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Maintenance Binder

Okay, let's, go back out to the power point and think about thie, um, the idea of maintaining your home so before we move on to that, is there any other I think any buzz happening that we need to cover on the d I y versus professional now, I think we're good. So as I was saying earlier, we forget that we need to maintain parts of our home in the same way that we invested an expensive car or we have our teeth clean than we do, you know, things, teo maintain other parts of our life, but sometimes we forget that it's really worth if you're going to invest in good quality interiors toe have certain parts of the interior maintain two really extend the life of of the peace or whatever it is we're talking about. I'm going to give you some examples in a minute, but so we create this little binder I didn't bring one cause I've been traveling all over the world recently, as you all know, but it's just what you can imagine it's just a basic three ring binder that we just collect a lot of informat...

ion. I'm going to tell you exactly what that is, that we put in it so that our clients have this as a tool. Once we leave, they can always call us to come back and help, but in the meantime, there are lots of things that they're going to maintain on their own, and we have it all in a tidy, great little place for them that really helps them for a number of reasons, and I'll tell you what those reasons are, so we create this at the end of the design project, but we've been thinking about this through the whole design project, so every piece of furniture we've ordered for the front, for them, we have collected all the warranty information, all the care and cleaning information, we always cut little swatches of fabric, so if we're going to have the sofa upholstered in a fabric before we send it to the manufacturer, tohave it upholstered, we clip little pieces so that we can put all of that information into these binders so it's created at the end, but it's a long process of preparing to create this through the whole process, so it includes all the information that they might need about the project. So timelines, and I'll show you some of those in a moment, some samples for maintaining all the items in the house, contact information for us, or if we are willing and want them to be able to directly contact someone that we purchased something from or that maid or manufactured or you know the dry free people if we want them to be able to go directly teo to that person then we put that information and there are a lot of times we have them contact us because they're turnkey projects and we want to not make them have to deal with going to the trouble we want to fix it for them but any kind of information that they might need we put in that binder it really keeps them organized and they go to this as a resource all the time are our clients are constantly pulling it off the shelf they know right where it is and it helps them have all of this information exactly at arm's length and be organized so if you want to do this for your own home what would you start to include in a maintenance finder for your own project so be sure to just organize it like you can imagine he would do any other kind of projects that we used tab dividers and we organize them by room or it could be by subject but for us if it's a several room project we organize it by rams a bathroom bedroom kitchen and we have tabs for all of those but whatever makes the most sense for you if you'd rather it be all furniture information and all hard surfaces that's perfectly fine just whatever makes the most sense for you you're gonna fill the spider up so if you do a whole house unless you have a tiny house she might not need one this big but it's got a lot of information in it so that we give them everything that they could possibly think to need and then we put pocket dividers and other things in there three hole punch and we get it really all organized it's really cool it's a little great tool that they have for a long time because we had there some items that go in there that fit into different parts and pieces of the pockets and things so there's general household items that go in here so we if we have certain repairman or specialists that we highly recommend that we know would do a good job for them we actually give them those numbers like we have a guy that's a furniture medic and so say if something gets chipped just the edge of a piece of wood furniture he can come over and just fix a little chip oreste you know a scratch on the on the hardwood floor so that's something that they might not wanna have to call him bother us to get that person over to their house so we give them a list of those people that we really trust to do a great job from our little black book of resource is is a designer and then they can have those at hand we also help them with insurance information for their own insurance policies, so a lot of times people will use this exact maintenance binder and give akane asked us to make another coffee to give to their insurance person because we put in photographs of all the major items in their house like all the furniture, all the artwork, anything that we've sold them with a price retail price like a replacement price value and we actually have had a client whose house burned in a fire and they were able to use all of our images and our documentation to help with replacement value so something that could be really, really important how many of us are always saying no we need to video the whole house and all the things in our house so that we have them insured and we do this for our clients at kind of accidentally we figured that out the first time by having this documentation of