Episode 18: Spring Has Sprung: 10 Exterior Maintenance Tips

Welcome to How to Handyma’am! Spring has officially sprung here in Michigan, and we are finally seeing the sun! We are kicking off a four-part spring series all about landscaping, deck building, and getting your house looking cute for the warm weather.

This week’s episode is dedicated to our good friend (and Emily’s twin’s college roommate), Hannah MacArthur Pearl! Hannah just matched into her medical residency, and we have been cheering her on from afar as she absolutely crushes medical school. We are so proud of you, Hannah!

We kick off the episode with our favorite segment, "3 Minutes of Chaos" (which might have accidentally turned into 10 minutes of chaos). Emily defends her love for Harry Styles and his new album , Arly reviews the newest season of Bridgerton (and Queen Charlotte's sad storyline) , and we debate whether bears should be allowed to have such cute, snuggly ears if they are literal man-eaters. We also have a great chat about embracing your own unique brain—whether you are a linear-thinking Type-A planner, or an impulsive, idea-generating chaos gremlin!

Now, let's get into the main event: The Spring Handyma’am Showdown! Here are 10 exterior maintenance checks you need to do right now.

The Spring Handyma'am Checklist

1. Test Your Doors & Windows

• The Check: Open and close all your exterior doors and windows to see if they stick or have latching issues.

• Why it matters: When the weather warms up, wood swells. If your doors don't latch properly, it becomes a safety hazard. If they don't close tight, you are going to lose all your expensive AC air to the outdoors, and bugs will find their way inside!

2. Inspect the Siding

• The Check: Walk the perimeter of your house and look for missing pieces, cracks, or holes in your siding. Ensure the "weep holes" (the tiny holes at the bottom of vinyl siding) are not plugged.

• Why it matters: Siding is your home's main defense against water. Even worse, pests like raccoons and bats can squeeze into tiny holes, rip the siding off, and start raising a family in your attic insulation!

3. Probe Your Exterior Trim

• The Check: Look at the trim around your doors (especially shed doors) for peeling paint, discoloration, or rust around the nails.

• Why it matters: Wood trim is notorious for rotting over the winter. If you are replacing wood trim, always paint the bottom end-grain so it doesn't wick up water from the ground like a sponge! Better yet, replace rotted wood with PVC or composite trim so it never rots again.

4. Check Your Porch & Deck Boards

• The Check: Press your fingernail firmly into your wooden deck boards.

• Why it matters: If the wood feels "squishy" or mulchy, it is rotting. If you catch it early enough, you might be able to save it with wood hardener, but if it is completely mushy, you need to replace the board so nobody falls through!

5. Evaluate Exterior Caulk

• The Check: Look at the caulk lines around your windows and trim to see if they are cracking, peeling, or falling apart.

• Why it matters: Failed caulk lets water and drafts into your home. Crucial Rule: Do not just squeeze new caulk over the old caulk! You must scrape out the old caulk completely, let the gap dry, and apply a fresh, clean bead.

6. Clean Out the Gutters

• The Check: Grab a ladder and look inside your gutters for leaves, branches, shingle granules, and decomposed mud.

• Why it matters: Clogged gutters cause water to spill over directly onto your foundation. Make sure the gutters are clean and check the seams to ensure they are actually connected and flowing properly. (Samantha's Hot Take: Skip the gutter guards! They almost always fail, and it's cheaper to just clean open gutters!)

7. Monitor Drainage After a Rainstorm

• The Check: Go outside during or immediately after a heavy rain and see how the water is draining away from your foundation.

• Why it matters: If water is pooling against your house, it will eventually end up in your basement. You may need to fix the grading (the slope of the dirt) or add downspout extenders to push the water further out into your yard.

8. Sniff the Basement

• The Check: Go downstairs and take a deep breath. Does it smell musty or mildewy?

• Why it matters: A smelly basement in the spring means you have moisture, which leads to mold. Mold grows astonishingly fast and can make you very sick. If you smell mildew, run a dehumidifier constantly (you can attach a hose to it and run it directly into your floor drain or sump pump!).

9. Wiggle the Mailbox

• The Check: Give your mailbox post a good shake to see if it is sturdy.

• Why it matters: Snowplows and heavy, wet snow easily break or loosen mailbox posts over the winter. While you are out there, ensure your house numbers are highly reflective and visible from all directions so EMTs and fire departments can easily find your house in an emergency!

10. Test the Water Spigots (Hose Bibs)

• The Check: Grab your exterior water spigots and gently pull on them. Turn them on and check your water pressure.

• Why it matters: If the spigot wiggles, it is loose and will eventually leak inside your walls (and provide an entryway for pests!). If your water pressure is suddenly low, the pipe may have frozen and cracked over the winter.

Bonus Tips:

• Ants: Warm weather brings ants. Find where they are entering, caulk the gaps, and set out pet-safe traps now before they infest your kitchen!

• Window Screens: Check your screens for tears (mosquitoes will find them!). You can buy cheap patch kits, or simply take the screen frame to your local hardware store and pay them to rescreen it for you!

If you want a printable version of this checklist, head over to howtohandymaam.com! Make sure to follow us on Instagram and TikTok @howtohandymaam, and as Harry Styles says, treat people with kindness!

Episode Transcript:

