We’re getting to the point where buying a house from a flipper is catching up to us. (It didn’t help that the flipper got the house from an addict.)
It’s time to start replacing things that have been neglected for years.
Up next, the garage door openers. (I’m pretty sure the water heater is next. Good times.)
I’ve had the Honda for just over a week now, and the development in automobiles from 2001 to 2024 is astounding. When Fessick rolled off the assembly line, neither mobile phones nor USB were widespread technologies, streaming audio wasn’t even an option, and high end cars had CD changers. Now with wireless CarPlay, my phone and all its associated connectivity is integrated into the car, I’ve got USB-A and -C ports, but the CD player has found the end of it’s road.
When I sit down, press a button to start the engine without unclipping my keys from my belt, the audio I was streaming to my phone routes to the car speakers, and directions to my doctor’s appointment show up on the dashboard, I feel like I’ve stepped into the future. (Also, I know that these features aren’t really high end these days. I’m driving a Honda, not a Rolls.)
That being said, I’ve found a few flaws that really bug me.
Continue reading “Picking Nits on the Ridgeline”In which I attempt to correct the poor decisions made 50 years ago by the lowest bidding electrician; five years ago by a corner cutting house flipper; and ease the unease of a 9-year-old boy; all with an overly complicated hardware and software solution.
Continue reading “Re-lamping the upstairs hallway.”Back in the analog days, your light was controlled either at the lamp or at the switch. If you were going on vacation, you might plug it into a clock work timer so no one noticed the house was unoccupied. As we move to home automation, you have a lot of flexibility in how to control things. Do you want to control at the wall, the lamp or the bulb?
Continue reading “Where to put the brains?”One of the pain points on our smart home journey has been allowing visitors and children without i-devices to control the lights. So far I’ve installed two different solutions, and one of them actually works. The one that doesn’t work is due to the construction of my home, the device itself seems fine.
Better still, the one that works is easier to install and cheaper to purchase.
Continue reading “More smarts for an old house”Not so much hidden really as trick the brain to ignore the power cords for the rear speakers.
I’m not even sure.
I’ve got some lights that turn in when my alarm sounds in the morning. I’ve got some lights that turn on when the sun sets, and others that turn on when it rises. My thermostat knows to adjust the set point when no one is home, and my front door unlocks when I pull into the driveway.
Does that meant my home is smart? I’m not so sure
Continue reading “What makes a smart home?”This summer, as I invoked Siri to light up the dinner table on the patio, my father-in-law’s girlfriend said, “You have a smart house?”
I’ve never really thought about it, but I suppose I do. I’ve got lights that are tied to sunset & sunrise. I’ve got lights that turn on if the wife or I come home after dark. I can control the HVAC system from anywhere in the world.
It’s not something that I consciously set out to do, it just slowly happened over a course of several years. In this post I’ll describe some of the lessons about “smart homes” that I’ve learned the hard way over the years.
Continue reading “Adding smarts to an old house”*hat tip to Dennis Leary for the title.
With an eight-year -old and a six-year-old, I can’t believe how long it took me to figure this out. Anyone with children knows the pain of loud toys, especially early in the morning.
Continue reading “The toys that make noise*”I replaced the factory paddle mirrors with some eBay special towing mirrors this weekend.
The stock mirrors had power and heat when Fessick left the factory. By the time he came into my life, the heat was completely non-operational. The left mirror moved correctly, but the right only moved left to right. It wouldn’t move up and down.
The replacement mirrors have marker lights and turn signals behind a smoked lens as well as turn signals mounted in the glass. Additionally, I can pull the mirror further away from the truck to increase the view when I’m pulling a trailer
Modern Anachronist 