Owning a home on the Gulf Coast, Texas to Florida
Your house is on a different schedule than the internet thinks.
A/C runs nine months. Termites never really stop. Hurricane season is long, insurance deadlines are real, and four Gulf states will pay toward a stronger roof. This site puts the hard parts in one place, starting with a free calendar built for this coast.
Free · No account · No credit card · Repeats every year
Choose what you need
Four doors, and everything on this site is behind one of them.
The free maintenance calendar
36 Gulf Coast tasks, organized through the year, delivered to the calendar already on your phone.
Add it to my phone → Get ready for stormsStorm season
Insurance in dollars, a room by room inventory, supplies, the countdown, and the damage and claim logs.
Prepare my house → See what's getting oldThe Borrowed Time Calculator
Roof. A/C. Water heater. Air handler. What is due next, and roughly when, from one number.
Check my house → Find money for my roofGrants and programs
Four Gulf states pay toward a stronger roof. What each covers, who qualifies, and where the rules actually live.
See what's available →The Gulf Coast year
Our climate creates a different kind of stress on your home.
Salt air
Corrodes equipment, from metal to electronics.
Humidity
Feeds mold and rot, and attracts pests.
Termites
Attack where you can't see them.
Storms
Turn neglected maintenance into expensive damage.
The real tasks from the real calendar.
How much life is left?
A quick look at your major systems. When was your house built?
The roof grant in your state
Four of the five Gulf states will pay toward a stronger roof. We do not run any of them, and we do not decide who qualifies. Each page maps one program and sends you to the agency that does.
Up to $10,000
Strengthen Mississippi Homes, run by the Mississippi Insurance Department. Wind Pool policyholders in three coastal counties.
Read the guide → AlabamaUp to $10,000
Strengthen Alabama Homes, run by the Alabama Department of Insurance. The longest-running program of its kind.
Read the guide → LouisianaUp to $10,000
The Louisiana Fortify Homes Program, awarded by lottery in eligible parishes, run by the Louisiana Department of Insurance.
Read the guide → FloridaFree inspection, up to $10,000
My Safe Florida Home, run by the Florida Department of Financial Services. A free wind inspection first, then a matching grant.
Read the guide →In Texas there is no statewide roof grant, but there is a coverage system worth understanding: how Texas windstorm coverage works →
We run none of these programs and decide nobody's eligibility. Each page maps one program, sends you to the agency that does decide, and carries its own checked date. Most recently checked 22 August 2026.
See what you're actually getting
Real pages from the kit and binder.
The questions people actually ask
Which Gulf states will pay toward a new roof?
Four of the five. Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana each put up to $10,000 toward rebuilding a roof to the FORTIFIED standard, and Florida's My Safe Florida Home pairs a free wind inspection with a grant of up to $10,000. Texas has no statewide roof grant and runs a windstorm coverage system instead. Every one of them is administered by a state agency, not by us, and the rules change between funding rounds. The programs, state by state.
Do you run any of these programs, or decide who qualifies?
No, and neither does any other website. Eligibility is decided by the state agency that runs the program, on its own application. What this site does is organize the question, point you at the people who answer it, and stamp each page with the date its facts were last checked against that agency's own pages.
Are the calendars really free?
Yes, and they stay free. Four subscribe-able calendars, no signup, no card, no trial: Must Do, Should Do, Going Above and the Monthly Rounds. They are not a sample of the printable kit and they are not a way to collect your email. Add them to your phone.
Why does hurricane prep here start in May rather than June?
Because a new flood policy generally takes 30 days to take effect. Buy one in June and you are uninsured for the opening weeks of the season, so May 1 is the real deadline. The rule, its four exceptions, and where to check your flood zone.
Will this work outside the Gulf Coast?
Some of it. The structure works anywhere, but the timing, the lifespans and about half the tasks are specific to long humid summers, termite pressure and hurricane season. Inland Gulf South, most of it still applies. Further north, the Big Ticket Watch List is where the value is, and the grant pages are for these five states only.
How do you make money, and does it change what you write?
Three printables on Etsy, and that is all. There is no advertising here, no affiliate link, and nothing on this site sells a lead: the free tools never ask for a phone number, an email or an account. The grant and insurance pages send you to government agencies, which pay us nothing, and they would say the same thing if the shop did not exist.
Something on a grant page no longer matches the agency. What now?
Tell us and it gets fixed. The agency's page always wins over ours, which is why every resource page names the source and carries the date it was last checked. How corrections work, and how to reach us.
I built this for my own house first
Built for Gulf Coast conditions
Texas through Florida, not a national checklist with hurricanes added afterward.
Dates matter
Time-sensitive resources show when they were last verified against the source.
Primary sources first
Insurance programs and government information link to the agencies responsible.
No lead selling
The free tools do not ask for a phone number, an email, or an account.