From Managing Homes to Reimagining Them

In 2018, I stepped into a role that would change the entire trajectory of my life: becoming the House Manager for an executive family with two homes. One in Vancouver’s North Shore and one in Whistler.

A House Manager is the operational backbone of a household. Keeping every system of a home running so the family can focus on living, not managing.

Stepping into this world felt both exciting and totally unfamiliar. In many ways, it mirrored the experience of a first-time homeowner: the responsibility, the learning curve, the pressure to get everything right… only amplified by the fact that these were high-end homes that didn’t belong to me.

And yet, the heart of the job was beautifully simple:
Make it possible for this busy family with young children to walk through the door each day and immediately shift into family time.

Some evenings I’d be heading out just as they were sitting down to dinner. Hearing their kids excitedly share stories from their day while their parents listened with full presence, grounded, connected, unhurried, reminded me why the work mattered. 

A home should protect that kind of presence.

The hidden overwhelm beneath the surface

Managing two homes in two cities meant a constant stream of micro-details moving at once.

Morning texts with updates or requests
Sticky notes with things that didn’t make it into messages
Contractor emails buried between marketing promotions
Printed updates awaiting review
Follow-ups scattered across text, email, and in-person conversations

Each piece is harmless on its own.
But together, they formed a constant, invisible storm of details.

Tasks lived everywhere. Inboxes, notes, messages, hallway conversations, contractor quotes, timing issues, seasonal demands, and the everyday needs of a growing family.

Even with my natural organization, I could clearly see the truth:

Homes don’t fall apart because of one big thing.
They fall apart because of a thousand small things no one is tracking.

Turning the unseen juggle into clarity

My background in the restaurant world had trained me to build systems for anything.
So I rebuilt home management from the ground up.

• A dedicated email system divided by home and contractor
• Grocery lists designed like professional par sheets
• Preference tracking so restocking became intuitive instead of reactive
• Monthly expense summaries across both properties
• A Friday Report that outlined completed tasks, upcoming work, quotes awaiting approval, and any open questions

These systems didn’t just organize the home.

They created peace.

They stopped home-management conversations from spilling into family time.
They eliminated decision fatigue.
They protected the emotional bandwidth of two busy parents.

And they created something rare in modern life:
A home that supported its people instead of draining them.

The turning point

One day, someone close to the family asked whether I could help manage their home part-time as well. My plate was already full, so the answer had to be no.

A few months later, that family announced they were separating.

The news hit me with real weight.
As someone who grew up in a divorced home, I felt the ripple of what that meant.

And I wondered, not from ego, but from compassion:

Would support at home have created more space for connection?
Could protected evenings have given them room to breathe, to communicate, to reconnect?
Could the right systems have shifted the trajectory of that household?

I’ll never know.
But that question never left me.

It planted the seed for something bigger.

Roost & Burrow: the first evolution

That moment inspired me to launch a professional home-management service called Roost & Burrow: managing everything from the roof (the roost) to the foundation (the burrow) and every system between.

My goal was simple:
Give families the support most of them don’t even realize they’re missing.

But just as the business began, life redirected me.

I became pregnant with my first child, and Roost & Burrow paused.
Then we welcomed our second child soon after.

And becoming a parent changed everything.

Motherhood softened me, yet sharpened me, and expanded me.

The systems I once enforced with professional precision were now seen through a lens of compassion.

Parents aren’t failing.
They’re overloaded.
Overextended.
Undersupported.

Everyone is juggling too much, and the cost is showing up in homes, marriages, and childhoods everywhere.

Families don’t need another task list.
Or another app that pings them into guilt or urgency.

They need relief.
They need clarity.
They need a presence behind the scenes holding the pieces together.

And that’s when the vision returned. Clearer than ever.
Roost & Burrow evolved into something bigger, more accessible, and more powerful.

It became RUBO.

Why RUBO exists

Every day I meet families who are overwhelmed by the same things I once managed in my career. It’s clear that we’re missing a kind of support that used to exist: the village, the community, the quiet presence that keeps a home functioning.

We have childcare systems.
But almost nothing that supports the home itself.

The result: parents are missing irreplaceable moments because they’re drowning in maintenance tasks and heavy schedules.

RUBO is my attempt, my offering, to shift that.
To support the home so families can support each other.

RUBO removes balls from the juggle.
It creates clarity, ease, and peace without common tech manipulation.

No addictive loops
No gamification
No data harvesting
No attention-draining tricks

RUBO works quietly, intuitively, and intelligently so parents can return to what matters:

Raising their children
Maintaining their relationships
Being present for the life they’re building

With: 

Privacy.
Presence.
Protection.
That is the backbone of RUBO.

It’s not just an app. It’s a shift in how families live.

At the heart of it

Every family deserves a peaceful home.
Every child deserves present parents.
Every parent deserves real support, not more pressure.

It’s time to restore that possibility.

It’s time for families to breathe again.
It’s time for homes to become sanctuaries again.
It’s time for technology that gives back your presence instead of taking it.

RUBO remembers so you can relax.