Tom & Kim Balzano kim-ng67fghlg0s5xknu@host.airbnb.com
House Manual
Greetings, Welcome to our home. We have had the blessing of living here for the past 18 years. The original sale documents indicate that the house was built in 1925. However, the Maine Historical Society found a photograph of the house from 1901 and we have a drawer in the dining room cabinet that is dated 1898.
Pets We advertise the house as pet friendly. We can provide dishes, food, and bedding if requested. •We do not charge a cleaning fee for pets, but we expect that you clean up after you pet as necessary. Additionally, if you feel that your pet is a bit of a "chewer", especially when left alone, please consider a crate or other protective measures to prevent this.
Heating The house is heated by forced hot water supplied by a boiler in the basement. The oil tank is on auto-fill. Don’t be surprised if Fielding's Oil delivers while you are here. They will only deliver during business hours and will not park in the driveway. •The house thermostat is located in the Kitchen beneath the TV. We suggest dropping the temp to approx 65 at night. Any higher and the upstairs gets a bit too warm to sleep comfortably. •There is a small electric heater in the back mud room beneath the white rack. It is used to dry gloves and warm boots. It is automatic and will need no adjustment.
Cooling In the summer months the (3) bedrooms and dining room are equipped with individual Air Conditioning units. Please adjust as necessary.
Hot Tub There are Towels in the blue and white bucket in the mud room. The temp is currently set at 102 degrees. It has been cleaned and treated. The primary disinfectant is Ozone gas. This is supplemented by chlorine. There may be a slight Chlorine smell when first opening the lid. • You will need to shower prior to use. Makeup, deodorant, perfume, cologne, etc will disrupt water chemistry and cause the tub to foam up. You should limit you sitting to no more than 15 minutes.
Outside The outside perimeter lights are controlled by either motion detectors, photo cells, or timers; no adjustment necessary. There are additional front house and rear deck lights controlled by switches. •The covered gas grill has a full propane tank with built in igniters. If you choose to use the grill, please allow proper cool down time before replacing the cover. •The fire pit is gas fired and the controller is inside the door.
TVs The Main TV in the living room is connected to local Spectrum Cable controlled by remote. Additionally, that TV has both Netflix and Amazon Prime. These services will need to be activated by the Vizio remote. The passwords are saved and no log on will be required. •The TV in the front Bedroom is Spectrum cable. After turning the TV on, you will also need to turn the cable box on. •The TV in the back bedroom only has Netflix and will auto log on when selected. note: the bedroom closet's light( the closet directly behind the tv) needs to be on, in order for the tv to work.
Laundry Washer and Dryer are located in the basement at the end of the hall; detergent, bleach, spray starch, stain pre-treat, and dryer sheets are all provided. •Iron and board are located in rack mounted on back of laundry room door •Extra towels and bed linens are located in the armoire at the top of the stairs on the second floor; these linens are solely for our guests. If you need additional towels or sheets, you'll need to find those in the basement laundry room and table across from the basement bathroom.
Internet . The house is equipped with WiFi and coverage extends into the back yard. Username; balzano, Password; snowflake.
Sanitary The City of Portland does not allow the disposal of personal wipes in our city sewer system. The local sewage plant cannot process the polyester mesh within; this also applies to the “flushable” wipes. Please dispose in the trash. Additionally, the wipes have caused problems with our connection to the sewer main. I cannot stress this enough. You do not want your time here ruined by a backed up sewer system. •Portland recycles. The brown plastic bin in the mud room is for all recyclables; cans, bottles, paper, cardboard, etc.. If this becomes full, there is a large Blue recycle bin in the shed. There is a fabric bag for returnables under the key table in the mudroom; those are cans or bottles that can be returned for $$$ and you will see a "ME" symbol on the side of the cans or bottles. If you need more room for returnables, trash bags are fine and they can be left in the shed if necessary. •Regular garbage is disposed of in the stainless container in the kitchen. Additional bags are in the mudroom beneath the key bench. •Thursday is trash day and we will have someone swing by and put the outdoor trash/recycle containers on the street and swing by later to store them in the shed.
Security As mentioned, we have been here for 18 years and never had a problem. We normally leave the cars unlocked in the yard but you should lock up at night. •The house/cellar windows are locked as well as the front door. The back door has the key pad with a combination of “9013”. Once the code is entered, you will hear a clicking noise which means you have a few seconds to turn the lever above the keypad to either the locked on unlocked position. There is a key to the actual door handle, located in a dish on the console table in the mudroom. There is also a key that unlocks the mudroom door leading to the kitchen. Using the keys should not be necessary during your stay, the keypad will be sufficient. The front outside door has a slide lock at the top portion on inside of the door; we use this function as the other lock tends to stick ( its a very old and cranky door). The bulkhead door in the basement is located in the laundry room; it has a located near the handle and also a sturdy wooden bar which you can slide into position. •The house is equipped with (7) smoke/CO2 detectors. All have been tested and had the batteries changed this past January. •There is an ABC fire extinguisher in the mudroom that is mounted in a rack above the key dish. •There is a First-aid kit in the cabinet located on the top shelf in the mudroom. •All local 1st responders can be contacted by dialing 911. There is a Fire Station located directly behind the house thru the woods on Steven’s Ave and a Urgent Care located on Brighton Ave; (right out of the drive way, 2nd right onto Brighton Ave, 0.6 miles on the left).
Kitchen We will provide Coffee, Tea, 1/2&1/2, and sugar. Feel free to utilize any of the dry food stuffs, condiments, or spices. There is a new blender located on the kitchen table and a pot with lobster utensils located in the dining room. Please look around and help yourself to anything for cooking/eating your meal. Other *Our water function on the refrigerator appears to have a small leak in it and will be very difficult to find repair time in between rentals, so we will postpone until the end of summer. Please don't hesitate to drink the tap water here, it is clean and delicious. Honestly, our water comes from Sebago Lake which is the same source as the Poland Spring bottled water. Let the tap run for a few seconds for a nice cold glass of water. •We have a basket of toiletries located on the 2nd floor. Please feel free to utilize if needed. That about raps it up.
Contact Info Please feel free to contact us with any questions. We normally would be staying locally on out boat and be readily available to assist; however, we do travel out of the area but one of our adult children will be on call to assist. Tom; (207) 344-9195, tbalzano1@gmail.com Kim; (207) 409-9990, kimbalzano@hotmail.com