How Much Help Does a House Like Yours Need?
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The first question almost everyone asks us is some version of how many hours they need. The second thing almost everyone does is guess, and the guess is nearly always low.
That is not a failure of imagination. It is that the work is invisible until someone else is doing it. What people picture is the visible part: someone at the house, doing a task, for an hour. What they leave out is the scheduling, the letting in, the walking of the finished work, the invoice that came in wrong, the vendor who did not show, and the four phone calls that produced one clean afternoon.
So here is how we actually size a household, in the open, so you can do the math on your own house before you ever call us.
What sets the number
Not square footage. A compact house with three outbuildings will take more from us than a much larger house that is all one structure, because every building is its own roof, its own gutters, its own place a pipe can freeze, and its own opening and closing every season.
Then how often you are there, and in what pattern. A house lived in year round needs steady, moderate attention. A house occupied three weeks a month in summer and empty in January needs a great deal in July and almost nothing in February, and the year has to be built to absorb that.
Then the vendor list. Every provider on your property is a schedule, an access question, a walk of the finished work, and an invoice to check. Six vendors is a rhythm. Eighteen is a job.
Then the seasonal calendar. Dock in and out, irrigation, winterizing, snow, the spring reset, screens and storms, outbuildings opened and closed. On a lake property this is not a footnote. It is a meaningful share of the year's hours, and it arrives in two heavy clusters.
And last, who is doing this work now. If you have a housekeeper who has quietly been managing vendors for a decade, you need less from us than someone starting from nothing. If the honest answer is that you are doing it, at night, on your phone, that is the whole reason to call.
Roughly what it adds up to
A single house, family in residence most of the year, a handful of regular vendors, nothing beyond the main structure: thirty to forty hours a month. Thirty is where our household management engagements begin.
A larger house, or a family that travels, or a household running projects most of the year: forty to sixty.
An estate, meaning buildings beyond the main house, acreage, a dock or shoreline, a full seasonal calendar and guests coming and going: sixty to eighty hours a month, and more of that in the summer than the number suggests.
If your house is smaller than these, we have other ways to work together that do not involve a retainer. And if you are looking at an estate and hoping a few hours a week will cover it, it will not.
The hours will not land evenly, and they should not have to
This is the part that is hardest to size yourself. If your house is full in July and closed in February, a monthly hour allowance either strands you in summer or wastes your money in winter. So we set the hours as a bank for the year instead. Winter draws a little, summer draws a lot, and a quiet February pays for a full July.
What does not change with the size of the house
One contact. Every vendor calls us, not you, and you get one note a month instead of a dozen calls. A steward who has walked the property with you, background checked and under a signed confidentiality agreement. Vendor invoices, supplies and purchases at cost with receipts, never marked up.
And this: we take nothing from the people we recommend. No referral fees, no commissions, no arrangements. A vendor is on your property because they are good, not because it pays us.
How to find your actual number
Walk it with us. It takes about ninety minutes, and at the end we can tell you what your house needs rather than what a category of house needs. Most people are surprised in one direction or the other, and either answer is worth having before you sign anything.
Finn & Lola looks after households around Lake Minnetonka. If you would like to know what yours takes, write to hello@finnandlola.com