Welcome to How to Handyman, the podcast where we tell you what to do when spring has sprung. And it is sprung and guys. It is. Finally sunny. This week we are starting a four part series of springing and springing. You can look forward to episodes in this in this April about landscaping, decks, how to make your house cute, and what are we talking about today, Arlie? Today we are covering 10 spring maintenance things that you should check outside out of your house to make sure that everything is good and working. In our 3 minutes of chaos, we talk about spring spring in. We talk about Samantha's favorite flowers, what we're looking forward to. I talk about my baby niece. And then we talk about hairstyles. Yeah, Emily talks about hairstyles. We. Get to the stuff you really want for Spring. Yes, but we also talk about embracing the parts of ourselves that make us who we are and just accepting what kind of person we are and just working with what we got. Leaning into that. Leaning into who we are, yeah. And who are you? I'm Marley. I'm Samantha. And I'm Emily and this has had a handyman. And this episode is dedicated to a Hannah. And no, not my twin Hannah, but her freshman year roommate who is also a good friend of ours. Hannah MacArthur, Pearl. Hannah MacArthur Pearl, she just matched into the residency. She really wanted to match and she has been killing it and we have been watching her kill it in law school from afar. Law school medical School medical. School. Sorry, Hannah, I mean she is amazing, but yeah, it's been a really long but yeah, she is fabulous and is always been like such a warm human being and just like. She's really she's on people. Dedicated. To her very often, and when we do see her, it's like no time has passed at. All I love. That yeah, her and her mom. Shout out to you Angie, too. Yeah, Angie. But you guys just show how other women should support other women. Well, congratulations, Hannah. Really. Perfect for you. Yeah. Yeah, we are. And everybody listening is also really proud of you, Hannah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's get into it. Let's do it. It is time for three minutes of chaos, AKA this is our fourth round, so it's our 10th, 11th and 12th minute of chaos. And we're not going to we're not going to talk about the stuff that surrounds the three minutes of chaos. That might make it more like 567 minutes of chaos I. Don't acknowledge that. But This Is Us trying and I have heard a few people, AKA someone who works in our office, love you Allison, say they like it. So the rest of you get it, 'cause Allison's opinion is the one that matters. Allison likes it and Thomas approves our editor so. There we go. That's a green light, Curdles. Yeah, yeah. And I like it because before we would just like randomly talk about stuff and now I'm like, what can I talk about today? I feel like so powerful and yet like so. Beholden to the three minutes of chaos Gods, yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna get our timer up. Here. Oh, I was gonna pull it up. All right, You got it. OK, I'm I can go first. OK, I'm ready. Yeah, all right. Do you wanna? Click your own start button. Yeah, OK. OK, hold on. You just. Have to get ready. You're like, get ready. I feel like in some episode you should explain to people why you're nearly always wrapped in a blanket. I need a cold, yeah. And it's like a comfort thing I like. To be cozy. It had to be. Cozy. OK, sorry this is random and this is not part of my 3 minutes of chaos, but it's Friday and it's been a long week. It has been a long no, a lot. I make a lot of weird faces. I was, I was doing the like the newsletter and I was, so I was going through our, our episode because we record and then like a couple weeks later, then it comes out two weeks later or something. So it's been a while. So I was doing our newsletter and I was watching it and I kept making terrible faces. If you want to get like a couple of demon faces. You should go to How to handyman.com and you can sign up for a newsletter. Yeah, I was getting excited. I signed up for it on my own e-mail and I always get excited to check them. OK I'm sorry I just had to say that cuz I did it and then I was like well I do stick my. All right, all right, darling. OK. Are you guys ready? I get to do it. I get to do it. OK, ready. Yes. Oh, I asked you guys if I'm ready. Yeah. Are you ready? Are you ready? Go. OK. I wanted to tell you guys about how. OK. So every single weekend on Saturday and sometimes Sundays, I get to see my niece Googoo, OK. And she is. That is not her name. Oh no, her name is actually Alea, but I call her Googoo because since she was like as big as like a Pinto bean or whatever they're called in the little app Jana had, her mom had her name in there as Googoo because she didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. She just knew that it was like a little baby. So she called her Googoo goo and she would send me the things every week saying that it was like how big it was or whatever she was. And so I always call her Googoo. Anyway, this aren't the part of the story. I'm gonna have to talk about it. Anyway, I got to see her on a Thursday. Oh, that's so fun. I know. In the middle of the day. And she's so chunkalicious. She's like 3 months old, but she looks like she's seven months old and she's generous and there's a picture. Of. Her if you're listening on the audio, Artly just showed how cute she is. That's you're one minute. So she's so chunkalicious. That's a good minute. I just love her so much. Gina, you're a good mom. 01 more thing. OK, I know. You're fine. I'm good. I'm chilling it. OK, Jace showed me a video of her laughing. I love baby laughs. I know I haven't seen so like, yes, babies laugh. I know I've seen babies laugh before. Don't get crazy on me. But she I've only seen her smile and like get excited. I haven't seen her, like, laugh, laugh because she hasn't been like, old enough yet, you know? And I finally saw her laugh and it was just a classic, like Gerber baby. Laugh. Belly laugh. There you go, I love it. Cute and I just can't wait to see her again. All right, Emmy, you're next. And she smells so good she got chunks everywhere. OK, mine is my fangirl minute because oh, Harry, she's always released a new album. Yeah, sorry, we are talking about a man for once on the podcast. But he's my fruit man and I love this man. But his new okay, sidebar, he's called Fruit Man. Arley just gave me a weird look for listeners because he's released a song about fruit on every album. Okay. And they don't sugar. Yeah, hi. So. That's better than the candy man who's a serial killer. Yeah, anyways. He has a new album about called Kiss all the time disco occasionally and it's really good. And he's like, he's so funny. And so he's been on like all the media appearances and I'm just like, I love being a fan girl and I love being basic because like there's so much content for me out there and there's so much Harry Styles content right now. So I just like get joy. His new music is fabulous. And if you like Harry Styles, I would like to hear because other fan girls should be my friend. OK, I've ever Harry Styles question so I am a complete Luddite for those of you listening. And also I live underneath a rock that has 17 boulders on top of it, so I have absolutely. No, I've drilled my hole into your space. And yeah, that's true. That's true. Everything that I know of anybody outside of like this room is because you have told me about it. Anyway, I saw this. It was like called like before you or when we met or something like the movie with after yes. I don't know where it got. What I was saying with Anna Hathaway is that. The idea of you. Yes, yes, that one. It's based on Harry Styles fan fiction. OK, yeah, I saw something on the Internet and I was like. Cuz back in his One Direction days, oh boy was there fan fiction. I was not a 1D girl but it like fan fiction. It was everywhere after