It may still feel like summer, but Chicago weather can turn on you fast. Now is the time to take care of the exterior jobs that help keep cold air, water, and ice out of your home. It’s still warm enough for caulking, and you’re not fighting freezing temperatures. Wait until October, and you could be racing the first hard frost instead of getting ahead of it.
Here’s what we’ve got for you today!
FALL PREP STARTS OUTSIDE
Weather Watch
Quick Tips
Dad Joke
Old School Suds
Service Spotlight
DuPage Happenings
Time Machine
Reader Question
Fall Prep Starts Outside
The furnace tune-up gets all the attention. These three jobs don't and they're the ones that actually keep winter out.
Caulking around windows, doors, and siding penetrations is the first line of defense against drafts. Downspout extensions matter more than most homeowners think — water dumped right at the foundation has all winter to freeze, expand, and find a crack. And attic ventilation is the quiet one: blocked soffit or ridge vents trap moisture that has nowhere to go once the snow piles up.
None of it takes a weekend. All of it is cheaper to handle in August than in January.
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Winter doesn't create the gap. It just moves in. |
➜ QUICK TIPS: 5 Minute Home Wins
Check Your Caulk Lines — Look at every window, door, and seam. Cracked or missing caulk is a direct line for cold air.
Give Downspouts a Landing Zone — Extensions should carry water 4–6 feet from the foundation, not a foot.
Peek Into the Attic — Soffit and ridge vents need clear airflow. Blocked vents mean ice dams and moisture later.
● DAD JOKE OF THE WEEK
Why did the caulk gun get a promotion?
Because it always sealed the deal.
And unlike your last home project, it actually finishes what it starts.
(This newsletter comes with a money-back guarantee—oh wait, it's free. Nevermind.)
● HOW THEY CLEANED BACK THEN
1800s: Before the Caulk Gun
Long before silicone sealant came in a tube, sealing a house for winter meant working with whatever was on hand. Rags, rope, or plain newspaper got packed into gaps around window sashes and door frames.
Some households stuffed straw between interior and exterior walls; better-off homes tacked strips of felt along the sash to cut the draft.
It wasn't sealed so much as stuffed and it needed redoing every year, sometimes more than once a winter, as materials settled or mice claimed the softest spot in the house.
Today you caulk once, check it again in spring, and forget about it until next fall.
Aren't you glad you live in 2026?
● FEATURED SERVICE SPOTLIGHT
This Week: Mark Schmitt of Schmitt's Landscape Company
We sat down with Mark Schmitt of Schmitt's Landscape Company, serving Wheaton and DuPage County, to talk about the outdoor maintenance homeowners overlook.
Q: What's a small issue that turns into a big, expensive problem if ignored?
Drainage, without question. Water needs to keep moving away from the house. A small pooling issue near the foundation doesn't look like much at first, but left alone, it becomes a much bigger problem.
Q: What's your one "do this today" tip?
Look at where water goes around your house after a rain. It should be moving away from the home, not collecting against it.
● DUPAGE COUNTY HAPPENINGS
August 20 — 26, 2026
🎨 Gabby’s Dollhouse MEOWseum Discovery Days — Fri, Aug 21–Sun, Aug 23 | DuPage Children’s Museum, Naperville. A weekend of cat-themed activities and hands-on fun for little fans.
🚜 Wheaton French Market — Sat, Aug 22, 8AM–2PM | Downtown Wheaton. Shop local vendors and pick up fresh finds for the weekend.
🏊 Kids Night Out: End of Summer Extravaganza — Fri, Aug 21, 6–9PM | Naperville Park District. One more summer-night outing before the school-year routine fully kicks in.
🍅 5th Avenue Naperville Farmers Market — Sat, Aug 22 | Downtown Naperville. Local produce, prepared foods, and more for a Saturday morning stop.
● DUPAGE COUNTY TIME MACHINE
Kline Creek Farm: Banking the House Before Winter
At Kline Creek Farm, the Forest Preserve District's 1890s living history farm in West Chicago, only one room stayed reliably warm through winter — the kitchen, the only one with running water and a wood stove going all day.
A small first-floor bedroom had its own stove too, reserved for the sick or elderly, since heating the whole house simply wasn't realistic.
Everywhere else, the family made do. Before the first hard frost, that meant packing rags or newspaper into the worst drafts around windows and doors — not permanent, just enough to get through to spring. Firewood got stacked high enough to keep the stove fed for months, since running out wasn't an option.
Today you caulk the whole house evenly and never have to pick which room to shiver in.
● READER QUESTION
Q: "My gutters already drain away from the house — do I really need downspout extensions too?"
Yes. A gutter moves water off the roof, but most downspouts still dump it within a foot or two of the foundation — soaking the same patch of soil every time it rains. Once the ground freezes, that soil can't absorb runoff at all, so it pools against the foundation or finds a crack.
Extensions just move the landing spot 4 to 6 feet further out. Cheap fix now versus a foundation repair later.
Got a question? Reply to this email—you might see it featured next!
● FROM OUR CORNER
Late summer is when the to-do list quietly shifts from lawn care to storm prep. Good time to walk the outside of the house with fresh eyes — the caulk lines, the downspouts, the vents nobody looks at until something goes wrong.
At Rolling Suds of DuPage County, we make that part easy.
📞 (630) 448-7069
🌐 www.rollingsudsdupage.com
📧 [email protected]
