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Writing documentation for your house

luke.hsiao.dev

201–210 of 326 posts

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatabout something else that is a problem in the world? Your post history seems like you exist to be an example in a Wikipedia article https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whataboutism

You extrapolated "I will just be pickier about who i sell it to" into an argument about regulations. If your contention is that sentiment obstructs progress, it seems totally fair to argue that the opposite is also true. Accusing someone of "whataboutism" isn't doing much to move the conversation forward.

They made a snarky single sentence comment. There is no argument about any thing else.

I have a quote from the OP, but address matters from the entire comment.

You are arguing about two sentences.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#202
This is not the same, and might not get house-mate approval, but I like writing little notes in-situ where I need them. For laundry, little checklists of things I forget to wash (bathroom rugs smh), how long each cycle takes. Houseplants can keep when they were last watered nearby. Only works for high-use areas but still useful

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Home automation is a mystery to me. I have a coffee maker I can program to turn on in the morning, some ring cams for deterrence, and an automatic thermostat. I feel like everything else is overkill. Also starting and maintaining a fire in the wood stove is something I enjoy.

Big use cases can be overkill, but I like to take on the small things as automation projects. Easy one - if everyone has left my house for a time, turn off all the lights. If we have left but the dog is home and the sun sets, turn on a few lights for her (my dog has a wifi collar). If I arrive home after dark and open the garage door, turn on the mudroom lights so I don't walk in to a dark house, then turn it back of…

Or if you're on holiday - turn the lights on at certain points.

For top marks, have a train set with cardboard cutouts on and party music playing loudly every evening.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#204
The thing about docs is that it's tempting to write it and then forget it. And the only thing worse than no docs is outdated docs. Just like my password manager consists of 50/50 passwords I have since updated but not re-entered into the password manager (thus making it frustrating and useless) any big pile of docs will quickly become outdated and then first frustrating, finally useless. This isn't a one off weekend project to "document your home". It's a commitment that lasts as long as you live there. Unless you want to know the model of your last dishwasher, you need to wonder if you really have a passion for this project.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#205
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Home automation is for me exactly the same as designer kitchen or designer day room. Yeah it was great for the previous owner but it sucks for me as I have different tastes and needs. I am going to rip it all off and do what I want. But in reality I just don’t buy anything that is advertised “one of a kind” because I know it will be more of a hassle to deal with it even if it looks cool. For me cool looking fancy stu…

Home automation is a mystery to me. I have a coffee maker I can program to turn on in the morning, some ring cams for deterrence, and an automatic thermostat. I feel like everything else is overkill. Also starting and maintaining a fire in the wood stove is something I enjoy.

Speaking of overkill, you might reconsider the Ring cams to be replaced with something more local. Public-facing Amazon data ingestion isn't the most polite home decor.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#206
post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is and it isn't. It's definitely on the "you don't need it" side of the scale, but if done thoughtfully it can make everyday life just a bit easier. Some of my favourite automations: 1. Whenever someone arrives home and it's started to get dark outside, automatically turn the hallway lights on if they're off 2. When turning off the TV in the lounge, and it's dark outside, and the lights are dimmed, bring them up t…

Talking about preferences I hate motion sensor lights I usually rather to walk in dark and get my eyes used to darkness. I still turn on lights when I get to bathroom or I get a glass of water in the end but somehow it feels better if I turn it on at the destination. Other thing is I hade all kinds of status LEDs - it is just insane with the bright ones. I know it is nice for quick troubleshooting during the day to k…

I use electrical tape to tape over bright LEDs, especially ones in the bedroom. The light generally will still be visible and you can add layers to get the brightness you desire. The tape also comes in many colors so you can match the device you are fixing.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#208

This didn’t happen to me but to a friend. She lives in an old home and has a neverending list of projects, many of which she took up during the pandemic. She would often livestream her rehab at nights just to connect to people as she worked. One night she was streaming the teardown of a bathroom wall. There, in between the walls, was a clipboard with some notes. She slowly took the clipboard up and started reading. O…

unless the previous owner was a rockstar renovator who only left "the work is self documenting" on a postit

"If it was hard to build it should be hard to maintain"

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#209

The best suggestion I've seen on this is to set up an e-mail address for the house and to then use it for signing up for registering appliances and so forth.

I did exactly this when I bought my house in 2018. It's @gmail and I'm using the drive for storing photos and notes from my DIY projects or contractor work, whatever documentation have on appliances, etc. If I ever sell my house, I'll just pass the password for the email account.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#210

This didn’t happen to me but to a friend. She lives in an old home and has a neverending list of projects, many of which she took up during the pandemic. She would often livestream her rehab at nights just to connect to people as she worked. One night she was streaming the teardown of a bathroom wall. There, in between the walls, was a clipboard with some notes. She slowly took the clipboard up and started reading. O…

My uncle lives in an old house in Lodi. He took down some kitchen walls for a major remodel. Somehow, a bunch of letters from the 1920s had slipped between the cracks and got stuck in the wall. It was a bunch of heartwarming, innocent correspondence between the family members now living in California and the ones who stayed back in Oklahoma (or somewhere like that). Uncle chokes up every time he reads those letters.

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