Test the oven, find the water shut-off, and keep the potato peels out of the disposal. Plus a few notes for bringing a toddler.
A new house is full of surprises, and you don't want to find them with twenty people coming. The weekend before: test the oven, swap the furnace filter, and find your water shut-off. Skip the self-clean cycle, keep grease and potato peels out of the disposal, and if you're frying the turkey, do it outside and well away from the house.
Bake something this week. Find out now if it runs 25 degrees hot.
Running it days before a big cook is a classic way to blow a fuse or find a problem.
Twenty people and an oven running all day. Give the furnace a fresh start.
Before you need it, not while you're standing in it. Label it.
Potato peels and grease don't go down it. The day after Thanksgiving is famously a busy day for plumbers.
Outside, well away from the house. Not in the garage and not on a wood deck.
Pack their plate with two foods you know they'll eat. Feed them before a late dinner. When you arrive, find the quiet room and check the stairs, since somebody else's house isn't childproofed.
And leave before the meltdown, not during. The pie travels.
If you don't know when it was last serviced, yes. A fall tune-up is cheaper than a December emergency call.
In most Omaha homes with a basement, it's near where the water line enters, often on the front wall. Ask your inspector or me if you can't find it.
Ask me. I'll point you to a plumber, an electrician, or a furnace tech I trust.
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