A House File for staying in your Denver home

Plenty of people here plan to stay right where they are: the brick bungalow on a street of old elms, the ranch house in the suburbs, the place up toward the foothills. MOSES is a digital service for homes anywhere, and this page is a Denver example of what the file holds. There is no local office, no crew, and no list of customers. If you own a home here, join the waitlist. The ZIP on the form helps us plan where to bring Moses help in the future.

A House File is a calm record of one place: where the water shuts off, who holds a key, when the roof was last looked at after a storm, and which company last serviced the furnace. You keep it, and you share it with the people you trust. It is not a contractor marketplace, not cameras, and not someone who answers the phone at midnight.

Hail, snow, and a roof with a date on it

Front Range weather is hard on a roof. A spring or summer hailstorm can come through in minutes, and a heavy wet snow can sit on a flat addition or a porch roof for days. The file should hold the roof’s year and material, the date anyone last inspected it, and photos taken before storm season, so “was that dent there before?” has an answer. If a roof, gutters, or siding were ever replaced after a storm, the paperwork and the company’s name belong in the file. Read your homeowners declarations and keep them beside those notes, so whoever looks at the house next isn’t guessing what the policy says about roofs.

The rest of the storm page is practical. The main water shutoff. The electrical panel, photographed once. Where the gas meter is and who to call. Who checks the house if you leave in January, and where the spare key actually is.

Dry air, freezes, and sprinklers that need a fall date

Winters here swing from mild to bitter in a day. A hose bib left charged or a pipe in an exterior wall is the usual casualty. The file should say where the main shutoff is, which outdoor faucets have an indoor valve, and whether they are frost-free. If the yard has an irrigation system, write down where its shutoff and backflow device are, who blows it out in the fall, and who turns it back on in spring. That is two dates a year that nobody remembers.

The air is dry most of the year. Furnaces and humidifiers do a lot of work, and some older houses still run an evaporative cooler on the roof in summer. Record the filter size, the last service date, and the company that already knows the equipment. Radon testing is commonly recommended in Colorado. If yours was tested or has a mitigation fan, the result, the date, and the installer’s name belong in the file.

Old brick in the city, newer builds, and houses near the foothills

Older Denver houses often have basements, additions that don’t match the original plan, and a sewer line that has met a tree root or two. If the line was ever scoped or repaired, keep the video or report and the date. Newer subdivisions more often arrive with a builder warranty packet, an HOA contact, and appliance manuals that expire on a schedule. Homes up toward the foothills may add a well, a septic system, a wood stove, or a note about clearing brush around the house. Both kinds of house need the same habit: the file answers who, where, what, and when for that specific building.

• Water and gas shutoffs, and the irrigation shutoff, with a photo
• Roof year, last inspection, and any storm repair paperwork
• Furnace, humidifier or cooler service, and radon test or mitigation records
• Key holders and the vendor who already knows the house