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I own an RV. The RV came with two thick manuals, one for the RV chassis, and one for all of the appliances that were factory installed. I am not the first owner
by justinlloyd 3y ago
I own an RV. The RV came with two thick manuals, one for the RV chassis, and one for all of the appliances that were factory installed. I am not the first owner of the RV. My brother, a meticulous military man kept the documentation for every appliance and gadget he installed in that RV.
And since I took ownership of it, and have I been ever grateful that he documented it, I have done the same too, for the WiFi, for the networking, for the tool shed, for sit-to-stand desks, for the oven, for the plubming, and so forth.
And I've applied the same rigorous principle to the house now as well for about the past three years. I kept documentation prior, but nothing so deep until the RV came along.
Two thick ring binders, one for the house "chassis" and one for the appliances in the house.
Instructions on how to reset the internet, instructions on how to "reboot" the water heater, instructions on how to change the AC filters, the model numbers required for the filters, and why there is no "air return" vents on the AC for the next owner, and also as a reminder to myself. Documentation on the maintenance of having the black water lines replaced after one of them collapsed, how to access the clean out hatch on the black water lines. Where wires in the walls are run too. The circuit breakers are each carefully labelled too. It gets written up in OneNote so it is searchable, and then it gets put in to the three-ring binder, with sections for each area, e.g. garage, master bedroom, kitchen, etc. And lots of paint codes for each individual wall.
It doesn't take long if you do it step-by-step rather than try to boil the ocean all at once, and you will be grateful you did it for years to come. And your home, unlike the software developed by your team, doesn't tend to change all that fast.
- supportengineer 3y agoBusiness idea - House Documentation as-a-service. You fill in the blanks online and it generates the PDF for you.
- djbusby 3y agoI was just working on that w/a friend. Great minds and all that.
- thangalin 3y agoKeenWrite[1], my Markdown text editor, was written with variables in mind. I've made a "theme" for the documentation for my house, called Domus.[2] You could get something producing PDFs in an evening. Profile has my email. [1]: https://keenwrite.com https://keenwrite.com [2]: https://gitlab.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/-/tree/main/domus?ref_type=heads https://gitlab.com/DaveJarvis/keenwrite-themes/-/tree/main/d...
- djbusby 3y agoDomus is our code-name too. LMAO
- CountGeek 3y agoThere's this https://github.com/hay-kot/home https://github.com/hay-kot/home box "inventory and organization system built for the Home User"
- m463 3y agoOnly later it has unskippable ads for replacement furnace filters, for water filtration, for solar systems, for appliance upgrades, ...
- justinlloyd 3y agoIt'll be a cold day in Hell before I put that much information into a venture-backed SaaS that is driven by the desire to monetize my life by any means necessary. It also over complicates what is a simple requirement by throwing unnecessary technology at the problem. The only tech I need with my three ringer binder solution to figure out how to restart a furnish when the power and internet are out across the county on a freezing winter night is a flashlight.
- zie 3y agoI do this in a Fossil(fossil-scm.org) repository. I just take pictures and make PDF's of the manuals I get on paper. It's awesome.