what's in their home anything that has a warranty that comes with it so appliances if we're helping them purchase those or anything that may be the builder gave them warranties for we leave a place for that to go in this binder and then all of the furnishings usually come with some kind of warranty if we're purchasing them for them and we get extend those warranties to the client and give them copies of that information in this book and then just a household project list in plainer, and we'll talk about that in a minute what that really means, but it helps them no overtime how often they should do things. For example, if we've installed marble countertops periodically, you need tohave those resealed or granted even so, we tell them how often they should put that into even a reminder in their telephone so they can know it's timeto actually have that done and there's lots of different maintenance items like that, depending on what we specified for them and it could be any number of things but a lot of times it's flooring and countertops being resealed, things being cleaned, which we'll talk about in a moment to we give them the little paint samples or what we call paint chips and the names and manufacturers we create a little piece of card stock and cut a little swath of every paint that's in their house and tell them which rooms they'd stand because a lot of times they want to touch up paint our match something to that so for the ceilings, the walls and the trim and anything else that we paint in their house, they had this pretty little grid of all these paint chips and they can go to it as a legend and that every single paint color that's in their house that's really, really handy and then keeping records of the different kinds of finishes used on things like floors are decks things that you would have to re finish over time so anything that they might need to use again like a painter or a stain we make sure that they have that information the manufacturer and the color so that they can we can rip cannot maintain or renovate those spaces and then also it's a great place to put an extra house key or anything else that might be that place where they keep anything associated to the house so a lot of temps we add extra pages from people and it's where they keep codes of their alarms and all sorts of things there was a note section that they even end up using it for all of their key information cause how many of us are always going that what was that and where did I put that? And I can't remember the alarm master code and all of that information so it's a great place to keep anything that has to do with the house said I now keep a house binder with all my paint samples furniture, receipts, manuals, etcetera it's a big one but it's all in one spot it's exactly what this is yes exactly so reminders things that we tell them to make sure that they don't forget to maintain these things whether they really have to do with something we actually installed or that we just helped specify, or even just a friendly reminder to something they might forget, like smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detector. So every six months on their list, they know this is one of the things that they want to make sure these air working in their home and that they are maintained in proper order because it's actually a live for death scenario, right? And when to rotate and flip mattresses for proper where so a lot of us think, you know, we're not sleeping as well. We forget why and there's this big hole where we've been sleeping on the mattress and needs to be turned and flipped. So that's part of the list to do every six months washer replaced pillows or large bedding item, so once a month we have them or if I have cleaning people, help them, you know, wash a lot of the actual betting, not just obviously we're washing sheets most of us every week or so, but some of the other parts of the betting we have that on a list for them to do on a regular basis, changing the air conditioner filters go on the six month list. Having chimneys checked and clean so a lot of times we get ready to build a fire in the winner it where we live and we haven't used it for a long time and it really needs to be clean and chimney sweeps come over because you hear the little birds in the chimney s o that needs to be a yearly thing that they do in their house having the carpets cleaned if it's in their budget we try toe have them do this about every six months or so if it's a high traffic area sometimes people could choose to do that once a year and then this is a little excessive for drapery we don't send drapery out every six months high traffic areas sometimes we do have rugs done every six months but usually will look att in the wind in the summer time having a lot of their rugs cleaned once a year and then dry freeze you khun usually go several years but at least making sure that the people that are in your home are really dusting them and cleaning the driver because they are dust catchers actually but every two to three years you should actually sedar taking them down and having them professionally cleaned and then put back up it'll actually maintain the life of him so when you were saying how long uh well draperies last if you clean them and care for them on a regular basis they can last a lot longer and then other design items for the maintenance minor that we did we put in we put in the manufacturer of the retailers name for the major furnishing so who who that is and we keep a copy of this in our own office to sow some of this is for us sometimes the client won't use this information, but they'll call us to help them replace or repair something and we've kept a copy for ourselves of all of these things and we keep those for a while for