February 2021 Winter Storm

Emergency Home Repair Program Available to Low-Income Dallas Residents

By Tommy Cummings / March 1, 2021 /

Help is here for Dallas residents whose homes sustained damage from the recent winter storm. The city’s new Emergency Home Repair Program was approved by the Dallas City Council last week and affected residents can now apply. The program will grant eligible low-income Dallas residents up to $10,000 per household for home repairs associated with…

What’s Next After The Freeze? Takeaways From Last Week’s Extreme Weather

By CandysDirt.com Contributor / February 23, 2021 /

Every week, the detail-oriented folks at Green Scene Home Inspections will give CandysDirt.com readers an education in inspection. Want to see what they see? Tune in for “Upon Closer Inspection.” Now that the storm has passed and temperatures have returned to a heavenly 70 degrees, damage assessment has begun and the prognosis is grim for a…

In Real-Estate Parlance, ‘Location, Location, Location’ Does Matter in Power Outages

By Tommy Cummings / February 18, 2021 /

In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, certain neighborhoods have withstood the power outages and kept their lights on. Why? According to an update Wednesday, ONCOR said that customers near critical facilities are one of the reasons that certain neighborhoods might not experience rotating outages but controlled outages. ONCOR said that based on the load reduction required…

Without Power, This Old House Has Made Me a Weather Refugee Again

By Karen Eubank / February 18, 2021 /

In 2019 I wrote a post on why I love my historic neighborhood. This week has made a lot of us realize what we don’t love about them. When I bought my home in 1990, Hollywood Heights had just become a conservation district. I had no idea what that meant for a homeowner, and neither…

How to Keep Your Pipes From Freezing (And What to Do if They Freeze Anyway)

By Joanna England / February 15, 2021 /

With rolling blackouts happening all over North Texas, and with the vast majority of Austin without power, Texas homeowners are justifiably worried about the damage structures may take during this historic winter weather. Many homes in North Texas are built on pier-and-beam foundations, which can make pipes particularly susceptible to freezing if not properly insulated.…