Upkeep Practical Cookbook & Recipes

This cookbook walks through six real-world home maintenance workflows in Upkeep, from multi-stage agronomic lawn programs and weather-timed exterior work to competitive contractor RFPs, seasonal mountain cabin winterization, and multi-machine household sync.

View on GitHub 📖 Open User Guide →

Recipe 1: Building a Multi-Stage Agronomic Lawn Program with Sub-Events

Instead of cluttering your inventory with 6 to 13 separate lawn-care items, model your entire annual turf schedule inside a single Multi-Event Maintenance Item with timed Sub-Events and consumable Supply tracking.

Hover or click for annotations Showing annotations · Click to pin Annotations pinned · Click to hide

Step-by-Step

1. Press Cmd+N to create a new Maintenance Item:
   • Name: Annual Cool-Season Lawn Care Program
   • Category: Lawn & Garden
   • Schedule: Seasonal (Mar 1 – Nov 30)
   • Tags: lawn, spray, fertilizer, outdoor (the spray and outdoor tags activate inline 14-day weather spray hints).
2. Enable Supply Tracking inside the item editor:
   • Product Name: Lesco 24-0-11 50% PolyPlus Slow-Release (50 lb)
   • Stock on Hand: 4 bags
   • Quantity per Use: 2 bags
   • Unit Cost: $64.00
3. Under Sub-Events (Multi-Event Schedule), add each timed treatment stage:
   • Stage 1: Pre-Emergent Crabgrass Barrier (Mar 1 – Apr 10)
   • Stage 2: Spring Slow-Release Nitrogen & Iron Feed (May 1 – Jun 5)
   • Stage 3: Fall Core Aeration & Tall Fescue Overseeding (Sep 1 – Oct 15) — assign your aeration contractor (Carolina Turf & Ornamental) directly to this stage’s Vendor Override.
   • Stage 4: Late-Fall Winterizer Root Builder (Nov 5 – Dec 10)
4. When you complete a stage, click the Log checkmark next to that specific sub-event. Upkeep records a LogEntry tied to that subEventID, offers to deduct 2 bags from your supply stock, and leaves the remaining stages scheduled for their upcoming windows.

Recipe 2: Timing Exterior & Spray Applications with the 14-Day Weather Engine

Applying pre-emergent herbicides, liquid iron, deck stain, or exterior caulk right before high winds or heavy rain wastes materials and ruins finishes. Upkeep’s Weather Widget and Item Weather Hint automate spray-window selection.

Hover or click for annotations Showing annotations · Click to pin Annotations pinned · Click to hide

Step-by-Step

1. Open your Property Profile in the sidebar under Properties and enter your property’s street address (or city/state).
2. Verify the green location badge (used for weather) appears below the address field—Upkeep geocodes the address locally via macOS Core Location and queries Open-Meteo without requiring an API key.
3. Open Dashboard and inspect the Weather card on the right:
   • Next Rain Advisory: Displays the next forecast day with ≥ 50% precipitation probability or ≥ 0.05" expected rainfall.
   • Good for Spraying / Painting: Highlights the longest contiguous multi-day window of dry weather with sustained winds < 10 mph and gusts < 15 mph.
4. Click any day in the 14-day strip to open the Hourly Weather Breakdown (temperature, feels-like, dew point, wind gusts, UV index, and barometric pressure) and pick the calmest morning hours for your application.

Recipe 3: Running a Competitive Contractor RFP & Replacing an Incumbent Vendor

When replacing an underperforming contractor or collecting multiple bids for a capital project (such as installing micro-mesh gutter guards or replacing a heat pump), use Vendor Sourcing to manage the entire RFP lifecycle.

