[LazyPup]

Begin by having the municipal water service provider turn the water off at the curb stop as mentioned by Hayzee.

Next open a faucet at the lowest point in your water distribution system to drain the house lines. Most houses in northern climates have a basement and generally you will have a laundry sink in the basement, which is an ideal place to drain the house lines. If your on a slab generally the outside hose bib is the lowest point in your system. Be sure to open both a hot & cold water faucet at the highest fixture in the house while draining to allow air to vent into the lines. This will aid in draining the system.

Drain the water heater

There should be a union on the main water line near the "Main water shutoff valve". Disconnect that union and allow the water to drain out, then attach an air compressor to the line at that point and set the compressors regulator for 40psi and begin charging the water system with air. While you are charging the system with air, begin by closing the faucets at the upper fixture that you opened before, then go to each faucet in the house and open the faucets to be sure you are only getting air out of the faucet then close the faucet and move on to the next faucet until you have purged all the faucets in the house.

When purging the kitchen faucet if you have a hand sprayer be sure to press the control valve on the sprayer to insure you get the water out. (when you are getting air from the compressor it is fine)

Now flush all toilets to remove the water from the tank and as the fill valve float drops you should hear air coming out of the fill valve. This will insure there is no air trapped in the flush valve diaphragm assembly.

Now use a sponge to remove any water that may be remaining in the toilet tank. (even a small amount of water could freeze, expand and crack the tank)

Turn your tub/shower diverter to the tub position to drain any residual water that may be standing in the shower riser.

At this point you should have the water distribution system finished so lets move on to the drains.

If you are only planning to be gone for about a month or six weeks adding a 1/4cup of food grade antifreeze to each trap is fine, but if your planning to be gone for an extended period of 2 months or more you have to consider that that water in the traps could evaporate, which would leave the trap open, allowing sewer gas to get into the house. One method or preventing evaporation is to first put the antifreeze in the trap, then pour about 3 or 4 teaspoons of cooking oil in the trap. The oil will form a film over the top of the water and prevent evaporation. Here again, this method is good for the short term but for an extended time the water can still evaporate from the inside of the trap into the drain line. Here is a trick. First use a plunger on the drain to force as much of the existing water out as you can. Now put about 1 gallon of water in a 2gallon bucket, add the antifreeze per the antifreeze mfg instructions, then add about 1 cup of cooking oil. Now use a common cooking wish to rapidly mix the water, antifreeze and cooking oil into a solution and pour about 2 to 3 cups in each drain. Once this solution gets into the trap the oil will float to the top of the water on both sides of the trap U section and you have no problem with evaporation. (Don't forget the basement floor drains.)

Stop delivery on your newspapers

Ask your postman to hold delivery on your mail until you return. My postman says that they will do this free of charge at my local post office, but we are a small community. He says in some larger cities they may require you to take a PO box (at a slightly reduced rate) for a short time, and they will forward your mail to the PO box.

Timers on your lights are good, except the thieves do their homework to. If they see the lights going on and off at exactly the same time every day its like posting a sign that your gone. They make an inexpensive solar switch for lamps that is about 3" long with a light bulb male thread on the bottom and a light bulb socket on to and a tiny solar sensor on the side. You screw the adapter into a lamp socket, then screw a light bulb into the top of the adapter. You could then set up a timer that would turn the power on to the lamp at about 3pm and off at 11pm. In this manner the timer would turn the lamp off at 11pm as if you went to bed, then the next day at 3pm it would turn the circuit on to supply power to the lamp, but the lamp does not come on until it gets dark enough to require a light, which is different times each day and leaving the illusion that someone is there. You could then hook up another timer in the bathroom and bedroom to come on at 11pm and off at 11:30 or midnight, leaving the illusion that you left the living room and went to the bedroom.

If you have hydronic heating (circulating hot water) ask your heating tech about having a Brine or antifreeze solution added to your circulating water. In this manner, if your power or heating system should fail for any reason while the structure is unattended at least the boiler and pipes won't freeze and burst.

If you have a monitored alarm system you can have a thermal sensor installed which would alert the monitor if the interior temp drops below a predetermined point, and you could make arrangements to have the alarm company notify a friend or relative of the situation so they could take the appropriate actions.