that. Series is also about Harry Styles. There's like 4 movies based on characters that are based on Harry. Yeah, so when I saw it I was like scrolling and it said like nobody else has had like movies. Like it was 5 movies made about him based on fan fiction or whatever. And then I saw that thing and I was like, it didn't connect all the dots. I was like, was he dating an older woman? Because in the thing, isn't it like, but in halfway. OK, Yeah, yeah. Anyway, that's that's this is true chaos. Yeah, yes. Yes, it's been a long. Yeah, well, I'll have mine a little more contained. OK, so I've said before, and both of you know, I absolutely love spring. I get joy and delight in so many of the moments that are unique to spring. And today there are buds on my lilac Bush. Actually, last week there were tiny. Buds, today was the day I noticed them. So today is a good day. I have a new friend and colleague, her name is Tess Mitchell, and she started a company called Plant Joy and she's going to help me figure out how, how and when to trim it to get that. Like the lilac bushes that are just weighed down with bundles of flowers. That's what I really want. So I'm very excited. It's a complete delight. And I am, I figure I'm like maybe 4 weeks from my first baby leaf moment, yeah. So I'm excited. And do you love your white Linden tree? I do, yeah. So white Lindens. Ooh, I can't wait. When we're recording and it's White Linden or it's Silver Linden series or Silver Linden time, I will. Oh, is it? Bringing up Silver Linden's. Yeah, yeah, they're so beautiful. What did I call it? White Linden. White Linden. But if you don't know where from Michigan. So spring's kind of a big deal because it's been winter is kind of magical, sort of in December and then January for. One day, yeah. January, February and March are a bit. Rough. It's Gray, most of the snow is brown, and seasonal depression kicks our ass. I know it's that. It's like, where did the sun go? It's been gone for 17. Years. This is the season in Michigan where Mother Nature goes through her schizophrenia phase. Oh yeah, because it's like 714369. It was 30. This morning, 5230, yeah, it's. Nice out, right? Now and then it's amazing we must have Hardy like greenery, like flora and fauna in Michigan because things will be like it's 70 and they start to pop up and then like Nope, freeze warning, but they some most of the time they live through it the. Parsley in my garden lived through this entire winter. That's amazing. Being like Parsley today. All right, well, OK, that was maybe 10 minutes chaos, but we can I just say 1. More thing, sure, whatever. OK, so Speaking of spring, so guys, I have a little front porch which Samantha and our crew last year when I was on a trip to see my sister or whatever I was doing, they redid the porch for me because it was like literally sinking into the ground. And so they redid the porch and they made little places like they designed the porch just so that I had room for all my plants because I have so many plants that I plant. And I'm really excited. This year I'm going to do some native greenery, which normally I just do herbs and like cucumbers and snap peas even. Though. Yes, I mostly just do it for my rabbit and because I like watching things like pop up or whatever. But this year I'm going to do some native stuff and I'm going to try to attract birds and frogs to my front porch. And yes, I live in the city, but Chachi BT said that I can still attract frogs. So we'll see what happens. I'll keep you updated. I have like kind of a psychotic and slightly dangerous workshop thing happening right now and. Very psychotic and extremely dangerous. But it might totally work. It might. If it works, we'll show you yes. If it does not. Then we can't condone the behavior. No, let's just say some ratchet straps are wrapped around something precarious right now. And that's what I'll leave you with. I was left alone. It was like 9:00 in the shop and I was like, I have an idea. We know how dangerous. That can be alone we. Always. Kind of shit on Samantha for saying she has an idea when. Us 2 are just as guilty of it. Well, Emily and I have like this delusional confidence that we're just like, we'll figure it out. And like Samantha has it too, but she has it where she's like, I can figure it out because I'll research it. And Emily and I do this thing where we just like, raw dog it. And then in the middle of it, we're like, we can Google things, Yeah. Well, I was telling Allison. I was like, you know how we're like we joke about my mom having an idea. Well, I just realized like, I'll just tuck stuff away and then all of a sudden I'll just execute. I was going to say the biggest difference with me is that I announce. You announce your idea I. Have an idea but. I'll be thinking you guys are just like, I should like do this, I should do a new website and this. I'll bring it up to you guys and then it'll be there the next. Yeah, like I just like, I don't have lead up to it. I just it like kind of like, so we've joked before, my brain is kind of like there's like maybe a million file cabinets and then just like stuff everywhere. So like I'll have the thought, file it away. The squirrels in my brain will file it for me. And then one day I'll just pull it out and do it like Hi, Gerald I. Want to give a shout out to all the people out there who are impulsive? Because impulsive can absolutely be a problem in relationships, with finances, with your job. It can be, but it's not inherently bad. And I the older I get, the more I understand. I used to like, really get down on myself because I'm impulsive, But the more the older I get, the more I realize the reason for it. And if you're wired the way I am, where you have ideas that are often just exploding out of your ears, it feels like if you don't act on them immediately, they're lost. Yeah. So the the motivation for impulse actions is often the fear of losing out on something you think is going to be amazing. So yeah, FOMO. Well, FOMO of ideas, good ideas. So sometimes I just have to realize that that is why I'm wired that way and it does help bring things to life. I mean, we are having, we are in a podcast studio, yeah. Because of it, yeah. We went to Ohio. We're meeting with Purdy. We're, you know, we're going, we're visiting Milwaukee and like, yes. So for those of you that are also wired the same way, you do need in a mature way to manage your impulsivity, but you do not need to put yourself in a category of like immature or bad people because you're impulsive. You are wired that way because you're the kind of person that gets things done. I also just like have to say something. If you are right wired a certain way, no matter if you're type A, your type B, whatever you are. Like I have an identical twin levy hand and we're wired very differently and it's like there's a lot of similarities between us, but I'm very type B and she's pretty B type A. And there is no way I will ever be like Hannah. And I think that's something important and kind of a handyman attitude is that you should lean into whoever you are. Like I'm chaotic and also I've organized like my work and my life in such a way in which I am able to be successful in that chaos. And it's part of like accepting my house is never going to be completely organized because first of all, I I will hyper fixate and spend hours organizing. I do not stick to my own organization system. Like my desk will be like perfectly clean and then literally 2 minutes later looks like a bomb went off on it. And that's like I'm never. Going to fix that. Unless maybe a heavy dose of Adderall or something. But for who I am right now, undiagnosed ADHD, that's just how life's going to be. And I think it's really, you have to see what your strengths are. This is one thing my sister has taught me a lot because she's corporate Barbie and has done like Clifton strengths and things like that. I am great at starting