Hover or click for annotations Showing annotations · Click to pin Annotations pinned · Click to hide

Step-by-Step

1. Navigate to Vendors in the sidebar, switch the segmented tab to Sourcing, and click + (New Sourcing).
2. Configure the sourcing scope:
   • Title: Gutter Guard Installation & Downspout Upgrade
   • For Items: Select Clean Gutters & Flush Downspout Drains (and any other affected maintenance items).
   • Replacing Vendor: Select the incumbent contractor you are replacing.
   • Decide By: Set a target decision date (Upkeep schedules a macOS notification reminder for 9:00 AM on your deadline).
3. Add 2–4 Candidates (or click Pick from Contacts… to import contractor vCards from macOS Contacts).
4. As quotes arrive, update each candidate’s status to Quoted, enter their dollar Quote Amount, and attach their PDF estimate.
5. Click the ⋯ menu on the winning bid and select Hire…:
   • Confirm whether to create a new active Vendor record or link to an existing Vendor.
   • Upkeep automatically marks the incumbent vendor Inactive, reassigns all linked maintenance items to the newly hired vendor, and archives the runner-up Quoted candidates as inactive vendors so their contact info and bid history are never lost.

Recipe 4: Executing & Resetting Seasonal Winterization Checklists Across Properties

For multi-step seasonal rituals—such as closing down a mountain lake cabin before the first hard freeze or commissioning irrigation and cooling in the spring—use Procedures.

Hover or click for annotations Showing annotations · Click to pin Annotations pinned · Click to hide

Step-by-Step

1. Select Procedures under Workflows in the sidebar.
2. Click New Procedure in the top-right bar to start from a built-in template (Winterization Checklist, Spring Opening, Seasonal Prep, or Home Inspection) or create a custom procedure.
3. Scope the procedure to one or more properties (e.g., Oakridge Residence and Blue Ridge Lake Cabin) and assign a Seasonal Window (Oct 15 – Nov 30).
4. Drag and drop steps to match your physical walkthrough order (e.g., Shut off interior manifold valves → Blow out 6-zone irrigation lines at 50 PSI → Insulate backflow preventer & verify GFCI heat trace).
5. Link relevant steps to inventory items so you can jump straight to the underlying equipment specs or vendor contact.
6. Once all steps are checked off, click Log to Journal at the bottom of the procedure card to record a permanent completion entry. Next autumn, click ⋯ → Reset All Steps to reuse the exact checklist.

Recipe 5: Tracking Progress Notes Without Resetting Schedules

Sometimes you want to record an interim observation—such as measuring HVAC static pressure, noting a serial number, or logging a partial repair—without resetting a recurring item’s countdown timer or auto-closing a To-do.

Step-by-Step

1. Open the item in All Items and click Log Completion (or press Cmd+Shift+N).
2. Enter your measurement notes, cost (if any), and attach photos of the equipment nameplate or inspection report.
3. Uncheck Counts as completion (Progress note — won't reset schedule or complete a to-do).
4. Click Save. The entry appears in the item’s Completion History and the global Log with a Progress note badge, while the item’s next-due date remains untouched.

Recipe 6: Auditing Capital System Lifespans & Setting Up Household Cloud Sync

Part A: Major System Lifespan Planning

1. Click your property under Properties in the sidebar to open Property Profiles.
2. Scroll to Major Systems and click Add System for each capital asset:
   • Architectural Shingle Roof (Installed 2019, Expected Lifespan: 30 years)
   • Dual-Fuel Heat Pump (Installed 2022, Expected Lifespan: 15 years)
   • Hybrid Heat Pump Water Heater (Installed 2024, Expected Lifespan: 12 years)
3. Upkeep displays each system’s current age and remaining years (~23 yrs left), shifting the badge tint to Amber when ≤ 5 years remain and Red once past expected lifespan so you can budget replacements ahead of failure.

Part B: Multi-Mac Household Sharing

1. Create a shared UpkeepData folder inside Google Drive, iCloud Drive, or Syncthing.
2. Open Settings (Cmd+,) → Data Location → Change… and select the shared folder on each household member’s Mac.
3. Under Household Members, add each person and select the active member on each machine.
4. Use the sidebar’s My Tasks toggle to filter the inventory to items you own, and rely on Upkeep’s automatic per-item version check (ConflictBanner) to detect and resolve concurrent edits safely.