> case files / home fieldbook
Case file 001 · Website + product
HOME FIELDBOOK
An illustrated, US-wide guide to the house: every room, fixture and system, with building code and best practice side by side.
LAUNCHING SOON
Every rule.
Drawn.
The name comes from the fieldbook: the site notebook surveyors, engineers and builders carry.
01THE PROBLEM
Building code is written for inspectors. It tells you the minimum that passes, in language almost nobody reads, scattered across separate books for building, electrical and accessibility.
Homeowners, investors and the trades all end up asking the same two questions: what does the rule actually say, and what should I really do? Nothing answered both in one place, in plain English, with a drawing.
02THE IDEA: CODE VS. GOOD
Code is the floor, not the goal. Every chapter gives two numbers: the CODE minimum the inspector checks, and the GOOD number that makes the room work for people.
What the inspector checks under the 2021 IRC. It passes, but it climbs steep.
It covers the 2021 IRC, 2023 NEC and ADA 2010, with a plain-English summary of every code section it cites.
03BY THE NUMBERS
- Rooms
- Fixtures
- Systems
- Building envelope
- Safety + code
- Process
04THE DESIGN SYSTEM
Light, white and editorial, like a well-kept site notebook. The drawings are pen-and-ink architectural sketches in the spirit of Francis Ching’s illustrated building books, and the hero drawings carry numbered callouts with a legend.
Every section is a spread: a hairline grid of cards. Each card has a name, a drawing, a few short bullets and a “Keep in mind” note.
#2F5A4C
#E3B859
#FBFAF6
#1D2622
Ochre is for highlights only: the hero underline, badges and topic words.
- Work aisles: 42″ for one cook, 48″ for two.
- Counter outlets follow the island rules in NEC 210.52.
COMING SOON
05KEY UX
CHAPTER PAGES
A library sidebar, plus a sticky “you are here” bar: chapter and section, “3 of 16,” a progress line, a Next button and a section menu. A Key Numbers panel puts code next to good, and you read it section by section.
TAP-A-TOPIC
Key words in the text, like “island” in Kitchen, are underlined in ochre. Tap one and every card about that topic lights up, the rest fade, and you step through them card by card.
CODE CHIPS
Every code reference is a chip. Tap it for a plain-English summary, so nobody has to go find the code book.
THE PROPERTY STACK
The landing page zooms through how a building is organized, from the whole lot down to a single part.
THE LANDING PAGE
- “Ask the fieldbook” search
- An interactive code-vs-good demo
- Who it’s for: homeowners, investors, trades
- Common mistakes shown wrong vs. right
- Recently added drawings
- A free sample PDF and a founder note
EVERYWHERE ELSE
- Site search
- Tap-to-enlarge drawings
- Copy link, print or report an error, per section
- Print-friendly pages
- Mobile-first layouts
- Email-link sign-in, account and welcome pages, designed and wired for later
06WHAT SWAMP KITTEN DID
- Product design: the code-vs-good idea, the chapter structure and a freemium model where three chapters are free to read
- UX: chapter navigation, tap-a-topic, code chips and the Property Stack
- Visual system: type, color, the spread and card layout, and the drawing direction
- Build: the whole site, front to back
- One source file: the whole site generates from a single source through a Node and Playwright build
- Static and fast: hosted on Cloudflare Pages
- Drawings: AI-generated pen-and-ink images we direct and review, plus hand-coded SVG diagrams
- Ready for later: accounts and payments designed in from day one
07WHAT’S NEXT
The site and UX are built. Drawings are being added chapter by chapter, and a printed book will follow the website.