The Kiawah year, month by month
Each month brings something different to a closed house on this island. What it is, what to watch for, and what should already be settled.
Owners tend to hold one worry at a time — hurricanes in September, a pipe in January. What six years of owning a house here has taught us is that the calendar is relentless in a much duller way. Something is always working on the house, and the thing that is working on it in April is not the thing that is working on it in July. A visit schedule that ignores the month is just a subscription.
This is the most useful thing we know and we have no interest in keeping it. If you look after your own house here, work down it. If you pay someone, ask them what they do in March, and see whether they have an answer.
Each month below carries a third line — settled by now — which is the decision an owner should already have made by then, whoever is walking the house. There is also a one-page version you can print for a house binder.
The freeze that nobody prepared for
The expensive freezes here are not the forecast ones. They are the short overnight drops in a week when the house was expected to be fine. A supply line splits in a house nobody is in and runs until somebody opens a door.
What we watch: that the heat is actually running rather than set, the pans under the water heater and air handler, hose bibs and anything exposed on the crawlspace side.
What should happen: a visit inside the freeze window, not after it. This is the month where weekly and twice-monthly are genuinely different products.
Settled by nowWho is on the island when a freeze is forecast, and whether they can get inside the house that night. The freeze sheet.
The quiet month, and why it matters
Nothing happens in February, which is exactly why things are found in it. Nobody has been in the house since the holidays. This is the month a system that stopped in December gets noticed — or does not.
What we watch: ceiling corners on the weather side, under every sink, and the alarm history for entries nobody accounted for.
What should happen: the note you get in February should be the dullest one of the year. If it is not, the house has been telling somebody something for eight weeks.
Settled by nowWhether you actually see what was checked each month, or only the reassurance around it.
Pollen arrives before you do
Oak pollen coats every horizontal surface, indoors as well as out if anything has been opened. It clogs screens and outdoor units and it stains decking and furniture that sits under it wet.
What we watch: screens and outdoor unit surrounds, furniture covers, the pool deck.
What should happen: the exterior cleaning conversation happens now, with the companies who do it, before everyone on the island wants them at once.
Settled by nowThe exterior cleaning booked with the company that does it, before the whole island wants them at once.
The first warm week does the damage
A house that has been closed since November has had nobody opening it. Add one warm week and mold does not need a leak — it needs a shut house and warmth, and it has both.
What we watch: every zone including the lower rooms, systems actually running, the crawlspace for standing water and for the vapor barrier lifting, and any smell before any stain.
What should happen: if something has been changing since January, April is the month it is acted on rather than noted.
Settled by nowWho decides, and how quickly, if something has been changing since January.
Everything starts working again
Irrigation, cooling, pool, outdoor kitchen — all the systems that idled through winter are asked to run, and the ones that will fail this year mostly declare themselves in the first fortnight of doing so.
What we watch: zones observed running rather than assumed, cooling holding its setpoint, pool water and equipment condition, exterior lighting, and irrigation heads that are watering the siding.
What should happen: the service visits that matter are booked before the season, with the providers who hold your equipment’s history.
Settled by nowThe season's service visits booked with the providers who hold your equipment's history.
Storm season starts on paper
Nothing usually happens in June, which makes it the only sensible month to find out whether the storm plan works. Shutters are the classic example: the hardware is never tested until the day it is needed.
What we watch: shutters and their hardware tested rather than assumed, generator status indicators and fuel, what is loose outside, and whether the photographic record of the house’s current condition is current.
What should happen: the pre-storm sequence is agreed in writing now — who does what, in what order, with what authority to spend.
Settled by nowThe pre-storm sequence agreed in writing: who does what, in what order, with what authority to spend.
Heat, salt and the machinery
Cooling equipment runs hardest in the month the house is most likely to be occupied, and salt corrosion on hardware and fittings is doing its steady work on everything outside.
What we watch: cooling performance and filter dates, condensate drains and the pans under them, salt corrosion on hardware and light fittings, and deck boards that have begun to cup.
What should happen: findings are photographed while they are small. A cupped board in July is a carpentry item; in three years it is a deck.
Settled by nowA standing instruction on small findings, so a cupped board is dealt with in July rather than noted.
The house is full, and then it is not
The handover month. A house that has been lived in for three weeks and then closed is a different risk from one that has been closed all along — food, damp towels, a thermostat left at a holiday setting, a window somebody opened.
What we watch: the full departure walk. Every window and door, refrigeration, the thermostat, the water, and anything left that should not be left.
What should happen: a visit within days of departure, not a fortnight later. The mistakes made on the way out are cheap for about a week.
Settled by nowA departure walk arranged for within days of your leaving, not a fortnight later. Before you leave.
Storm season, and the fortnight after a storm
Everyone understands the day. The expensive part is often the two weeks afterwards, before any damage has had time to show. By the time there is, the decking has been wet the whole time and a repair has become a claim.
What we watch, after: the full perimeter, the crawlspace, the dune side, and every elevation photographed and dated the same day.
What should happen: a documented visit as soon as it is safe, with dated photographs. That record is what you will be asked for.
Settled by nowWho documents the house after a storm, how soon, and where the dated photographs are kept.
The best month, and the one people skip
Storms are still possible, the heat has gone, and the house is usually empty. It is the easiest month to get work done well and the easiest month to assume nothing needs doing.
What we watch: everything found during the season and still open. October is the month the open list gets closed rather than carried.
What should happen: the trades you want in November are booked in October, and the freeze preparation is agreed before anybody is cold.
Settled by nowNothing from the season still open, and the trades you want in November already booked.
Closing the house properly
Most of what goes wrong between now and March is decided in the week the house is closed. It is the most important week of the year for the house, and it is usually done in a hurry on the way to the airport.
What we watch: the departure standard — water, heat, system settings, refrigeration, exterior secured, and the record updated with anything that changed during the season.
What should happen: a written closing note. You should be able to read, in February, exactly what state the house was left in.
Settled by nowA written closing note, so you can read in February exactly how the house was left. The closing sheet.
Nobody is here
The island is quiet, the houses are empty, and the first hard freeze of the winter usually arrives in the last fortnight of the month while everyone is somewhere else.
What we watch: heat running, the exposed plumbing, and the packages and mail that accumulate at a door and announce that nobody is home.
What should happen: mail and parcels brought in every visit, and the freeze watch treated as a scheduled thing rather than a reaction to a forecast.
Settled by nowMail and parcels collected every visit, and the freeze watch scheduled rather than reactive.
What the calendar tells you about choosing a company
Three things, and they are worth more than any brochure comparison.
One: a company that does the same visit in March as in September does not have a standard, it has a route. Ask what changes.
Two: the value is in the series, not the visit. Deck boards, corrosion, a settling crack — none of them mean anything once. They mean everything as a comparison to last month, which is why we read and write the number every time.
Three: almost everything above is observation and coordination. We do not diagnose, service, repair or operate equipment — the licensed companies who do that work are independent, and we are careful about the line because a house under warranty or under a service contract can be harmed by someone who is not. What we are selling is that somebody who knows this calendar is standing in your house on a schedule, writing down what they see.
Brian Winter is a founder of Vellamore and has kept a second home for more than twenty years, the last six of them on Kiawah.