The Kiawah year, on one page
A house on this island is not exposed to one risk. It is exposed to twelve, in order, every year. What each month does to a closed house, what any company looking after it should be watching, and what an owner should have settled by then — whether or not we are the ones doing it.
| Month | What the month does | What should be watched | What you should have settled |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | The freeze nobody prepared forThe expensive freezes are the short overnight drops in a week the house was expected to be fine. | Heat actually running rather than set, pans under the water heater and air handler, hose bibs. | Who is on the island when a freeze is forecast, and whether they can get inside the house that night. |
| February | The quiet month, and why it mattersNobody has been in the house since the holidays, so this is the month things are found — or are not. | Ceiling corners on the weather side, under every sink, the alarm history. | Whether you actually see what was checked each month, or only the reassurance around it. |
| March | Pollen arrives before you doOak pollen coats every horizontal surface, clogs screens and outdoor units, and stains what sits under it wet. | Screens and outdoor unit surrounds, furniture covers, the pool deck. | The exterior cleaning booked with the company that does it, before the whole island wants them at once. |
| April | The first warm week does the damageA house closed since November has had nobody opening it. Mold needs warmth and a shut house, not a leak. | Every zone including lower rooms, systems running, the crawlspace, any smell before any stain. | Who decides, and how quickly, if something has been changing since January. |
| May | Everything starts working againThe systems that idled through winter are asked to run, and the ones that will fail declare themselves in the first fortnight. | Irrigation zones observed running, cooling holding setpoint, pool water and equipment, exterior lighting, heads watering the siding. | The season's service visits booked with the providers who hold your equipment's history. |
| June | Storm season starts on paperNothing usually happens, which makes it the only sensible month to find out whether the storm plan works. | Shutters and their hardware tested rather than assumed, generator status and fuel, what is loose outside, whether the photographic record is current. | The pre-storm sequence agreed in writing: who does what, in what order, with what authority to spend. |
| July | Heat, salt and the machineryCooling runs hardest in the month the house is most occupied, and salt is doing steady work on everything outside. | Cooling performance and filter dates, condensate drains and their pans, corrosion on hardware and fittings, deck boards beginning to cup. | A standing instruction on small findings, so a cupped board is dealt with in July rather than noted. |
| August | The house is full, and then it is notA house lived in for three weeks and then closed is a different risk from one closed all along. | The full departure walk — every window and door, refrigeration, the thermostat, the water, anything left that should not be. | A departure walk arranged for within days of your leaving, not a fortnight later. |
| September | Storm season, and the fortnight after a stormEveryone understands the day. The expensive part is the two weeks after, before there is a stain on any ceiling. | The full perimeter, the crawlspace, the dune side, every elevation photographed and dated. | Who documents the house after a storm, how soon, and where the dated photographs are kept. |
| October | The best month, and the one people skipThe heat has gone and the house is usually empty. The easiest month to get work done well. | Everything found during the season and still open. October is the month the open list is closed rather than carried. | Nothing from the season still open, and the trades you want in November already booked. |
| November | Closing the house properlyMost of what goes wrong between now and March is decided in the week the house is closed. | The departure standard — water, heat, system settings, refrigeration, exterior secured, the record updated. | A written closing note, so you can read in February exactly how the house was left. |
| December | Nobody is hereThe island is quiet and the first hard freeze usually arrives in the last fortnight, while everyone is elsewhere. | Heat running, exposed plumbing, and the packages that accumulate at a door and announce that nobody is home. | Mail and parcels collected every visit, and the freeze watch scheduled rather than reactive. |
What this sheet is not. It is not a maintenance schedule, a warranty requirement or trade advice. Home Watch is a recurring visual check against a written standard; specialist work is performed by licensed independent companies. The middle column describes what should be observed and recorded, not serviced.
The Kiawah year · one-sheet v1.0 · derived from the published field note, not retyped from elsewhere
Vellamore · Kiawah Island, South Carolina
myvellamore.com · 843-619-2346