Ladies, How much do you know....

About your house? (This will probably make more sense to us who just moved in) but, what I mean is how to turn the heat on/off, If the power goes out how to turn the electric back on, where the main water valve is, stuff like that??

I am not afraid to admit this, but last night I got home and DH was at work. It was the first time I had to put the heat on and I walked up to the thermostat and was like

Made me really think about how I need to get a real good lesson on where everything is and how to operate it in an emergency. I take DH being there for granted sometimes

Am I alone here on this one?

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

My FIL taught me about the water valve when we had a leak in the basement.

I've known how to use the thermostat since a teenager since my parents had an digital one like we do.

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

Right with ya. I really don't know enough yet about where things are in this house - and I really should!

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

I don't have the gas hooked up for the heat yet, so I haven't used the thermostat yet. I know where the water main valve is because I asked recently where it was. And I know where the electric box is and how to get the electric back on. I ask a lot of questions. But I'm sure there are other things that I will learn along the way.

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

Since we did so much renovating to the house, I learned where everything is/how it works...

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

I know enough about my house, but I will say that the oil burner/thremostat freaks me out. I refuse to go into the little area where the burner is and have delegated those duties to DH.

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

Not that much! The first time we tried to turn on the heat, we used this old dial thermostat (which is defunct, but still hanging on the wall) and couldn't figure out why the heat wasn't starting! Then I remembered seeing a heat option on the thermostat we used for our CAC, and thought, ah-ha! Should we have a house at our disposal when we can't figure out such simple things?!?

We do need to figure out where our main water valve is located--we did figure out everything else. After our heating fiasco, we asked someone to come and check out our heating system for the winter and make sure it's operating well. We've both lived in apartments for years and years, and our parents had very different systems, so we can't go by what we knew then.

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

I'm learning. I know most of the stuff.

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

Message edited 1/30/2009 10:08:10 PM.

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

I know how to work the heat, how to shut the main water valve in the house, and how to shut off the electrical box.

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

I know where all the emergency stuff is - gas line, water line, fuse box, etc. I also know how to operate the thermostat for our CAC and heat. It's actually the easiest thermostat in the world, though - it's one slider for "cool, off, heat" and then arrows for the temp.

After renovating the entire house, I now know a TON about it.

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

I actually think my inspector included some of the important stuff like the water shutoff in the report.

But we'll have a lot to learn with the house, I know this. Neither one of us is qualified so when my parents come to visit, I'll hit my Dad up for info.

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

i'm the same way.. i call DH for anything like that!
i'm lucky though... we bought ILs house from them. FIL is a pilot and was away alot for work, so MIL would be there by herself a lot. years ago he labeled everything in the utility room for her ( "hot water shut off here" "whole house water shut off here") some even have instructions ( "if heat doesn't come on, pull red lever") it seems a little weird, but its really good to know its all there in permenant marker if i ever need it.
i think about this with the house bills, too. DH takes care of most of them, and our joint account... he does most of it online, and i can't remember numbers or passwords for it to transfer money or whatever. i was just thinking last night that i have to have him write it all down for me, just in case...

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

My dad made sure to show me everything when I was young. When we moved into our house I did the walk through asking where is the water valve, switch, emergency shut off etc.

The one thing I would highly recommend is knowing which switch turns off a particular appliance in your fuse box because that I did learn the hard way! I was messing with the switches and shut off the wrong things it was mislabeled by the previous owners grr!

Message edited 10/30/2007 4:07:07 PM.

Re: Ladies, How much do you know....

We recently purchased our home and the old homeowners taught both DH and I how to do everything and where everything was...........It was alot to learn ......between the attic fan, house alarm,jacuzzi emerg. shut off, pond filters,IGS,exterior lights settings......our heads were spinning........