Dick Colter · The Winterproof House
Everything 66 Alaska winters taught me, written down.
(The Winterproof House · first edition) What to buy before the first storm, the one room you keep warm, the heat that works without power, the food and water you store, and what to do the night the power goes out. 285 pages in large print, by the man you know from the videos.
Dick explains the book in two minutes.
Most houses find the $37 the first night, in the freezer they didn't open and the hotel they didn't need.
See what's inside first ▼How it works
You pay, it opens, it stays in your email.
Step 1
You pay
Through Gumroad, the store that handles the card. I never see your number.
Step 2
The book opens
On the very next screen, about thirty seconds later. Phone, tablet or computer, whichever you've got.
Step 3
The link stays in your email
Gumroad sends the same link to your inbox, so you can open the book again any night the power goes out.
Nothing comes in the mail, and there's no account to make. Not complicated, just handled early.
The arithmetic
What one winter outage costs, added up.
One ordinary house: two people over 65, a gas furnace, a full freezer, and three days without power in January. Three days is the gentle case. Last January, Mississippi went almost two weeks.
Three days, no plan
- The refrigerator and freezer carried to the curb on day three$5001
- Three nights in a hotel because the house went cold$537.902
- Three days of gasoline for a portable generator$101.923
- A heater bought the afternoon the storm is announced$240.264
- A month of insulin your pharmacist tells you to replace, picked up on an icy road$355
Three days, handled in October
- Plastic over the windows of the one warm room$1.506
- The Dollar Tree heating run, one of eachabout $31.507
- Drinking water, a gallon a person a day$1.47 a gallon8
- Peanut butter, three days of food, no stove, no opener$4.189
- Knowing which heat in your house still worksthis book
- 1Policygenius: the $500 limit a standard homeowner's policy puts on spoiled food, and only for a covered cause.
- 2CoStar: $179.30 a night, the U.S. average for the week of September 13 to 19, 2026.
- 3Generac GP3300 at half load, 23.5 gallons for three days; U.S. Energy Information Administration, $4.331 a gallon, October 12, 2026.
- 4Mr. Heater Big Buddy at list price, October 2026. The same week the Little Buddy was $69 at Walmart.
- 5Medicare: the monthly cap on insulin under Part D in 2026.
- 6Dollar Tree, October 2026 (method 15).
- 7Eleven things on dollartree.com, October 2026 (card 11).
- 8Walmart, October 2026, plus the 40 gallons already in your water heater (methods 62 and 64).
- 9The 40-ounce jar, Walmart, October 2026 (method 73).
Your numbers will be different. Every one of mine names where it came from, so you can run it on your own house before you believe me. And if a pipe lets go in the wall, State Farm's average claim is over $30,000. That one isn't in the total: it doesn't happen in every house, but when it does, that's the number.
Look inside
Four pages out of the book itself.
This is the size they open on your phone. The type is big on purpose. Tap a page to see it large.
← swipe to see more pages →
What's inside
Twelve of the 108, with the page they're on.
Nine parts, from the hour the power quits to the one-page plan on the cupboard door. Every method is two pages: what you need, with the price and the store, then the steps, the rule and whose rule it is.
- Shut the fridge and start the clock, 4 hours, 48 in a full freezer · p. 23
- The two things that never come inside, and the generator's 20 feet · p. 37
- $1.50 of plastic over the windows you'll live behind, done in an afternoon · p. 49
- When a pipe freezes anyway, faucet open, a hair dryer, never a flame · p. 67
- A tent on the bed, a box your own body can heat, nothing burning in it · p. 85
- The three rules before any flame, and the alarm that has to be awake · p. 99
- Your gas water heater with a standing pilot, hot water with the power out · p. 109
- Alkaline, not Super Heavy Duty, the batteries that hold up in the cold · p. 139
- The 40 gallons already in your house, drawn from the water heater tank · p. 155
- Peanut butter, the food that asks nothing, $4.18 for three days · p. 175
- Hypothermia indoors, at 60 to 65 degrees, and the moment you call 911 · p. 219
- The one-page plan for one warm room, which room, which heat, who checks on you · p. 237
Twelve of the 108. The other 96 are built the same way, and the twelve cards at the back are made to print for the door.
