The decisions

• Who is on the island the night before a hard freezeNamed, and reachable. This is the most important line on the sheet. If the answer is nobody, the rest cannot happen.
• Whether that person can get inside the house that nightAccess, not goodwill. Somebody who can stand at the door and cannot open it has not helped.
• What they are authorised to do without reaching youTurn the heat up, open a cabinet, close a valve, call a plumber. Decide the list in advance.
• Up to what figure they may spendAnd what happens if the number is exceeded at eleven at night.
• Who is called first if something has already happenedAnd second, and third, with methods that reach a person.
• Which plumber would be called, and do they know the houseEverybody calls one the same morning. The one who has been there before is worth more than the one who has not.
• Whether the water is left on at all through the winterThe single decision most likely to change the outcome. Whatever you decide, write it down.
• What the heat is actually set to, and whether it is runningSet and running are different facts, and the difference is usually a breaker or a failed unit nobody looked at.
• Where the exposed plumbing is at this houseHose bibs, the crawlspace side, an outdoor shower, a garage run. Photographed, so the person on the night is not searching.

The house, before the first cold week

• Heat confirmed running, not only setWith warm air at a register, on a date, by a person.
• Hose bibs dealt with, and anything outside drainedBefore the first forecast rather than after it.
• Pans under the water heater and air handler, clear and dryWhere a slow failure shows first.
• Crawlspace checked for standing water and a lifted vapour barrierNobody looks, and it is where a small problem becomes a structural one.
• Automatic shut-off or leak detection armed, if fittedAnd the alert going somewhere a person will see it at two in the morning.
• Humidity reading taken and written downSo February has something to compare itself to.
• Cabinet doors under exposed sinks, and whether anybody will open themA small thing that only works if somebody is actually in the house.

What should be written down before winter starts

• The freeze plan itself, in one placeWho, access, authority, figure, plumber. One page, and everybody involved has seen it.
• Where the water shuts off, with a photographThe single most valuable photograph in a winter house record.
• The away settings for water, heat and humidityWritten as settings rather than intentions.
• Who else has been toldA plan one person knows is a plan that fails when that person is travelling.

Our freeze plan this winter — who, access, authority, and the plumber