Home Tips

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On this page I have home tips for the purchasing, cleaning, and care of your Cape Coral Fl home.

I could've used these home tips when I moved to Florida in 2006, I had no idea about some of them, but thankfully I had the help of neighbors and friends.

Before I get into it, I want to let you know some things that you might need to budget for when you buy a home in Cape Coral, that you may not have had to worry about before.

• Pest Control - Will run you about $50-$100/month for inside and outside the house, they usually charge you quarterly, as needed costs extra.
• Pool Cleaning - Budget around $50-$100/month, depending on the service, for weekly cleanings.
• Lawn Care - For a basic package of lawn mowing and edging on a typical 1/4 acre lot, about $25-$35/week, weekly during rainy season, as needed during dry season.
• A/C Maintenance - Yearly tune-ups run about $100-$125. I would budget in another couple of hundred dolars for possible problems like ants clogging up the condenser.
• Carpet Cleaning - I paid just under $200 for 4 rooms, including Scotch Guard and tax. It's suggested that you have your carpets cleaned once or twice/year.
• Tile and Grout Cleaning and Sealing - For cleaning both, around $200 and around $100 for sealing the grout, every 2-3 years.
• Dryer Vent Cleaning - Whew! The last of my budgeting home tips. Many home here have dryer vents that vent out on the roof, and if you live in a condo, you will need to have them cleaned every other year. It will cost you just under $100.

If you get a home with a pool, the cost of heating it can run a couple of extra hundred dollars a month. There's a great website put up by Florida Power and Light that tells you how to save energy for your pool and home tips on how to save money, how to calculate pool pump and pool heater costs, and other costs involving electricity.

You can always do some of the cleaning and maintenance yourself, scroll down for my home tips on cleaning.

Home Tips - The A/C

Not only do you want to control the heat, but also the humidity. Mildew and molds grow very quickly here. Metal rusts quickly, so I wouldn't buy things like metal shower curtain bars or shower caddies.

Air conditioner filters need to be changed every 1 - 3 months. The best way to tell if you need to change it is to see how long it takes to turn black, most filters show on the packaging how the filter looks when you need to change it.

If you smoke in your home, or have a lot of pets, you will have to change the filter more regularly. We don't have either, so we only have to change our filters every 3 months, and that's with the filters that supposedly last only one month.

I like to get my filters at Home Depot, they have good prices and they have my size ....... it's hard to find. I tend to get enough filters for a year at a time.

They cost anywhere between $3-$15, depending on the size and quality.

When looking at homes, check to see where the filters are. At the house I rented, they were in the ceiling and I had very high ceilings in the living room. I was barely able to reach and change the filter with the ladder I had.

We keep our temperature between 76-78 degrees.

You may want to read about toxic Chinese drywall and what it can do to your air conditioner.

Home Tips - Humidity

If you don't like all the air from fans, another way to lower humidity is to install a humidistat, an instrument that can be on the thermostat, that controls the humidity in your home.

I have one that came with my condo and I love it! It is definitely a selling point and you will want to find out if any home you are interested in purchasing has one.

It is recommended that you keep humidity no higher than 60%.

The air in my home is cool and dry, vacuuming can be a sweaty job even with the a/c on, but the humidistat will make it more comfortable.

When showering, always run bathroom fans; run stove fans when boiling water and food on top of the stove.

Home Tips - Cleaning

I think you should squeegee after every shower. I also recommend toweling off the tiles and faucets as well. It's a pain in the neck, but worth the time and aggravation that you save in the long run.

Once a month I have to spray the shower tile grout with mildew-killer and it stinks! I would love to know if anyone has any ideas for a non-toxic way to kill that mildew.

I've tried regular detergents, vinegar, baking soda, and hydrogen peroxide ..... but they don't work.

The hydrogen peroxide works well to clean the mildew we get on the metal window frames from condensation in winter. I put it on a Q-Tip and it comes off easily. You will have to clean your window frames a couple of times over the winter.

Do not soak clothing in marble sinks, it may stain them. My sink turned pink when I soaked a red garment in it.

I successfully removed the stains by covering the stains with a paste of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide.