things and I'm great at like researching and those kinds. Of things. So that's. Why I'm on the front end of our sales process and why I'm on the front end of our business is because I really have strength in starting things. You have the ability to get things going. Yeah, and I'm not the best at finishing stuff, like I can finish out projects and stuff, but I. Really like requires more effort for you than starting. Yes, like, you know how like sometimes for trying to get going, like you hear like chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga, chugga. Like I'm the one who's like. You're. Me like, yeah, like I'm pushing it. And then I pass the baton off to someone else to like, 'cause I do all of our sales. So I like get the project and the momentum going and the excitement with the client and then I hand it off to the crew and good. Yeah, I think one of your other skills is called input, I think in the Clifton strengths. And you are a sponge for information. Well, it's kind of like Hermione is the device in Harry Potter for getting information into the storyline because. Of course. Hermione read about it. Of course she knew about it. That's the device for getting information to the listeners and the readers that otherwise would seem like awkward. If you're just like, hold on a minute. Hey, let me explain this to you. No, like I read a book about this. Well, you're the person. You're the Hermione of life for us because you are just constantly absorbing information from multiple different areas and it takes different people. I mean, if you think about all of us are are somewhat good at pretty much all the things we're doing together in this effort. But we are definitely really strong in different areas and passionate about different areas. So like, I absolutely obviously believe in education and I believe in what we're doing with our online media, but that's not what that's not where my brain goes crazy at 3:00 in the morning. Yeah, I'm the relationships, connection and patterns like tying. Like I want to reach out and like, I'll take a little of this, a little of this, a little of this and tie it all together and recognize it. And when we weave it together, we can create something really beautiful. And then for you, you just like you see stuff. And then just pick up a phone and then it exists where I'm like biddy, biddy, biddy. And then Arleigh with her educating is like has the ability to think about what do I know? Who is the person I am teaching it to? What is the right way to translate it from my brain to their brain? And then just encouraging and patient. So each of us has our own strengths. And that's a long way to say you should honor who you are. Just like we said, plan a project for who you are, not who you wish you were. You need to build a life for who you actually are, not who society has told you you should be. I, I think this is like a great section to talk about and it is pertinent to what we do for our work because we try to have this section of the podcast pertinent, but something that changed my life in college. So I, we all three of us are perfectionist when it comes to grades and luckily none of us are in school anymore because all three of us are very grade motivated. So I've. Always been motivated by the pursuit of perfection. Long story short, mental illness like eating disorders, things like that have bred out of that, like wanting to be perfect. And one thing I read that changed how I act in life is that you look at a lot of people and you see this person is doing A, this person's doing B, and this person's doing C and they're all perfect at those AB and C. And therefore somehow you assume you should also be perfect at AB and C, even though each of those people are is only good at the one thing. And so it's kind of like a leaning in factor. Like I am really good at some stuff, you're really good at some stuff, you're really good at some stuff, listener, you're really good at some stuff. And. Yeah. You, the whole reason of community, which is so important to the ethos of this podcast is community and doing it together is because then AB and C are all one person. It's you're A&B, you're C and those strength, you all get to benefit from those strengths was just something beautiful. I think like I'm not gonna get too far into it, but very much society, especially with social media, which we're on social media obviously, but it's very individualized. And like the idea of a village is beautiful because back in the day, someone would be really good at hunting. Someone be good at fishing. Someone be good at making clothing. Someone be good at food. Like someone would be good at cooking the food, someone would be good at gathering the food. Not everyone was good at everything. Right, Yeah, It's not efficient for you to try to be good at. Everything. No it isn't, and it's going to dull you being good at the thing you're really good at. Yeah, I used to really want to be type A and so I was like, I this is how I want to be because it's, it seems like the qualities that the Type A people have, I was like, they're very good at this thing, this thing, and I want to be good at those things. And I was like, I cannot do it the same way that these other people are doing it. I finally was like, I just need to do it a way that'll work for me because I can still be good at this, but do it in a way that actually suits me. And then I can lean into my other things that I have naturally because I just could not be Type A, you know? And when I wasn't, when I wasn't medicating, I was a little Type A, but that's because I couldn't sleep. That was more than like a coping. Mechanism for anxiety, yeah, was. Was like my super type A Ness but also like. I I was not good. So to everyone listening, and I do mean you, listener or watcher, you should be exactly who you are. And it doesn't mean that you can't try to be good at other stuff. Well, and you do have some boundaries, like if exactly who you are is an asshole, you're going to need to make some adjustments to accommodate the people around you. But yeah. But be exactly who you are. And I like, like my thing I chose like a few years ago was the things that I loved as a kid was very authentically myself. And I think you should think about what you love doing as a kid. I built stuff as a kid. Like I built random stuff. I went out in our shed and I found this thing and I painted it. And my parents still have it today. And things like that. Like, lean into who you are. I just have to secretly cut my Barbie's hair and hope my mind will and find out. Do you want to be a hair stylist? I do not. I think we probably need to wrap this up, but I want to say one more thing as like a nice bow on this present, which is the reason why it's important for you to lean into who you are is because that's where joy comes from. And joy is what gives you the resilience to live through the stuff that's hard. Yeah. That's true as an act of resistance. Yes, it is. OK, this is the point where we have to pee, so we'll be right back. Are you guys ready to rumble? I'm ready. I'm always ready to rumble. OK so today we are playing a game and it is called Spring Handyman Showdown. I like it. So I'm, I don't want to peek, I don't want to show. OK, so I'm going to stand like. This. Ask you guys a question. Why check a specific thing? So today we're going to be going over a spring edition of some exterior stuff. So things around your house that you should check for. How many are we doing? I have 10. OK. Do we have time for 10? Yeah, we should. I think so. Go fast, OK? Let's do I think 10 quick hits. For our friends. Yeah, they're they're not. They're pretty. OK, basic. We've done a previous episode on maintenance you should do in your home and this is kind of a similar. This is the outdoors version. Yeah, let's do it. And this is sort of specific to spring, we'll probably do another one in fall getting your house ready for