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Writing documentation for your house

luke.hsiao.dev

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Re: Writing documentation for your house

#311

Post by abanayev »

graton wrote: post #256
paulgerhardt wrote: post #251

When I built my house, I took a Matterport scan before the drywall was put in, and again after. Best decision I ever made. It's like X-ray vision for walls. It's handy to know where wiring runs are, how many studs are between windows when mounting tv's, and a dozen other electrical, ac, or plumbing issues. I used it once a week initially and probably once every two months now that we're settled. Also recommend a Dymo…

When you post an affiliate link it would be nice if you stated so. This has the affiliate tag of: pmg097-20 Without any affiliate link it is: https://www.amazon.com/DYMO-Authentic-Industrial-RhinoPro-18...

Interesting - why do you say it would be nice if the posted stated that it was an affiliate link? Do you feel it takes away an option from you or reduces the link's value?

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#312

Post by raffraffraff »

subpixel wrote: post #163
ozim wrote: 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.

Lights. In my living room I have two spotlings over book cases, a bright center light, two standing lamps and a light illuminating my electric piano. I touch one button and they all come on together. Another cycles through modes (bright, movie, reading). I have the same type of setup in the kitchen. On my upstairs landing, the light illuminates dimly of someone triggers the movement detector (so they don't get blinded at 4am). In my bathroom if I walk in at night, a single spotlight illuminates very dimly directly over the "throne", but if i tap the light switch all spotlights light up.

So in some rooms I have many separate lights operating together, and in my bathroom I have a one of 6 spotlights (which are all in the same electric circuit) operating independently.

As for "hassle", i probably spent a week setting up Home Assistant on a raspberry pi a few years ago and haven't touched it since, apart from replacing switch batteries whenever they get low.

I'm never going back.

Having said that, I'm not interested in automating anything else. Maybe home heating. I have an old 2 zone system, so adding smart thermostats to my radiators would provide completely independent control from every room in the house, whereas right now I just have a dumb-dumb "upstairs" / "downstairs" setup.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#313

Post by zcw100 »

ozim wrote: post #149
efitz wrote: 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…

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…

I feel the exact same way about car modifications. I know you spent a fortune on those rims and you love them but I don't. Now it's a liability to have to replace them.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#314

Post by sonicanatidae »

apwell23 wrote: post #227
superultra wrote: post #65

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…

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

Sure, this is possible, but without any precedent for this, from her, I suspect you might want to sharpen your Occam's razor, or just step closer to it when you shave.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#315

Post by femto »

spikej wrote: post #293
ff317 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bought a new-construction place, and I was around during the process. After they were done with all the plumbing/wiring/etc, but before they filled in the insulation and sheetrock, I walked the whole house and took cellphone pictures of every bare wall to show where all the pipes and wires are run, and then labelled it all up by room. I plan to hand those off if I ever sell the place! I don't know why builders don'…

Someone gave me an added tip to include a tape measure in the shots so you can more easily line up where things are after the wall's closed.

Also keep in mind that wall studs are usually a standard distance apart (600mm or 450mm in Australia), so such pictures have an "inbuilt" tape measure.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#316

Post by imacomputertoo »

I really like some aspects of this, but I don't understand the incentives. If I own a home, I want to know everything about it. However, if I'm selling a home, I don't want the buyers to know everything about it. I also don't want the sellers to learn something about it, that might be considered as having some bearing on the value of the house. In other words, I don't want to get caught knowing something that I should have disclosed but didn't. So as a home owner and potential seller someday, it's better not to make a record of everything because that could hurt me when I sell. It also doesn't benefit me at all to have helped the new owner.

This all might sound very cynical, but it really does seem like incentive misalignment.

I'm an ideal world, every home would have a permanent, up to date, digital record of all the relevant home info. Building planes, modifications, maintenance records, paint and shingle colors, wire and plumbing placement, maybe even a 3d model of the home with structure, plumbing and wiring info. Unfortunately, I don't see how a homeowner would be better off giving that info to the next owner.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#317

Post by pixelbath »

graton wrote: post #256
paulgerhardt wrote: post #251

When I built my house, I took a Matterport scan before the drywall was put in, and again after. Best decision I ever made. It's like X-ray vision for walls. It's handy to know where wiring runs are, how many studs are between windows when mounting tv's, and a dozen other electrical, ac, or plumbing issues. I used it once a week initially and probably once every two months now that we're settled. Also recommend a Dymo…

When you post an affiliate link it would be nice if you stated so. This has the affiliate tag of: pmg097-20 Without any affiliate link it is: https://www.amazon.com/DYMO-Authentic-Industrial-RhinoPro-18...

You appear to be linking to heat shrink tubing for the printer, rather than the printer itself.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#318

Post by mtrower »

balderdash wrote: post #190
grogenaut wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

thats why you should remodel while you live there so you're actually getting value out of your expenditures, not just upgrading everything right before you move out.

Renovating before moving is the worst (excluding clean up (fresh paint, etc) - I feel like most people have horrible taste and use cheapo contractor grade materials, last time I was buying a house I couldn’t believe how many newly renovated homes I saw where I thought “wow this needs a ton of work”

Unfortunately, it’s kind of crazy to use anything better, since — as you pointed out — most people won’t even care.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#319

Post by mtrower »

bluGill wrote: post #50
argc wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah sounds like the people who bought it suck. Why would you destroy a pizza oven? It would add a ton of value to the house for the right buyer. If you had sold it to me I would have absolutely kept the oven :) Also inspires me to follow a similar path for my house. I think the key is to price the house so only someone who values the work you've done would bother buying it, if you have the time to wait around. And I…

One of those things that adds a ton of value for the right person, but for the wrong person is equally negative value (it takes up 64 square feet of yard space!). While most people won't really care. And so while it can add a lot of value to the right person, overall it is zero value. Even to the right person it won't be as much value as you would expect - unless they are putting a more than normal down on the house…

> it takes up 64 square feet of yard space!

Not saying what should or shouldn’t be done, but the implication here seems to be that that’s a lot of yard space. Depending on yard size, that could be a crippling amount of space to lose, or just a drop in the bucket.

I don’t know anything about Seattle yards. I’d kind of expect them to be on the small side, but maybe his wasn’t? He obviously had some amount of land, but from his post I really can’t tell how much.

Re: Writing documentation for your house

#320

Post by mtrower »

nucleardog wrote: post #280
bombcar wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t bother writing documentation, I write on the pipes and walls and equipment. My furnace has the install date in sharpie on it, along with maintenance dates. The main sewer line has the last time it was cleared, who cleared it, and where the blockage was. An industrial label printer makes these easy.

> An industrial label printer makes these easy. So does a sharpie. This is my preferred method. "Permanent" things go on the thing with sharpie. Other stuff gets sharpied on some masking tape and stuck on. If my furnace ever walks off and takes the install date with it... chances are the install date's no longer relevant. Otherwise the documentation for my furnace is... on the furnace.

> Otherwise the documentation for my furnace is... on the furnace.

Sounds too simple, I’m skeptical it could ever work.

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