Get your copy
Get the book
One payment, one PDF. It opens on the next screen and the link lands in your email. Nothing ships.
Large-print PDF · 285 pages · First Edition, Winter 2026
The Winterproof House
108 numbered methods in nine parts, for the night the power goes out in winter. Written for people over 65.
- 285 pages in 16-point type, every method on two pages
- Instant PDF, on your phone about thirty seconds after you pay
- One warm room with what's in the house and about $31.50 from Dollar Tree, nothing burning while you sleep
- Two weeks of food from a closet shelf, under $5 a bag, and the heater rule off its own label
- 30-day money back, and you keep the book
Secure checkout by Gumroad · One payment, no subscription
Comes with it
Twelve cards for the door, and the Second Edition free.
Twelve cards in 18-point type on 16 sheets, to print for the refrigerator door. And the 700-page Second Edition for the whole house, free to everyone who bought this one.
- The Winterproof House$37
- Cards and Lists$9
- The Second Edition$47
- Total value$93
- You pay today$37
Who wrote this
Dick Colter
I was born in Fairbanks, Alaska, and I spent sixty-six winters there, most of them fixing oil furnaces. What that work teaches you is not how to fix a furnace. It's what a house does the night the furnace stops. I was there for the Christmas storm of 2021, when more than fifteen thousand homes lost power with the cold sliding toward 30 below. The folks who were fine had handled it in the fall.
Let me be straight with you, because most pages won't. I'm not a doctor and I'm not an inspector, so nothing in this book rests on my say-so. Every safety rule names the agency that wrote it, every heater's limit comes off its own manual, and every price names the store and the month I read it. Where it says ask your doctor, that is the step, not a figure of speech.
Questions
Straight answers before you order
What am I actually getting? Is a paper book coming in the mail?
No paper copy, and I say it plain so nobody is surprised. One PDF, digital only: The Winterproof House, 108 numbered methods in nine parts, 285 pages in 16-point type, with the 150 sources listed at the back, plus twelve cards in 18-point type to print. The Second Edition comes free when it's done.
Can I read it? My eyes aren't what they were.
It's set in 16-point type, the size the American Foundation for the Blind calls the minimum for large print, in a letter made for weak eyes. The cards are 18-point. On a tablet you can make it bigger still. And every method is two pages, so you never lose your place.
Can I print it?
Yes, and you should. It's US Letter, every method on two pages, so you print the pages you need and tape them inside the cupboard door. The twelve cards at the back are made to be printed.
How fast do I get it, and how? I am not good with computers.
Gumroad emails you the link the minute you pay, and the book opens on the very next screen. No account to make, no password to remember. Open it on a phone, a tablet or a computer, or print it. If the email doesn't come, write to support@dickcolter.com and I'll send it again.
Is this the same as the videos?
A video is one list. This is all of them in order, from the first night to the shelf, with the pages I never had room for on camera: the water, the pipes, the medicines, the plan. And every price has the store and the month written next to it, which no video can do.
I'm in the South. We don't get Alaska winters.
Last January's ice storm put more than a million customers in the dark, and Mississippi went almost two weeks. The methods were written for a gas furnace in an ordinary house, not for Alaska. Alaska is only where I learned them.
Who is this not for?
Anybody looking for a generator guide, a wood stove plan or anything about defending a house. I don't recommend a generator or a wood stove to everybody, and the book says who they are not for. It's also not medical advice. If you want one book that tells you what to do first, in order, at our age, this is it.
What if it isn't for me? Is this a subscription?
One payment, one time; there is no membership and nothing renews. And if it isn't for you, you pay nothing: email me within 30 days, you get every cent back, and you keep the book. No forms, no questions.
Not tonight?
Leave your email.
I'll write when the Second Edition is out and when the price changes. Nothing else, and you can stop it with one click.
Last call
Handle it before the first cold night.
$37, once. The book opens on the next screen, the link lands in your email, and you have thirty days to decide. Nothing ships.
Get the book · $37 →