winter. But this is like now that everything is like a little bit warmer. If you live in only a three season area then. If you don't have winter, we're slightly jealous, but also we. Like, we're happy for you. Yeah, yeah, we're happy for you. But these are still pertinent even if you do not have winter. Yeah, OK, so First off, why check your doors and windows? Are we like going back and forth? Sure do. You want to go. First, Oh, go ahead. I think we can just why check the opening and closing of your doors and windows. Well, personally, I like to make sure bugs don't come in. For one, yuck. Like with your doors if there's like daylight around them. Two, you want to get fresh air. And three egress. OK my big one for this was sticking doors and windows being sticky. Oh, because when the weather starts to warm up, they swell. Yeah, Emily went all the way to why that's a problem. Oh, so we're saying like the problem? Yes, So what? What are we checking for? Yes, not why check it, but what do we check related to the item you say? Yes, well I do have so I do on all of them. I have like basically like why check it because it kept sticky but also because it could have an issue with latching because they have changed. Oh yeah. And. That's a safety issue. Yeah. And if you have like air flow coming in, like if your door has changed sizes and it doesn't close the same anymore and now there's kind of air coming in, you can kind of feel like the warmness of outside or the coolness of outside. That means that when you're switching from heat to AC, you're going to be losing some of that. Yeah, to the outdoors. It might be unplugged. I think it's funny that the first thing that Emily and I both a lot of those bugs, we're like, no bugs. I hate ants so much. One thing less nation all about me. If there's an Ant in my house, I'm probably gonna cry. So you get this. It happens because of humidity and temperature. Some areas it has to do with the pressure. Around like a shark. Because it's fresh, Let me hit on ants real quick because I don't actually have them in my note cards. But basically you if you have ants, OK or if you've had them in the past, this is really the time to look out for them. And because it's getting warm and they're like repopulating again and stuff, I'm sorry, but find maybe where they're coming from and you can. Kill them all. You can close in like either caulk areas where they're getting in or go outside and try to, you know, figure it out. But take note that if you've had them before, you could probably put Ant traps out before it happens again this spring. Or just, you know, just think about. That that's what summer. Comes just don't. Just make sure you don't put Ant traps where your pets can eat them 'cause they can be, yes, harmful to your pets. Or you're chilling. Yep. OK, why check mailbox? They can be loosened because they get a lot of snow pushed on to them from the plow. Sometimes they get hit directly from the plow. We had a customer once recently who had her water delivery person chunk her mailbox a little bit so. Broke its neck. Basically, yeah. So your mailbox may be loose by spring, so it's a good time to check and see if it's still sturdy. Winter is rough on our poor mailbox. It is, I mean. Yeah. We have to remember like in Michigan because we have such a like freeze thaw pattern went especially in the spring. That means water gets into places, but then it freezes and it expands. And so this happens with porches with like all kinds of things where where you have like water can enter a place, it can really change the dynamics. Yeah, so good to check. So checking the sturdiness of it, check to see if it's rotted at the bottom, because now that things are melting, if it was rotted and water got into it and froze, it might not have felt rotted before. It probably felt sturdy still. So make sure when things are thawed out that you kind of poke at it and make sure that it's still intact. And then make sure that it's still up to the standard height. You can just look up. It may be different in different places, but yeah, I check it. I think it's pretty standardized in the US at least, because most postal trucks are the same height. That's true. Yeah, but freezing and thawing, if your mailbox wasn't buried super deep or if it is buried really deep, or if, you know, the snow plow got like a ton of dirt that was around it, it might not be at the same height above the ground that it was before. And the nice thing about checking your mailbox ahead of time is you can make a plan to swap it out where you don't have an in between time where you don't have a mailbox. Yep I also have look at your signage cuz maybe your signage either got damaged or the it's not reflective anymore or you couldn't see it and if it got hit before maybe put something a little bit reflective on it so that it won't happen again. What some people might not think of is having a number on your house is not just for the mailman to find you, it's for the fireman to find you and the EM TS to find you if necessary. You may be looking for your house. Yeah. I have very strong opinions. On how to sign it. A little tale from the field is we had a customer who had EMT come because they were having a health issue but the EM TS couldn't find them because there wasn't a number on their mailbox. And the number on their house was really hard to see. It wasn't reflective. It was dark so and we love these customers and I mean we would do this for anybody, but so that they sent it that night and then the next morning I went, but I got all of the different signage that I could possibly find and it was in like kind of a what is it a cul-de-sac? Yeah, type thing. It it was in like a little circle of houses. And so looking at it straight on, it was basically, but like kind of from each side a little bit. It was different than like seeing it on the side of the road. So I put the reflective things on the front of the mailbox and then on the side and then on the other side. But I made sure that I had the reflective sign with reflective numbers and I so I put it everywhere. So I was like, they will not, no. Matter what direction they pull in from me, I'll be able to find them. OK, why check after rain? To see if water got in your basement, to see how the water is draining like away from your foundation and your house. And that is with your gutter system, you're grading things like that. Yes. Okay, so I have drainage, which sometimes isn't a problem. If it's in the middle of your yard and you have a little puddle, that's not always a. It is a problem with us, with ducks. Who? If you, yeah, yes, if you're planning on using that area of your yard and not just leaving it for the ducks and the geese, then I love seeing that on the side of the. Highway too. I like you guys. Have fun in that puddle. But so that's not necessarily an issue maybe a little bit if you're trying to use that or your yard, but if it's next to your. House it becomes a pretty big. It becomes an issue. So and I was a large basement. And grading. We nearly always get water in our basement. We live in 175 year old house, so it's just one corner of the basement, but we can tell whether when things are working effectively, when the grading is good, the mulch is adequate, the gutters are clear, the downspouts are like taken away from the house. Then we get a little bit of water in the basement when it rains. If we go down, there's a lot of water. It means something's going on outside that needs to be adjusted. OK, why Check your porch or deck boards? I can tell you because mine right now are some of them have rotted over the winter and they got put in. So ours are older than we've then we've lived in the house. The porch predates us and these are put in with nails, and nails are notorious for rusting over time. Yeah, they definitely aren't stainless. Steel, no. No, they're not stainless steel. And then a lot of times with the newer