customer’s house. It’s fun for us, and it’s not a bad idea for the homeowner. This way, it looks like someone is living there full time, which is always a good idea to ward off vandals or thieves. Unfortunately Starbuck is not allowed in the customer’s house. She will have to stay home!

Cleaning roofs and gutters

Today our crew cleaned several roofs and gutters on the homes we maintain. It doesn’t take long for gutters to become clogged with leaves, pine needles, and other debris. Keeping roofs clear of debris can prolong the life of shingles and keep water flowing correctly. If water can’t flow through the gutters, it can back up and start seeping into home’s foundation. It’s equally important to keep roofs clean as well. A roof cluttered with leaves and other debris can collect in the valleys of the roof and cause moisture to accumulate. As a result of all the moisture, the shingles can begin to rot. Not only that, but if seeds from trees fall and get lodged in the valleys, trees can begin to grow. Our crew has seen this many times when acorns get lodged in roofs. There are tons of acorns here in Minnesota this year, so we’ve been busy!