Put damp white cloths or paper towels over the paste, then cover with plastic wrap.

For cleaning the toilet, you will need a scrubber that has two stiff brushes attached, just like the one to the right in the photo.

One brush is for the bottom of the bowl, the other is for cleaning up under the rim. It's important that you regularly scrub hard under that rim to get rid of the mildew that grows so quickly here.

Home Tips - The Lanai

A lanai is like having another room, a room outside where you can and will want to enjoy the weather, without bugs.

I have found that the easiest way to clean lanai floors is to just vacuum them.

Once a year, they should be hosed down or power-washed to loosen up mud that spatters onto the the edges from when it rains. You may need to power-wash mildew off your driveway as well.

There are advantages and disadvantages to the different directions your lanai would face.

Western Exposure

• Pros - Magnificent sunsets, delightful breakfasts and lunches outside for about half the year.
• Cons - Lanai is too hot to enjoy in the summer, you should probably get a ceiling fan. You will need to invest in some blinds either on the lanai if it's small, or inside your house if the lanai is too big. It just gets too hot and blindingly bright in the house when the sun starts to go down. If you only have blinds in the house, they will be closed afternoon and evening, and you may need to turn lights on in the house to cook dinner, etc.

Eastern Exposure

• Pros - You can eat dinner and lunch out on your lanai almost year round, don't need to get blinds.
• Cons - No sunsets to enjoy! Too cold in winter for breakfast outside.

Southern Exposure

• Pros - Breakfast on the lanai in January! You may be able to catch a bit of the sunset.
• Cons - You may have to get a ceiling fan and blinds.

Northern Exposure

Pros - Cooler and more comfortable during the summer, you may catch a bit of the sunset.
• Cons - It may be too cool in winter to enjoy breakfast and lunch outside.

Home Tips - Floors

Tile floors are better because they are cooler, can get damp, and are easy to clean .... perfect for our weather.

But, tiles can be very hard on feet, ankles, and knees. You may want to have a pair of Crocs or flip flops for the house.

I thought I would never buy a pair of crocs, but my chiropractor recommended them and now I wear them around the house in winter. I even like them for slippers when I go up north during cold weather.

If you have tile floors, the grout will get dirty and need to be cleaned every 6 months, or so.

We just use white vinegar and a thin, stiff brush on the high traffic areas. You may want to consider having the grout sealed, it will have to be resealed every few years. Many carpet cleaning companies will clean and seal floor tile grout.

Scrubbing Bubbles works great for shoe marks on tile floors and for marble vanities and sinks.

Home Tips - Sprinklers

You will need to learn how to set the sprinkler timer and find out Cape Coral's watering schedule. so that you water your yard at the time the city allows.

Soakers, also called misters, run water continuously, rotors shoot water out intermittently. For soakers, run each section of the sprinkler for 20 - 30 minutes and rotors for 45 - 60 minutes, during dry season for as many days as the city allows.

During rainy season, either shut the sprinklers off or run them one day per week.

Home Tips - Food

I hate throwing out food, but I've discovered some home tips to keep you from wasting it.

You will need to keep potatoes and onions in the fridge. Check milk regularly to see if has spoiled.

Certain dark, leafy lettuces last longer than iceberg lettuce. Washed, cut lettuce starts turning brown in a day. Uncut romaine lasts for weeks.

Chips and snacks get stale fast, keep them closed up tight and use them up within weeks, rather than months.

I don't care for tap water with chlorine in it, so I buy the 2 1/2 gallon jugs of spring water or drinking water that have the easy-to-use spigots, and always have one in the fridge.

I buy extra water during hurricane season, to have on hand. You are supposed to have a gallon of water per person, per day.

If you want to read additional home tips that are particular for living in Cape Coral, get my ebook Weird Cape Coral, go on the treasure hunt and get a prize!

Since your home is your treasure, what could be a better prize than more home tips to help you understand the unique aspects of the Cape Coral real estate market such as: closing costs, taxes, insurances, homesteading, and hurricane preparation.

To get my ebook, all you need to do is subscribe to my monthly newsletter Gator Bites, where I write about the restaurants we eat at, the hotels and accommodations we try, and all the fun happenings we go to.

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