Window cleaning in Santa Rosa Beach.

Santa Rosa Beach is home base for us, and it covers a lot more than the beach. Down at 30A there's Gulf Place and the houses around County Road 393. North of US-98 it's the bay side: Point Washington near Eden Gardens State Park, and neighborhoods along Hogtown Bayou and Mack Bayou.

Up on the bay side, a lot of houses are lived in year-round, under pines and live oaks, with bigger yards. There's less salt than on the Gulf, so the glass can usually go longer between cleanings. The bigger issues are spring pollen on the glass and screens, and sprinklers.

Rust-colored spots on lower windows usually come from irrigation on well water, which carries iron. Those are stains on the glass, not dirt, and they need hard-water stain removal. Turning the sprinkler head away from the house keeps new ones from forming.