08 Sep February 2018
Willis Sinclair Homes
“The Lowcountry’s Premier Custom Home Builder”
It’s snowing!!!
24 Gabriel Road
Lodge, South Carolina 29082
843 846 2500
February 2018
Number 48
From the desk
of Willis …
Happy New Year! We hope you all had a nice and safe holiday season! For us it was a very nice time with friends and family. We didn’t do any long distance traveling this year but rather stayed closer to home. I have to say it was a bit more relaxing than it has been in the past. This year was the first time in a long time that we didn’t take time off other than Christmas day and New Year’s day. Instead we worked and I’m glad we did! We were effectively shut down completely the first week of January due to record-setting winter weather! It wasn’t a planned vacation but for me it was a welcomed one.
Our weather was very unusual the first week of this year but not unprecedented. If you listen to the major news outlets they make it sound like this has never happened before. I’ll admit that it doesn’t happen very often but I have memories of similar times in the past. This storm, at least for us, wasn’t all that bad. We had about 3-4 inches of snow on Brays Island and of course a lot of ice on the roadways. However, there were nearly no trees down due to this storm and very few power outages. Several years ago we had a much heavier snow that weighted down trees and caused one of the worst power outages in recent years. That outage was actually worse than hurricanes Irma and Matthew of the past couple years.
Hopefully the worst of our winter is behind us now and we won’t have that kind of weather again for a good long time. With that fresh in our minds it’s a good time to think about what can be done to be better prepared for next time. Although our customers had very few issues that we know of, a few did have some problems. Some of the main issues were frozen water pipes and inadequate capacity to heat their homes.
The frozen water pipes were caused by not trickling faucets, not running enough water through the faucets, inadequate insulation or a combination of the above. Exposed water pipes, well heads and water tanks are very vulnerable when the temperatures dip into the teens for several days and don’t rise much above freezing. Even your standard pipe insulation is not enough to protect you in that instance. It is best to run water at a constant rate to prevent pipes from freezing. If you have a well head or tank in your yard it should be completely covered to properly protect it. It is for this reason more than any other that we do our best to install well tanks inside of the new homes that we build.
Some people reported an inadequate supply of heat to keep their houses comfortable. There are several different types of heating systems and depending on which you have there are different ways that they can be improved.
If you had trouble with your home in the recent cold or if you have concerns about how well your house is prepared, feel free to reach out to us. We will gladly take a look at your situation and recommend ways you can improve your home. Don’t wait until the next cold snap. After all, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”!
What is your builder doing?
If you have a building or remodeling project underway and you are not on site, how do you make sure it is progressing nicely?
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You can call and get updates, but sometimes those are a bit optimistic.
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You could ask a friend to drive by, but if you do it too often, your friend might not be so friendly.
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You could wait for your builder to call, but long silent periods might make you wonder….
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You could just not worry about it and figure it will be done when it is done.
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You could engage us to do the work and get frequent email updates complete with photos. Not only this, but the photos are posted online so any family member or friends can follow the progress.
One of our clients had family in Australia who followed the construction of their home here in the South Carolina Lowcountry by looking at our website. Here is how you can do it.
Go to www.willissinclair.com
(The home page photo rotates through photos of past projects.)
Look on the left side under our logo. The second entry is “Projects.” Click on that.
Here you will be given a choice of projects we have posted. We normally don’t post a project unless you request it or it is a large project. Some of the projects are major remodels and some are new construction.
Note also some people don’t want their name associated with their project and that is no problem.
For this walk through, look for Meyer Carriage House. (The projects are presented in alphabetic order.) Click on Meyer Carriage House.
Once you click on a project (Meyer Carriage House in this case), you are usually given a choice. Some projects such as Schuld give a choice of Design, Construction or Completion. Others have one or two of these choices.
Design gives a very simplified drawing of the floor plan.
Construction shows photos from the construction phase by month and by day. The photos also have captions for explanation.
Completion shows photos of the completed project.
Click on Design on the Meyer Carriage House.
Click on either floor plan to see a larger, but simplified version.
To go back to the Meyer Carriage House page, click on the back button.
Now, click on the Construction link. On this project, you won’t see many months because we built the project quickly (less than 5 months from start of foundation work (March 11) to C.O. (July 25)).
Click on a month, then select a day, then select a photo. You will be presented an enlarged photo with a caption. Notice, you can move to the previous or next photo by clicking on the arrows on the edges of the photos.
When you have us building your remodel or home, you can see photo proof of the progress. Why would you want any less?
Willis Sinclair Homes
We can fix it!
Call Us
843 846 2500
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