Fall in Utah: Colors, Football & the HŌMowner Fall Checklist
There are a lot of things to love about living in Utah, but fall might be one of the best times of the entire year.
The mornings start getting a little cooler, football is back, the mountains begin changing colors, and suddenly a drive through one of our canyons feels completely different than it did just a few weeks ago.
If you’ve never taken some time to get out into the mountains during the fall, this is the time to do it. Go for a hike while the leaves are changing, take the family for a drive through one of the canyons, or just find an excuse to spend an afternoon outside before winter shows up.
One of my favorite parts of fall in Utah is simply driving through the mountains and seeing the reds, oranges, and yellows spread across the hillsides. The Alpine Loop is always a great option for a fall drive, and another fun route is heading up Big Cottonwood Canyon, across Guardsman Pass, and over toward Park City.
You don’t always need some huge weekend adventure either. Sometimes just getting in the car, putting on some music, and driving through the mountains is enough to remind you how cool it is that we get to live here.
Of course, the changing leaves also mean something else.
Winter is coming.
Before the snow starts flying, this is a great time to give your HŌM a little attention.
The Fall HŌMowner Checklist
A few small projects now can help protect your home through the colder months, prevent expensive surprises, and make life a little easier once Utah decides it’s officially winter.
Here are a few things worth putting on your fall HŌMowner checklist.
1. Winterize Your Sprinkler System
This is one of the big ones in Utah. Before we start seeing consistent freezing temperatures, make sure your sprinkler system is properly shut down and winterized. Water left inside irrigation lines can freeze, expand, and potentially damage pipes, valves, or sprinkler components.
If you aren’t comfortable blowing out the system yourself, this is one of those jobs that may be worth hiring out. While you’re outside, disconnect your garden hoses and make sure exterior faucets are ready for colder temperatures too.
2. Clean Out Your Gutters
Fall leaves look great on the trees. They’re a little less exciting when they’re packed into your gutters.
Leaves, sticks, and other debris can prevent water from draining properly. Once temperatures drop, that trapped water can freeze and potentially create additional problems around the roofline. Clean the gutters, check your downspouts, and make sure water is draining away from your foundation.
3. Give Your Furnace Some Attention
Your furnace is about to get a lot more exercise, so now is a good time to make sure it’s ready.
Replace the furnace filter if it’s due, turn the system on before you actually need it, and listen for anything that sounds unusual. If your furnace hasn’t been serviced in a while, fall can also be a good time to have an HVAC professional take a look at it.
It’s a lot better to discover a heating problem during a mild fall afternoon than during the first freezing night of the year.
4. Check Your Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Detectors
This one recently became a little more personal at our house.
We had two smoke alarms decide they needed some attention within a pretty short period of time. One had reached the end of its 10-year life and started giving us the dreaded low-battery-style chirp, so that one got replaced.
The other is an original hardwired alarm in our home, and when that thing decides to make noise, it sounds worse than an alarm clock going off first thing in the morning.
Of course, it didn’t decide to make itself known at a convenient time. It went off right around the time all of my kids were finally getting ready to fall asleep, which completely freaked out my daughter and made bedtime a little more exciting than we had planned.
So here’s a little HŌMowner advice from experience: don’t wait until bedtime to test your smoke alarms.
If you have kids, maybe test them in the middle of the day while they’re at school. And if you have pets, they’ll probably appreciate the daytime test too.
Fall is a great time to test your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors, replace batteries when needed, and check the age of the units themselves. As furnaces and fireplaces start running again, making sure those safety devices are working properly is a very small job that can make a very big difference.
5. Look for Drafts Around Windows and Doors
Walk around your home and check for areas where cold air might be getting inside. Weather stripping around doors can wear out over time, and small gaps around windows can make your heating system work harder than it needs to all winter.
Replacing worn weather stripping or sealing small gaps is usually a relatively inexpensive project, but it can make your home noticeably more comfortable once the temperatures start dropping.