clients cause we work for clients many, many years over and over, so we have clients I'm just starting a project that the clients project ended seven years ago and now we're just starting to renovate and remodel a lot of things and so we've been working with them on little minor things like this all seven years they'll call us and say a certain chair's kind of messing up our falling apart can you help us have it re upholstered? So we're really a part of this maintenance of their project long term the fabric samples as I talked about so just like we have little paint swatches, we also have fabric samples and sometimes it's for a number of reasons sometimes they need they want they just want to add something without hiring us they decided to add a couple of new pillows and they want to be able to match it to the fabric sample for whatever reason or something gets damaged and we're trying tio teo repair it or sometimes they're even matching things like custom table linens teo are ordering things bedding sheets and so they want to have those fabric swatches they could do some of those things without our help and then fabrics paint and paint samples are also used again so I was saying even towels in the bathroom they use those often the manufacturer's name and the light bulb type for all fixtures in lamps so it's really important that you actually adhere to the maximum wattage when lance says don't go over certain waters and we've had people not do that and luckily we've never had any catch on fire yet but we have had some paper lampshades get really close to it where they get burned because people are putting the wrong wattage in their bulbs so we're really careful to make sure that they are selecting the right kind of light bulbs for their fixtures that we sell them and then if we help them but sometimes we even go all the way down to the crystal and china and tabletop patterns for clients and so those are things that we put into these binders really anything you can imagine that we've handled top to bottom and we help them remember if they're dishwasher safe or if they should be hand washed and just the care and maintenance of every single thing in their house so some of the things people really love or those monthly reminders of how often he should change things and you know they forget themselves when the last time they change the air filter so we get people on a schedule and it really helps them maintain all the life of their appliances you know you're supposed to clean the ice maker every so often and so all of those things go into this this maintenance finder which is really a cool tool resonate with people is well, it's a great idea so it's something I think you just wouldn't think off but this how easy to have it all in one place yeah so angry and and we know that people are in bed when you do invest in a professional when those of you are going to decide you know now I should hire a painter for this or should hire a designer for this we know that it's a big decision it's a big investment that we want to help people get the longest life possible if I'm talking you into buying professional dry free that's gonna last you thousands I mean cost you thousands of dollars I wantedto last you a long time as well so anything I can do to help people get the most value out of their money even if they're spending money as you know, and invest making an investment that's, really, I feel like my job to help them do that big projects when you maybe if you did it yourself, even though you kept stuff in a binder. So you know exactly how to refer to it was a great idea. Yeah, when I moved into my first house, um the builder did a really nice maintenance binder, where they put in all of the warranty information for all of the, um, appliances that they had installed care information for how to take care of the new wood floors. And I think having that kind of information was just so reassuring, so that if anything ever went wrong, you know, I wouldn't have to sit and try to figure out or call a bunch of people. I could just start there, and most of my questions would be answered. Another thing we didn't put on the hiring professional page or the spin saver splurge section that is really important to us. I I encourage my clients to invest in having their furniture treated for stain before it's installed, and so we use a certain company. Uh, to fuck that's name called fiber steel, which you probably have those here, but they're different numbers, different name brands, teo, treat the furniture and there's a lot of those that are ico friendly too, so they're not off gassing chemicals, but they really helped keep the furniture not only clean, but when there is a stain, then they're able tto call the professional from that company over, and they treat the stain on the rug or the furniture, and you're not taking the color out of an expensive something. You're letting someone who really understands what the and so then that person can take not only our fabric information, but no what they treated it with in a lot of times they can save pieces and it's again worth the money it's like buying insurance for all of your fabrics because you have someone who it's treated tb hardier, but they also are responsible for cleaning it that's just great way buy health insurance. We buy dental insurance by car insurance, but we'd never think teo, we of course we have have insurance, but everything of little things like that really are insurance. Yeah, they really make a huge, huge, different exactly, and the clients that don't invest in that the five, the fabric protection are always the ones who will call and so why did I not get that? And we'll end up having to order a new rug or recover a cushion or two of the sofa. So it really is worth it.