galvanized screws, you can get more time out of it, but ours are rust. And then as as your nail rusts, it kind of eats away the wood and the paint around it. And then water gets in and then it freezes and the hole just gets bigger and bigger and bigger. So yeah, you should check those because they can actually go from like not really a problem to a real problem over the winter. It can be a lot different in the spring than it was in the fall. I've fallen through client's deck before. It's. Yeah, So what I had was so yes, check for rotting. Some of the things that you can look for is discoloration and paint peeling. So if you might not have paint on your deck but or on your porch boards, but if you do, the paint will probably be peeling off of. It as it is on mine. Yes. And then if you don't, you'll be able to see like a color difference. It'll usually be kind of like green and brown or black. They'll be like a little bit of redness or like oxidization looking rusty color next to like the nails of the squirrels. And then you can also put like your nail or something like somewhat firm into it and if it's squishy or like mulchy. If it's multi is bad, yes. And if it's super squishy, it's getting there, but you can save it if it's early enough. That's right, you don't have to replace it. If it's a little bit squishy sometimes you can still save that. We won't go into it, but they're products like wood hardener and wood Bondo. Exactly I. Do have a quick tip, if you replace a porch board, just know if you replace it with pressure treated, we often replace our clients with cedar because it can be stained immediately. Pressure treated cannot be stained immediately, and if you have a deck that's peeling almost everywhere, I would mostly put money that it was stained while it still. Had too much, too much moisture. I think it's like 12% is the Max for staining 1512 to 15. OK, Yeah. 12 would be perfect, but you can get away with it at 15 if there's enough airflow under the deck. OK. OK, you kind of got this one earlier, but we'll see. Why check? A smelly basement. A smelly basement well for moisture. I was gonna say. Any number of obvious, yeah. It's like the dream line. Yes. Is it so when things are cold, like cold water, even if it has like a lot of microbes in it or like sulfur doesn't usually stink. But once things start to warm up, if you have moisture in your basement, your basement is a great area for mold and mildew to grow. So once things start warming up, and even if you. Don't. I think that there's any water in your basement. If it starts to stink and get a little musty down there and and kind of mildewy, it might be time to investigate. You might have water. Can I give you a little tail from the field? So we had customers that had their like B dry system, for lack of a better word, like the trench system around their basement fail and there was a like A flash flood. So they had the water come in and then it like drained away. Eventually there's some pump work to drained away, but it had been wet and nobody was living in the house at the time. So we went there to look at it. I want to point out this is the whole story is to point out how fast mad mold gets out of control. Because I was checking this house. Weekly, yeah. So I went. There was a flash flood and the neighbor told the homeowner. The homeowner called and said can you go check it? I went over and I'm like, there's a little bit of mold in a couple of places like we should probably call somebody buddy. So I, that was a Friday. I called them when I went back on Monday, the entire basement it was. So. Gross was covered. Everything they owned was covered in mold. So that's just a quick story to tell you. If you see mold, you really want to address it right away. You would be astonished how fast it can get out of control. Yeah, it's the spores too. So get in some. I know you can get mold killer at the store like if it gets really bad, you might need like more of a commercial type mold killer. But if it's small and you start with like a regular run-of-the-mill mold killer, you can usually at least keep it under control and then find a different solution. If it won't go away, but at least it wouldn't it, it most likely won't spread, you know, because then you get into something. That Yeah, Dehumidifiers, yeah. Also, people might not know that mold can be really harmful to you really fast. And I worked in that basement and then another customer's basement, I just went in them to kind of walk with them. They had a mold problem. I am fairly young and really healthy and I was beginning to have trouble breathing in like within 10 minutes. So people. Get really sick when there's like mold. They get really sick, Yeah. And you think about it, mold is the thing that, like, latches on to things and grows. So you do not want that in your lungs. Yeah, the. Last of Us. Yeah. So you it's just to say you need to wear an N95 mask or another specialized mask if you have to spend any time there's like. Some maintenance stuff that we're like that can wait a little bit on mold. Mold is not. Mold is one that gets longer you wait, the worse it gets. The thing that I did want to mention about the smelly basement, say that your basement smells like maybe there might be like a little bit of mildew or potentially some kind of water in there if you can't find it because maybe a, you know, the moisture might be just moisture like kind of seeping in and it's not a pool of moisture or a specific leak. Just run your humidifier or a dehumidifier because that'll mitigate a lot of mold growth and it'll deter a lot of mold. From mine, right in my sump. Yes, that's a pumped. Out part about putting a dehumidifier in like your basement is there's usually like a floor drain or a sump pump or something and just. Need to put it in a place in your basement where it's not quite right. Most of them you can hook a hose up to them. So like if. Your sump pumps like 20 feet away from where you're like, it's really humid right here. Put it there and just run a hose 20 feet. Yeah, Yep. You can even like run it outdoors. And even if you're clumsy like me, just watch for the hose because I maybe know that by actually having tripped over my basement. OK, what's next? Next one? Why track check? Why check your exterior trim? Is it, is it my turn? Yeah. I think so, yeah. That's also something that often rots over the winter. Yay. And if you sometimes it's just for looks, but a couple of places I'll tell you where it becomes a functional problem. If the brick molding or trim around your doors begins to rot, you get animal pest and water infiltration into your home. So you need to be careful and it's notoriously rotty in the spring on shed doors. Shed doors are notorious for rotting. They're they're not built to like be water impervious like we would a house. Because it's a shed, it's not a big deal, but they often rot a lot over the winter. And it's not a big deal if you don't care how it looks, but it is a big deal because your doors trim, the trim on your shed doors often part of the functional hinge system. So it begins to rot and then your door doesn't work properly anymore. So those are a couple things to look for that. Switch to PVC or composite trim and you will. Never have. Yeah, for those of you, you may not know that they make trim exterior trim boards out of composite that look exactly like the ones you already have that are made out of wood. As long as you don't want a wood finish, if you're OK with a white finish or a painted finish, they make both white that it's not paintable and they make white and other colors that are paintable. So you would want to ask that ahead of time, but then they will never rot. If you do have wood, make sure there's a rot gap but around your doors and stuff which is just about like an inch. It's what exactly what it sounds. Like it's a gap that water can't just sit, especially when we get into the wet