Once my husband and I retired, we no longer wanted to deal with the long winter in the north.
To avoid the sub zero temperatures, bitter windchill and endless amounts of snow, we bought a second house down south.
We now enjoy the best of the weather in each location. He and I live in the original house up north from the beginning of May until the end of October. We miss out on the high heat and humidity down south. While there are a lot of advantages to splitting our time between two residences, there are also some unique challenges. We’ve needed to invest into two lawnmowers, two sets of household tools, extra linens, dishes, clothes and shoes. One of the biggest issues was security at each property. Leaving a house empty for six months is worrisome. There’s the concerns of a break-in, vandalism and damage from natural disasters. We didn’t want to rely on neighbors to keep an eye on the houses for us. The ideal solution was to install a home security system for each residence. The cost was reasonable and the relief is huge. The system includes surveillance cameras that provide real-time footage of all exterior angles. Because we can access the images through an app on our smartphones, we always know exactly what’s going on. Plus, we receive alerts when someone enters the perimeter. We can see who is standing on our front steps and even converse with them. Automated locks allow us to let in repairmen or delivery men, even if we’re hundreds of miles away.