We’ve written a house manual!

We’ve written a house manual!  Or at least, Rachel has done the writing and I did some of the gap filling and so on.  We seem to have such a complicated house here at the Quirky Museum and every time we’ve had work done, we have incorporated the information.  This is what it involves.

How often do we get the central heating serviced?  When is the chimney swept and who does it, or the water softener serviced.  Who fixes the roof and what is that switch for?  Where do all of the underground drains go and in which direction?  What type of paint do we use on different things?  And so the list goes on – it all had to be captured into a kind of house manual.

At first, it seemed quite an easy thing to do but the more we have got into it, the more varied it has become and the detail has become, well, more detailed.  We have even included a section on draught conditions and why we should keep the foundations at the front of the house damp!

Complexity of an old house

Perhaps the complexity of these things comes with an old house?  I’m not sure.  We have some friends in the village who have had their relatively modern (1980s) house upgraded to Passivhaus standards.  They have quite a lot of their own kit but it is very different.  In fact I think they can control their house with their smart phones!

With a kitchen, laundry room, a downstairs cloakroom, a bathroom upstairs and basins in three of the bedrooms, we have a lot of water flowing around the house.  Add two outside taps, the 15 central heating radiators with their invisible pipes, we really do have quite a network of pipes and we have tried to give a clue about these when any further work is carried out.  It can become even more confusing with 14 circuits, 59 light switches and sockets dotted around.

Getting the wiring sorted out late last year was such a good thing to do.  Not only is it much safer and less likely to go wrong, it is better for anyone who does any future work for us.  We have made provision for solar panels and battery storage, something which is becoming a more compelling proposition nowadays.

A stitch in time

It is ongoing maintenance which is something I’m keen to get right, picking up on that old saying of “a stitch in time saves nine” and how we can prevent bigger problems later on.  I think there’s a lot of truth in this.

Until recently, all of the information was all in our heads – when and what gets serviced, cleaned, painted, pruned, oiled, checked by who and what’s their phone number?

I really do believe staying on top of all of this is important – it stops things from breaking down and is almost certainly more cost effective.  Getting these things done also brings us a certain peace of mind but it is never 100% full proof.

Tasks for the summer

• prune the climbing hydrangea
• paint the front windows
• central heating boiler service, rust inhibitor topped up, radiators checked
• repair fences
• chimney sweeping
• car inspection service
• check loft for ventilation and wasp nests
• ventilate cellar
• continuous weeding!

All in all, I find this satisfying to stay on top of and having a manual with a schedule of what needs doing and when, will be invaluable in the future.  I enjoy doing some of it myself and we have some lovely trades folk who do the things we can’t.  I think the cost is well worth it.  Sure, we can skip this or that but these things will probably bite us later on – so much better to prevent problems if at all possible.

How about you?  Anyone already has a completed manual?  I would be interested to hear about it.