Home & Upkeep

How it works

The mechanics of this kit, plainly — what runs and when, where the data lands, and what you look at.

• Seasonal check runs first of the month · 9am and keeps the Home upkeep dashboard fresh. Monthly — recomputes what's due and what the season asks.
• What is captured lands in the Properties dataset, which lives at Data/Properties in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Upkeep register dataset, which lives at Data/Upkeep Register in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Trades book dataset, which lives at Data/Trades Book in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the House book dataset, which lives at Data/House Book in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Meter readings dataset, which lives at Data/Meter Readings in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Trade quotes dataset, which lives at Data/Trade Quotes in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Home projects dataset, which lives at Data/Home Projects in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the Cleaning rota dataset, which lives at Data/Cleaning Rota in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• What is captured lands in the How-to sheets dataset, which lives at Data/How-to Sheets in your vault — yours to open, search, and edit like any other file.
• The Home upkeep dashboard reads from the dataset and shows, at a glance: tasks · due vs on track · by area · cost of upkeep · do a job step by step · season ahead · set aside, by project · agreed or paid, by project · who does what · when things got done · who to call · how this board works.

The wiring, in one breath: Upkeep capture writes to Properties · Properties groups Upkeep register · Upkeep capture writes to Upkeep register · Upkeep capture writes to Trades book · Upkeep register shown by Home upkeep · Trades book shown by Home upkeep · Upkeep capture given to Hearth · Hearth runs Seasonal check · Home upkeep kept fresh by Seasonal check · Hearth holds House book keeper · Hearth holds Home planner · Hearth holds Home how-to · House book keeper keeps House book · House book keeper records Meter readings · Home planner keeps Trade quotes · Home planner keeps Home projects · Home planner writes to Cleaning rota · Home how-to writes to How-to sheets.

Getting the most from it

A kit earns its place when it changes what you look at and what you say, not when it is installed. This is the rhythm that makes it pay.

• Say the job when it happens — "boiler serviced today, $95, same engineer" — and Upkeep capture updates the register and the trades book in one go.
• Open Home upkeep at the start of the month, after the seasonal check has recomputed what is due and what the season asks. Plan the weekend from the board.
• Ask Hearth for the number instead of hunting for it: "who did the gutters last time, and what did it cost".
• Put the recurring things you would otherwise forget on the register once — filters, smoke alarms, the annual service — and it carries them round every year.
• When a job was done differently or a trade let you down, say so. The register and the trades book are yours to correct.
• Tell Hearth where things are once ("the stopcock is under the kitchen sink", "the boiler is in the airing cupboard") and House book keeper keeps them. Ask for an emergency sheet and you get one note: how to turn the water, the gas and the electricity off, who to call, and the emergency numbers for where you live, from an official source. Print it and keep it somewhere easy to find.
• Read a meter now and then and say the number. Hearth keeps it with what you used since the last reading, the sum shown, so one winter can be set against the last.
• When the quotes come in, read them out. Home planner lays them side by side, with what each covers and what each leaves out, and leaves the choice with you. Hearth never goes looking in your email for one.
• Planning a kitchen or a bigger job? Say what you have set aside. Each line is kept against it, and Set aside and Agreed or paid on the board show every project side by side.
• Ask how to do a job you have not done before. Home how-to writes it as a sheet of steps from a guide you can check, and Do a job step by step on the board walks you through it with a tick and a note for each step. Gas, most electrics and anything structural get no steps: that is a job for a qualified trade.
• Write the cleaning rota down once (who does what, how often, on which day) and Who does what on the board shows how the chores are shared. Nothing on it is ticked off or chased.

Make it yours

Nothing here is fixed. The pieces are ordinary agents, routines, datasets and dashboards, so anything you know about shaping those applies. Retire whatever earns nothing.

Things people usually change first

Say any of these in chat, or edit them on the kit’s page in the app.

• What jobs exist, and how often each recurs.
• How much warning you want before something falls due.
• Whether the monthly check suggests seasonal jobs, or only tracks yours.
• Whether prices paid are kept alongside each trade.
• What goes on the emergency sheet, and who is on it as the first to call.
• Who shares the chores, and how they are split.
• What you are planning for the house, and what you have set aside for it.

Your first run

Installing starts a short setup conversation — not a form. Answer roughly, correct later.

1. Installing it introduces Hearth, who keeps the house's memory — and the best start is a walk through the place in conversation: the parts of a home offered a few at a time, then each one taken in a sentence or two, every answer landing on the register as you say it.
2. Rough dates are fine — "about a year ago" beats a refusal — and so is stopping midway: come back whenever and it picks up exactly where you left off, offering only the parts you haven't walked yet.
3. Somewhere in that walk Hearth asks, once, whether there is anything you are planning for the house. "Nothing in particular" is a fine answer, and it is never asked again.
4. From then on the monthly check shows you what is coming due and raises a card only when the season asks for something — and if the register is still empty when it comes round, it simply invites the walk-through instead.
5. Say "boiler serviced today, $95" any time and the register updates itself.
6. Trades you trust can be kept alongside, with their numbers and last price — just mention one.

Watch the first pass, then tell it what you would have done differently — that correction teaches it more than any setup could.

The essentials

Learning, preferences and run costs work the same in every kit — so they are covered once, in the Kits guide.

Living with a Kit — the Kits guide →

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