Winter protection for Chicago home?

We do not have a house but a garage with a full bathroom and washer and dryer and 2 outside water risers. We winterize the washer following the instructions provided by the manufacturer. Then we drain the water heater and run RV antifreeze through all the water lines. Then pour some in all the p-traps. We use about 15 gallons of antifreeze doing this. Some think that this is foolish instead of just blowing out the lines but caution is our middle name. Our neighbor just shuts off his water and turns the heat down but he had a back up whole house generator in case the power goes out and a family member to check periodically.

Hi, here is what we did for seven years with our house in Massachusetts.
We drained down every pipe making sure all the valves were open. Used a small compressor and blew air through the pipes so it came out of the faucets. Drained the toilets and put antifreeze in making sure it goes all through. Only problem we ever had was we forgot to drain the ice maker in the fridge and it burst. No other problems. We'd just come home and fire it all up again... just drain anything that has any water in it. It took us about two hours to drain and fire up each time. Was well worth the piece of mind tho. Finally sold the house :)
Happy Travels.
Lynn
p.s. we had the town come and pick up our water meter in case it burst.

Go outside and turn the water off at the water meter and open all faucets and drain the pipes.

We turn off the water, and have one of these. Works great.
http://www.amazon.com/Reliance-Controls-THP201-Automatic-Functions/dp/B000IF8QB2/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1388893214&sr=8-4&keywords=freeze+monitor

We have our water shut off by the city we live in. That way, we don't get a water bill.
We leave the heat at about 55 degrees.

I set heat at 50, turn off water, unplug all important stuff,tvs computer set water heater to vacation. I have a remote temp unit that my neighbor can receive in her house.She knows the inside temp of my house without going over.

Suggest you shut the water off. Water heater as well. Have someone periodically check the house. Consider installing a security system. There are some good self-monitored home security systems available to detect and send an alert to a smartphone. Have a great trip!

Well, for starters, I would shut off the water and maybe even drain the system, including the water heater. But make sure to shut off the water heater (electric or gas) first ! That way there is no water in the system to freeze if the worst happens.

I would get a house sitter.....either that or winterize the house. We had a neighbor leave for a few months...told no one. An upstairs pipe burst. By the time it was noticed, there was a frozen waterfall 10' across on the north side of the house. He ended up
abandoning a 5 yo house.