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Writing documentation for your house

luke.hsiao.dev

281–290 of 326 posts

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#281
post #17

For my last house, I had spent years on smart home automation, I had a binder that contained clear instructions I wrote for everything, and receipts for every upgrade I ever made on the home, warranty docs, QR codes to download smart home apps to control the devices, plot maps, floor plans, a 1-page list of repairmen for everything- you name it. I made short YouTube videos for everything like turning the water on/off…

I wouldn’t want all that smart home shit either. Nice of you, but not everyone’s taste.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#282
post #17

For my last house, I had spent years on smart home automation, I had a binder that contained clear instructions I wrote for everything, and receipts for every upgrade I ever made on the home, warranty docs, QR codes to download smart home apps to control the devices, plot maps, floor plans, a 1-page list of repairmen for everything- you name it. I made short YouTube videos for everything like turning the water on/off…

The binder I wish I had would have schematics for the structure and systems, maintenance records, checklists, vendor receipts, and manuals. No such luck.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#283
post #17

For my last house, I had spent years on smart home automation, I had a binder that contained clear instructions I wrote for everything, and receipts for every upgrade I ever made on the home, warranty docs, QR codes to download smart home apps to control the devices, plot maps, floor plans, a 1-page list of repairmen for everything- you name it. I made short YouTube videos for everything like turning the water on/off…

She did herself and the next owners a favor by ripping out the smarthome crap. It's like shag carpet: faddy, kitsch, and high maintenance. Smarthome stuff in particular is just so overkill. I don't want to overengineer my home. I don't want apps and QR codes and documentation just to water my garden or operate the lights. I'm not a nerd who enjoys tinkering with this stuff. I have shit to do. I want my hose to work l…

I agree that smart home stuff can be excessive however I really like the Hue white ambiance bulbs. I live in Vancouver and so in the winter it gets dark early - and the days are often gloomy too. I can have cool. Lighting from morning to evening and then have it get warmer as it gets towards the evening. That alone is worth it for me.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

She couldve planted that herself to make livestream more interesting with some sentimental drama.

Interesting that your first thought upon reading something like this is that it could have been faked, complete with reason. I think that says more about you than that it does about the person described in the story.

Or it says more about the state of modern Twitch/Youtube, which is completely filled with people faking drama for views. It happens so much that it’s not unfair for viewers to have doubts.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#286

As an Airbnb host, I have done this sort of thing for my guests and my own usage, but with a "flat" structure: a simple, searchable inventory ( https://maisonrougevernet.fr/inventaire ) which doubles as technical documentation for some items (with optionally links to PDFs, videos, etc.).

Wow, I like that page. How do you maintain that table?

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#287
I do it in Notion, and it's shared with everyone who either lives or hangs out in here a lot.

Biggest advantage is that Notion is pretty good with multimedia content — embedded photos / videos / PDFs, gallery view for databases... And the best documentation for a home is often just pictures and videos.

- Here's how the sauna guy wired the equipment - This is what the old room looked like before we changed the walls - These are the xmas ornaments we're storing in the garage, etc

PS: I love Obsidian but use it mostly in single-player mode

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#288
post #75
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you use AWS for that? That seems like an extremely strange external dependency for a house running on rainwater.

Because they can, I guess? There can be fun had in over-engineering personal projects. It can also be educational. It's no more odd than > grafana, spring, keycloak

There is absolutely no fun to be found anywhere in AWS.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#290

Many stories from people creating documentation only for it to get thrown away. Let me share an opposite one: I bought a house that was empty after divorce, both had moved out some months before. We mostly dealt with the agent, only saw one of the previous owners for a very short time at the signing meeting with the notary. Then in the house we found a "congratulations on your new place" card, a bottle of sparkling w…

Remind me to get one of those "pockets" to put on the wall downstairs so I can just put random documentation in.
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