Closing up at the cottage - part 2

DAY TWO

Drain the plumbing
The trick here is to drain absolutely everything and not to forget any of the places where water is likely to hide: the hot water tank, the water purifier, the washing machine (and the dishwasher, if you have one), the toilet tank, and the sink and tub traps. First, drain all the lines by opening all the taps and valves. If your lines jig and jog and you can’t be 100% sure that gravity will drain them, you’ll have to blow the water out with air. (Use a can of compressed air, or a hand-operated diaphragm pump.) Put antifreeze – use non-toxic propylene glycol, also known as RV antifreeze – in anything that can’t be drained, such as the toilet trap.

Close up the bedrooms
Strip the beds and cover them with newspapers or old sheets to keep dirt and dust and mouse leavings off the mattresses. Stand mattresses and box springs up against a wall and cover them with plastic if you have any worries at all about leaks in the roof. Pack clean, dry sheets, blankets, and towels in plastic garbage bags (or in a dry mouse-proof cupboard or trunk if mice are a problem) so they are ready for next year.

Following My Mother’s List guarantees our linens have no musty odour come spring. The key thing is to make sure the linens are dry: if the sheets and towels are not completely dry, you will create a miniature humidity chamber in the bags and provide the perfect conditions for the growth of mould, a.k.a. mildew. And must is the odour of the mildew fungi.

Close up the kitchen, Part 2
Empty and clean the refrigerator. (Turn it off the night before if it’s the kind that needs defrosting.)

It is not uncommon for people who will visit the cottage once or twice over the winter to leave the refrigerator and freezer running and stocked. This is a bad idea. If the power goes off, your frozen meat can thaw, and remain thawed for an unknown amount of time, and then freeze again without you knowing it. Besides, even if such an idea did make it onto My Mother’s List, it would be struck off again as a waste of electricity.

My mother uses baking soda added to soapy water to clean the fridge, then puts in a fresh box of baking soda and leaves it there. Baking soda and soapy water – or even baking soda and vinegar instead of soap and water, if you prefer – effectively removes mould (although they don’t kill it) and take away its odour. Chlorine bleach is an effective killer of mould, but it can react with organic matter in the septic tank and form compounds hazardous to the environment.

And remember to prop open the fridge so that dry air can circulate. Dryness is the best way to keep unpleasant growths to a minimum.

Take care of the fireplace and woodstove
Clean the fireplace, lay a fire, and fill the woodbox (it will be cold when you arrive next spring, Mom reminds us, and you’ll want to get the fire going right away), close the chimney damper, clean up all the spilled ashes and bits of wood and, while you are at it – here it is – sweep and vacuum all the same floors you did yesterday.

As well, check the chimney. If you have 1/8” of creosote, you’re OK, if there is 1/4”, you need to have it cleaned out. Older stoves, those not built to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards, produce seven times as much chimney deposit as those that meet EPA standards and need to be watched with greater care.

Protect the cottage from the elements
Put plywood on picture windows, tack newspaper over all other windows, and nail ventilation shutters closed.

Bright winter sunlight reflecting off the snow can fade your curtains and upholstery if you do not hang up something like newspaper to block it out. By keeping out the sunlight, you are limiting temperature swings in the building. A cottage with lots of windows can heat up inside on a sunny winter day, and one of the possible consequences is a rise in humidity, leading to condensation when moist air meets the cold walls. Condensation can create the dampness that allows mould growth, which leads to musty odours. Shutters over the windows, of course, would serve the same purpose. (In addition, covering the windows prevents people from seeing something inside that might inspire them to break and enter.)

We cover the living room picture window with a sheet of plywood, partly to protect the glass from dangers such as wind-blown debris and falling tree limbs, and partly to keep off-season birds from flying into a giant mirror.

It used to be common to build rope-operated ventilation shutters under the eaves of a cottage so hot air could escape on summer nights. Each fall we nail ours shut, so a winter wind can’t open them and sift snow inside. Although you may not have such shutters, secure trap doors, shed doors, and other openings for the same reason.

Organize tools, Part 2
Pack up remaining tools – the ones you have been using for such things as nailing on shutters. Remove batteries from smoke alarms and flashlights that are staying behind. Batteries get old and leak acid.

Deal with the odds and ends:
At this point, start backing out the door like someone painting the floor: Empty waste baskets and drinking water containers, sweep and wash the kitchen floor. Shut off the main hydro switch at the breaker box, and that pretty well does the inside portion of The List. The key goes in the door, but the door remains open for a few more minutes. While some people finish loading the boat, others wander around checking everything two or three last times, looking for things such as vases that still have water in them and sugar bowls with sugar.

If all is as it should be, the Lists go into My Mother’s Purse, and that is that.

Back to Closing Up at the Cottage - part 1

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