6. Take a Look at the Roof
You don’t necessarily need to climb onto your roof. In fact, please don’t if you aren’t comfortable doing it.
But fall is a great time to visually check for missing or damaged shingles, loose flashing, damaged gutters, or anything else that looks out of place. If something catches your attention, having a roofer or qualified professional inspect it before snow starts piling up can potentially save you a much bigger headache later.
7. Prepare Your Fireplace and Chimney
If your family uses a fireplace during the winter, make sure it’s ready before the first cold night arrives.
Wood-burning fireplaces may need chimney cleaning or inspection, while gas fireplaces should be checked to make sure everything is operating properly. And while you’re at it, this is probably a better time to figure out where the fireplace remote went than when everyone is already freezing in December.
8. Trim Trees and Clean Up the Yard
Fall yard cleanup isn’t only about making everything look nice. Take a look at the trees around your property and watch for dead or damaged branches, especially anything hanging over your roof, driveway, vehicles, or walkways.
Heavy Utah snow can put a lot of extra weight on branches that are already struggling. This is also a good time to clean up leaves, put away outdoor furniture, drain fountains or other outdoor water features, and store anything you don’t want buried under snow.
9. Get the Snow Gear Ready
You know it’s coming.
Find the snow shovels, check the snowblower, pick up some ice melt, and move everything somewhere you can actually reach when the first storm arrives.
Every year somebody discovers their snow shovel is buried behind fourteen boxes in the back of the garage after six inches of snow has already fallen. Don’t let that be you.
10. Do a Quick Walkthrough of Your Home
One of the easiest things you can do this fall is simply walk around your property and pay attention.
Look underneath sinks for slow leaks, check around the water heater, walk through the basement, inspect the areas around your windows, look at exterior drainage, and listen to the furnace when it turns on.
You don’t have to be a contractor to notice when something doesn’t look or sound right. Catching a small problem early is almost always easier than dealing with it after it turns into something bigger.
Football Season Is Back at HŌM
Fall in Utah also means one very important thing: college football.
We recently added some new football features to the HŌM website, including game information, countdowns, and a way for our clients and friends to cheer on their favorite Utah college team.
And at the moment, BYU has the most cheers and is sitting at the top of the HŌM fan rankings.
So if you’re a Utah or Utah State fan and you don’t like hearing that, you know what to do.
Head over to the website, click on your team, and add your cheer. We’re going to keep the voting going throughout the season and see which fan base comes out on top by the end of the year.
We’ve also been continuing to add new resources and updates throughout the HŌM website, so take a look around while you’re there. Our goal is to make it a place our clients can continue using even when they aren’t actively buying or selling a home.
Living in Utah With Connor: The Pros & Cons of Living in Utah
If you’re looking for something to watch or listen to during your next drive through the mountains, Episode 4 of Living in Utah With Connor is now available.
For this episode, I asked eight people what they see as some of the biggest pros and cons of living in Utah. We talk about the outdoors, the people, growth, traffic, weather, and some of the other things that make living here great, while also acknowledging a few of the things that might drive you a little crazy.
You can watch the full episode on YouTube or listen to it on Spotify, whichever you prefer.
And keep an eye out for the next episode of Living in Utah With Connor, coming later this week.
We’ve got a lot more Utah content on the way.
Enjoy Fall While It’s Here
Utah fall never seems to last quite long enough.
So get outside, drive through the mountains, watch some football, enjoy the cooler weather, and knock a couple of things off the HŌMowner checklist while you’re at it.
You don’t have to tackle everything in one weekend. Pick a few projects, work your way through the list, and you’ll have your home in much better shape before winter arrives.
And remember, our relationship with our clients doesn’t end when we hand over the keys.
If you ever need a recommendation for a contractor, cleaner, inspector, plumber, electrician, HVAC company, or another home service professional, reach out to us. We’re always happy to help point you in the right direction.
That’s part of what being a HŌMowner is all about.
HŌM|EXP Realty
Helping you before, during, and long after the move.
Connor
