Usage guide

1. Getting started

The app opens on a 3D neighborhood — your own buildable lot plus five model homes around a cul-de-sac (The Classic, The Estate, The Townhouse, The Ranch, and The Penthouse condo tower). Tap any home to preview its exterior and floor plan, then press Mine to claim it (or claim your own lot and build from scratch). You'll be asked for the year built and year purchased.

Your home saves automatically on-device and reloads on every launch. No account, nothing uploaded — see the privacy policy.

2. The maintenance hub's model

Open the hub from the wrench icon. Its whole philosophy fits in one paragraph:

Checklist tab

• Tasks are sorted by due date and anchored to real seasons: monthly tasks roll continuously; quarterly tasks anchor to March / June / September / December; biannual to March + September; annual tasks to the single season that fits the job (water heater flush before winter, HVAC service before cooling season, boat winterization in October).
• Mark Done records today and recomputes the next due date.
• Add to calendar hands the task to your own calendar app, pre-filled — you press save there. HomeBase never touches your calendar itself.

Tip: don't try to zero the list in one weekend. The seasonal anchors exist so three or four tasks surface at a time — a green checklist in March says nothing about September.

Inventory tab

• Needs Maintenance — every item with a recurring task, per room, with both badges. Copies are independent: three bathrooms means "Toilet 1/2/3", each with its own install year, rating, and documents.
• Vehicles — every car, boat, and motorcycle on your lot, tracked individually ("Car 1", "Boat 1", …). Tap a row — or the vehicle itself in 3D — to open its card.
• Structural — home-wide assets that aren't 3D objects: Roof, Siding, Plumbing, and Electrical Panel always; Garage Door, Smoke & CO Detectors, Windows & Doors, Fire Extinguisher, Deck, Lawn Equipment, Pool Equipment, and Balcony when they apply to your home.
• Not in my home removes an item — and for structural assets also drops its tasks from the Checklist entirely. Removed assets wait under Available to Add; tap one to restore it.
• Other Items — tracked items with no recurring schedule; you can still record an install year and condition.

Tip: do one inventory pass, room by room — mark what you don't own and set install years for the big-ticket items (water heater, HVAC, roof, appliances, car). Fifteen minutes of setup turns the ratings from industry averages into your home's truth.

Plain furniture is deliberately not tracked — sofas and desks are décor you drag into rooms, not maintenance items. The hub's scope is upkeep.

Guides tab

Step-by-step DIY guides (HVAC, Plumbing, Electrical, Exterior, Appliances) with warning signs, numbered steps, safety notes, and — read these — when to call a professional.

Pros tab

Your own service contacts (name, trade, phone, email, notes), typed in by you and stored only on-device.

Tip: add the tech's name right after a good service visit, and put what they charged in the notes — future-you will thank you.

Documents

Any item card can attach warranties, manuals, and receipts via the system file picker. The app stores references, not copies, and includes the files in backups you export.

Backup & restore

From the home icon: Backup App Data exports one .zip (database + documents) wherever you choose; Restore App Data overwrites everything from a backup after confirmation, then restarts the app.

Tip: export a backup right after your initial inventory setup and after any big edit — the file is small, and restore is all-or-nothing.

3. Vehicles and the garage

• In the exterior view, long-press the car, boat, or motorcycle icon in the bottom pane and drag it onto the lot. A car dropped on the garage parks inside — the garage slot holds exactly one; everything else takes a free driveway spot (vehicles never stack).
• Tap the garage door (or the garage slab in the floor plan) to step into the garage scene — the door rolls open and a parked car pulls out. Tap the door to close or open it, drag vehicles along the driveway, drag one to the street end to remove it.
• Every vehicle is a tracked instance: its card holds the year and documents, and its tasks (oil / tires / fluids / service for cars; winterization and hull checks for boats; oil-and-chain and season prep for motorcycles) join the Checklist automatically.

4. Building and furnishing the 3D home

• Exterior: toggle features (garage / yard / pool / deck — tap again to cycle sides) and systems (HVAC, solar). Tap the front door to go inside; tap the HVAC unit or solar panels for their maintenance cards.
• Floor plan: tap a room to step into it (works even when the tap lands on furniture); long-press a room for options (enter / change type / remove). Toggle the pencil for all plan editing — wall modes (Solid / Open / Door / Window), selecting empty tiles to create rooms, and adding or removing columns, rows, and floors; the gear icon stays camera-only. Adjacent rooms of the same type merge automatically into one continuous space.
• Room view: long-press a furniture icon in the tray and drag it in; tap placed furniture to rotate, flip, or remove it; long-press-drag to move it — or drag it out through a wall to remove it. Appliances and fixtures are toggled from the pane and tapped to open their maintenance cards. Positions persist automatically.

5. Camera

Every scene's gear has its own camera settings, remembered per scene. The room view adds angle presets: Eye (doorway), Corner (whole room), Top (overhead).

Safety

Task and guide accuracy

• DIY guides and task descriptions are informational only. Manufacturer instructions and local building codes always take precedence over anything in this app.
• If you're unsure about a repair — especially electrical, gas, or structural — use a licensed professional (that's what the Pros tab is for). The app schedules reminders; it does not assess whether a task is safe for you to do yourself.
• Lifespan and upkeep estimates are industry averages combined with the dates you entered — a prompt to check something, not a certification of safety.

Safety — children

• Garage doors — a leading cause of child injury around the home. Keep the auto-reverse test current, keep remotes and keypads away from small children, and never let a child stand or play in the door's path — in the real garage, not the 3D one.
• Vehicles and driveways — never leave children unattended around a vehicle being serviced. Jacked-up cars, hot engines and exhausts, and running engines in a closed garage (carbon-monoxide risk) are all adult-only zones. Keep keys out of reach.
• Vehicle fluids — motor oil, coolant/antifreeze (sweet-tasting and highly toxic), brake fluid, and fuel must be stored locked away and spills cleaned immediately; the same goes for boat fuel stabilizer and battery acid.
• Pool equipment and chemicals — store chemicals locked away regardless of how current the water-chemistry task is, and maintain active adult supervision at the pool. Equipment maintenance is never a substitute for supervision or a proper fence.
• Fire extinguishers and smoke/CO detectors — installed, tested, accessible to adults, and out of reach of young children who could discharge or disable them.
• Tools, ladders, and chemicals for any task (gutters, deck sealing, HVAC coils, caulk, lawn equipment) — keep children and pets out of the work area while a task is in progress, and secure everything immediately afterward, not just once the checklist shows green.
• Electrical panels, HVAC, and solar — adult-only and, in most cases, professional-supervised. Keep panel access restricted at all times.