Services

Home Help

We all need help at home, particularly when life gives us extra challenges like illness or travel or jury duty. We’d be happy to walk your dog or feed your kids (or you) or do some laundry or check on your empty house. If you could use help with household tasks please contact us or stop by

Institutional Help

Landlords & Other Bosses

We all have interactions with people who do not treat us as equals, or who imagine their will is more important than our needs. It can be useful to have help when that type of imbalanced interaction is required

We are not lawyers or experts at every type of institutional interaction, but we have won fights with insurance companies and landlords and debt collectors and school principals and tax agencies and we’re happy to help with yours. If that sounds useful contact us or stop by

Homework Help

Stop by after school for help with any kind of homework. We’ve done everything from reading and art to encryption and robots. We can also help with projects and presentations, including help finding tools and supplies

If any sort of external support might make school go better — including support with teachers or administrators or parents — contact us or stop by and we’ll see what can be done

Taxes, Insurance & Other Forms

Life is full of paperwork, and a lot of it can be confusing and infuriating. If you’d like another person to work with you to figure out your forms contact us or stop by

Repair

Clothing Repair

We can help repair damaged and worn clothing. Repairs are usually visible but can be customized to match your style

We might be able to help with other clothing modifications

Appliance & Device Repair

We may be able to repair your appliances, electronics and other household items

Not all items can be fixed. Even if an item can be fixed we may not be up to the task. On occasion we might make the thing you bring for repair worse instead of better

But often we can take apart an item and examine it to make an experienced guess at what is broken, what would be required to fix it, and how much it would cost to do so. In many cases we can offer this service at low or no cost

Toy Repair

We can provide textile, mechanical and electrical repair for toys — including toys for dogs or children or adults — to help keep them in safe and working order

Home Repair

We can help with home repairs. We are only expert at a handful of repairs and are not licensed to do any. But we have installed and fixed a lot of pipes and wires and doors and walls, or at least made them functional enough to wait until a better fix is available. At the very least we have tools and a willingness to poke things, which is often a useful first step

Custom Electronics

For the more adventurous we may be able to modify your household items to make them easier to use or smarter or otherwise cooler

No one wants their corporate “smart” appliance to show them ads or spy on their neighbors. We can add smart features or custom interfaces to existing “dumb” appliances, providing the benefits of modern tools without the dangers of letting tech companies and ICE into your home

If you are interested in doing this sort of work yourself you’ll find many of our appliance and sensor configurations on GitHub: https://github.com/profplump/esphome/

Showers, Laundry & Charging

Laundry

Self-service laundry is available most days. Service is free but donations are welcome; we do have to buy water and electricity and gas and machines. Basic laundry supplies are available at cost

We are sharing our home washing machine and dryer so availability is sometimes limited. Contact us or stop by for details

Showers

On days when our rental room is empty we offer showers. Showers are free but if you are able to help clean the shower after using it that goes a long way toward keeping this service available to everyone. Basic hygiene supplies are also available

In the winter the shower is available many days. In the summer the room is often booked. Contact us or stop by to find out when showers are available

Charging

USB charging and AC outlet access are available most days. Stop by if your device needs a charge