months like August of summer, at least where we are like torrential. So like you could have a couple of leaves. You don't want wood just hanging out in a puddle of water, that is. Something I see them. That's something we probably bid the most for in summer. Yeah, I will tell you, especially if you have a Houdini dog, if you're the bottom of your fence rots, they will find out and then they'll be like my dog will look like a cartoon dog digging her way out under the fence. You know that that's an interesting Christmas, I. Noticed that you have like 2 by fours like shoved into various areas yeah around the bottom. Okay, so for rotting, but you also want to check your paint, which is an indicator of rot or at least failing paint. And paint serves a couple of purposes, one of them being like a visual purpose, but also because it gives a seal to wood, because wood will eventually rot. It is supposed to, it's a natural thing and it's supposed to just decompose when exposed to water and air and whatever and then just follow it. But if you're using it for something, obviously you don't want to. So painting or like a stain gives it a longer amount of time and it seals it so it doesn't move as much because it's not exposed to the same amount of moisture and it lasts a little bit longer. Here's a hot tip people might not know. If your wood is painted and the paint starts to come off, chances are that your wood was not pressure treated to start with, that's it has been primed and painted. So if you have pressure treated wood that you stain and then the stain wears off or chips off, you still have pressure treated wood. It's going to be more durable. But a lot of times on sheds with trim boards, they weren't pressure treated in the beginning. They're meant to be painted. So when the paint comes off, it's both an aesthetic and a functional problem. I thought you were going to say this tip, which is wood. End grain of wood Wicks water. Up. Very well, so if you're replacing like a brick molding casing around your door or something like that, make sure you paint the very. Bottom, I will say when we go and see rot and we we lay down on the ground and look up at the underside of the ends of your boards, they're almost never painted and you don't don't notice because you cannot see them unless you lay on the ground and look at it. Usually you paint after you've installed exactly. So just remember, if you're painting, you know, take that little baby roller and roll it underneath there so that it's covered. Ruin a brush, Shove it in. There, that was a great, that was a great ad Emmy. Yeah, I also have the same little tip about if. Cock, you want to look at your exterior trim for cock because you'll if your cock has failed, which is like cracking or peeling or just like literally falling apart, you'll have issues with water and air like airflow. I want to tell people something. I think this is important. I know we're running a little long. When you go out and your caulk is cracking, it's very tempting to caulk over it. That does not give you the water seal that you're looking for. It just gives you a thicker bead of caulk. So this is one of those things you have to like, sit down and grumble and throw a temper tantrum for a little while and then just accept that you have to do it and it sucks. You need to scrape out the old caulk, let it breathe until it's dry, and then put one clean bead of caulk all the way around. I know we want attempted to just like put caulk over caulk, but it does not do what you think it's going to do this. Counts for everything. You really can't caulk over caulk anywhere. No. Yeah, especially if you don't know what was there before. You can usually put silicone over silicone and it's fine. But fast practice is, yeah, it's not. It's not ideal. And we'll do another little video about exterior caulking because you caulk a little bit different outside than you do inside, OK? We'll do how to handyman. Yes, OK, we'll do a little speed round. OK, we have 4 more left, so just. Answer, put it down. Answer, put it down. Is that what you're gonna do? Yeah. And then we'll expound later if we need to. OK, OK, this one we might need to. OK, why? Immediately break our. Rule gravity is not our. Strong suit, yeah. We'll just, we'll just be quick about our chances if we talk faster, go faster. There you go. We'll. Just have Thomas speed up the speed of the video. Why check sighting? Because siding is your main defense for water not getting on the side of your house. And so if your weed poles are like in vinyl siding, if your weed poles are plugged, that means it's not allowing that water to draw away from your house. Or you just need to check in general. That's your main defense. For you I I just had a presentation in one of my networking group members from the pest control and animal control guy, no. You're about to ruin it. So. Often. It can take, I'm talking about pests, mice, moles, bats, raccoons and squirrels and chipmunks. So it doesn't take a very big hole for them to get in. So if you have like a tiny hole in your siding, he showed us pictures, a raccoon will literally stick their hand in there and rip your siding off. They are, they are wild where the bats are like sneaking in and the squirrels are sneaking in. The raccoons are just straight up like, grab it and RIP it off and then just lumber in with their big booties. Yeah. So it is important to look for openings because it's not just a water problem, which is a problem, as Emmy said, but it's also you really don't want animals living in your attic. It's, it's, I mean, it's not that annoying if it doesn't freak you out, but it is a problem. It's a contamination. They will poop, pee, pee in your insulation. They will have their children in your insulation. It's just you don't. That's gross, but I'm thinking about little raccoon babies hanging out. Upstairs. Oh my gosh, the boat next to my house always have raccoon. And it's. Ridiculously. All right, what's next? This is like the non speed. Round so you want to check for holes and damage, maybe missing siding. You should always check these things of your siding. Windy here. After storms as well. And then if you have painted siding, you want to check your paint and make sure that it's good and it's for water and protection. Yes. Thank you. Oh, was that? I'm sorry. That was hers. I'm sorry. OK. Why? And never forgive, you sad gutters. Oh, I feel like we've talked about this one before because we talked. About it a little bit. Here's something so there's your gutters can be full of several things. One, they can be full of leaves. 2, they can be full of the granules that used to be on your shingles. Those will overtime they will go down. They will come off with rain. Yeah, for asphalt shingles, they will go down and they will end up in your gutter. They can be full of tree debris, even branches. And the other thing people don't often think of is they can be abjectly full of dirt, which used to be leaves that have rotted. And you can tell from the smell what they used to be. But we've gone up to clean a lot of gutters and you can't necessarily see it from the ground, but you get up and look in them and that you are like pulling handfuls of mud out and putting it in a 5 gallon bucket while you're up there. And this is maybe an unpopular opinion. But I know what you're going to say. Preston, who who works for us in the summer is going to love me for this. Gutter guards. This is sorry, gutter guard companies. Here, wait, hold on, let me place your soapbox down. There's my soapbox. Okay, gutter guards are terrible, and here's why. The idea of them is fantastic, which is the water goes in, nothing else can go in. They never get full. That is absolutely never true. Every gutter guard you have is going to have a weakness. So in Michigan, we have a lot of different deciduous trees, Evergreens too, but deciduous, they'll give you like a whole cafeteria full of