Where's the main water shutoff — tonight, in the dark, with water coming in? Is the roof still under warranty? What's the exact paint color in the kitchen, who laid the floor, and what did it cost? The House Book is the manual your home should have come with — you fill it in once, and it answers for the rest of the time you own the place.
Complete fill-in record system · Yours forever · All sales finalThe warranty is in an email somewhere. The furnace filter size is written on the old filter you threw away. The contractor who did the bathroom — good guy, what was his name? — is three phones ago. The insurance policy number is in a folder, one of the folders, probably. Every homeowner runs this exact filing system, and it works fine until the moment it matters: the appliance dies a month before the warranty would have covered it, the adjuster asks when the roof was replaced, the buyer's agent asks for the renovation history you never wrote down.
Homes with organized records are easier to maintain, cheaper to insure correctly, smoother to sell, and dramatically easier to make claims on. The House Book puts every one of those details in one place, in a structure that took years of homeownership to figure out — so you can fill it in over a weekend instead.
When our basement flooded, the insurer's first question was about documentation we'd never kept. When we renovated, every contractor asked what was behind the walls — and the honest answer was a shrug. When we sold, the buyers wanted the history of the house, and the history of the house lived in my memory, unevenly. The House Book exists because every one of those moments has the same fix: write it down once, while it's easy. More about why this desk exists →
The page you fill in before anything else: main water shutoff, gas shutoff, electrical panel, alarm codes, emergency numbers, WiFi. The page you'll reach for at midnight someday — and be very glad it exists.
Security, documentation, utilities, and admin for the first weeks — the lock changes, meter photos, and account setups that are easy now and expensive to reconstruct later.
Furnace, water heater, A/C, electrical, plumbing, roof — age, model, filter sizes, service history, and the contact who knows it. The section your future repair calls start from.
Every appliance: brand, model, serial, purchase date, price, and warranty end date — so coverage gets used before it expires instead of discovered after.
What was done, by whom, for how much, with which materials — paint colors and finishes included. The renovation history that protects your claim, informs your next contractor, and impresses your eventual buyer.
Everyone who has ever worked on the house, with contact details, what they did, and whether you'd call them again. Three phones from now, you'll still have the good electrician.
Spring, summer, fall, winter — the recurring upkeep that prevents the expensive failures, on a schedule instead of a guilty conscience.
Policies, closing documents, permits, and where the originals live. The section that makes the Claim Inventory Package's job — and your attorney's, and your executor's — infinitely easier.
One warranty caught before it expires pays for the House Book several times over. One organized insurance claim pays for it a hundred times over. It's the cheapest thing on the desk, and over the years you own your home, it may quietly become the most valuable.
No — they're partners. The House Book is the everyday record system you keep as you go; the Claim Inventory Package ($39) is the specialized system for documenting and valuing losses after a fire, flood, or theft. A filled-in House Book makes that job — and the payout — dramatically better, because your documentation predates the loss.
Not remotely — you're actually the ideal user. You already know most of the answers; they've just never been in one place. A longtime owner can fill in the bulk of the House Book in a weekend, and the sections you can't complete from memory (warranty dates, system ages) are exactly the ones worth chasing down before you need them.
Either. Type directly into it and keep it wherever you keep files, print it and keep a binder by the electrical panel, or both — many people keep the First 48 Hours page printed and the rest digital. The companion trackers work the same way.
Because the entire product is delivered the moment you click download — there's nothing to return. Everything inside is listed on this page, above the button. Read it as carefully as you like, and only buy when you're sure. All sales are final.
The Homeowners Desk Library includes the House Book plus all four protection packages — $155 of material for $99.
See the Library — $99