weird things coming off the trees. Also, a lot of clients pay us to take the gutter guards off. Clean the gutters and put the gutter guards back on like it's cheaper. Just have someone go to your open gutters and pull the stuff out. So if you want them and you feel passionate about them, go ahead and get them. But that was just Samantha Pearl and Preston Longoria as a pingin. OK, that's awesome. So I. Always tell clients I say I can't tell you what to do, but I just can tell you. I do not recommend gutters, that's true. You want to check, like Samantha said, for flow, make sure that water's flowing out of them. But you also want to check your gutter seams to make sure that everything is still nice and intact. Because if your gutters are not connected to each other, then it's not really redirecting water where it's supposed to. Then you want to check the location and the direction that your gutters are facing. It's. All about can I share so a lot of gutters with with houses that are like tidy tight in their foundation and they grade away from the house. We'll just have the gutter will the downspout will come down and it will have like those little like things that sit on the ground that that's fine. It drains like a foot away from the house for us. We actually have downspout extenders, they're called. It's basically the downspout comes down and then you hook something on, it has like A304050, whatever the degree angle is, and it runs another 6 feet away from the house. If you have a lot of water in your basement, those can make a really big practical difference. OK, why check Windows? You talked about this a little bit. Earlier, Yeah, well, first of all, windows are really important for insulation in your house during the summer. And it can really help with your utility bills. It's also important for like just stuff coming in and out, like air ants, yak and other things like that. And also airflow is important in the summer. And if I can't get fresh air in the summer, I'm going to freak out. So those are my three things. OK, those are all good and also screens you want to check your screens. The. Screens are easily damageable and if you open up your window and you have found that now between your screen and your window is a bird's nest, you do not want to open that. Window and I will tell you if you're in Michigan, the thing that's going to bother you the most is mosquitoes Yep, if you're in the South, this thing that's going to bother you the most is Palmetto bugs, which OK, you southerners, they're cockroaches with wings. Gross. They will absolutely come in so they my little addition. You can do two different things. You can re screen your screens which is not that hard, but they also have screen fixing kits so if you have like a giant screen or if you have a bunch of little holes or something you can just like put a little patch on them. So if you have an old fashioned hardware store in your town, they probably rescreen things like we will take, we rescreen things, but I'll take our like slider door screen to the hardware store. It's like 40 bucks and they do all the hard work. So sometimes those are the things you let go forever and ever and ever. And then you're like, well, that wasn't that hard. Yeah, yeah. No, it's really simple and it really changes is the look of like a ratty window into just like a regular nice like a window. It changes the look of it a lot. I've. Been living with a broken screen for four years and for the content friends. For you older listeners out there, it's like the Cobblers. Children never have shoes. The construction people's spouse never has their projects done. OK, last one. OK, why check your water spigot? Oh, we just did a video on this so also called a hose bib. And I also made fun of the fact that we all call it a spigot, which sounds normal. It's spigot SPIGOT, which sounds stupid to me, but that's the right. It's your water spigot anyway. Also called your hose bib. Spelled it wrong. If you let me think they're often move. Yep, see spigot. That's what we all call it. It's spigot. Anyway, it's like spigot, but spigot. No, it's OK. Now, all right, well, spigot, Spigot spy got whatever it is they if you can pull on it and it moves, it will leak. If it's not leaking now, it will leak eventually. So it's good to check. Does it move? Is it securely attached to the house? And then you want to run it and find out does it leak outside? Does it leak inside? One thing, if someone installs A spigot for you and it moves a little bit and you just see a crap ton of cock around it, please get a different. Contest. Yeah, that's not that's not good. And you, I mean, it's a small thing, but you also get animal and pest infestation if you if your thing moves, it means there's empty spots around. It my whole house for pest location this weekend. And Emily, you're gonna be freaking her out. Well. I'm like I got this for my dad. I literally hate yams so much they make me cry so. OK. So if you have low pressure and you either didn't in normal in like previous years or if it just seems like kind of low pressure for a hose, you might have a leak somewhere. And also it's important to check in the like the spring as well, because if you had water like coming out of your hose and then you didn't like unscrew your hose, it like the water in your hose line can freeze, expand and crack things. So things from the winter off. My spigots this winter. I don't think. Go check them, see what's going on, Yeah. So you need to check them. A good practice is probably to turn them off in the winter. It is a good practice and I've done it every other year. And that goes for your sprinklers as well. You're going to want to make sure that your sprinklers are doing well. My dad, my dad always has like the people come and like air them out or whatever, blow out all the water. But then I don't, I think he just turns them on himself and then he just like checks every one of them. And I think you have to make sure that the water pressure at each one of those is still good because you could lose like a lot of money on water if you are paying to basically just put it into the bottom of the ground. And if you only get a water bill once a month, you you might not know until you get and. Your your sprinklers going off like on today yeah. So those are things for things to check. We. Yeah, every single. One right, which means we tied. Oh yeah, I was about to say who won. Oh, I should have done a tiebreaker. I didn't even think about that. That's alright. We. Can we can share the we can? Share it. That's adorable. There's also more cards than I do. I think you did win. How many cards you have? I only have 53. I had 10. OK, OK, so if you want more information, you can follow us. Emily. Where should they follow? Us, you should follow us how to handy ma'am. You should specifically follow at how to handy ma'am. Sorry, you should specifically follow us on Instagram because we update our stories and you can see like real time updates. If you like us, we like you, so you should like us back and you can check our tic tac because sometimes we post like cheekier and sillier content on there. But you should also follow us everywhere. Every time we get a new follower we get very excited. Yes, and you should comment on stuff. I don't comment on things. Comment kindly. I love people comment rudely. We send it in the group chat and sort. Of in front of. You. Yeah, we don't. Don't be mean. Mean people aren't listening to this anyway. Well, thank you for coming today. Well. If you're hate listening, we like it the feed views anyway. Yes, thank you. Thank you. All right, you guys go out and check all your stuff outside. Enjoy the song. And can we put an actual checklist that sums up what we just talked about so that when they listen to this, it's ready? So go to How to handyman.com and get your spring checklist. And in the style of Harry Styles, treat people with kindness. Yes.