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Possibly the best thing
We built a shower into the garage for dog washing, but if we had children I could see it being equally useful. When we lived in the trailer dirt was just a fact of life. Now that we are in a house it is refreshing to have as little dirt as possible. Now Dazey and…
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Solar Powered
The solar install was completed today, for the most part. The install is done and working. Now we have to wait on the State of Colorado electrical inspector and then our power utility inspector. That should take less than 2 weeks and then we will be putting juice back onto the grid and eliminating our…
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Getting solar installed
One thing we designed our home to have is a large south facing steep roof. This gives us a perfect platform to install solar panels. The initial plan is to have them tied to the grid to offset our electrical usage. This saves us all of the money we pay for power and helps reduce…
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Outsmarting the smart home
Last year I bought our first HomePod Mini and our adventure into building a smart home began. The HomePod mini works as a hub for Apple’s HomeKit smart home system. Basically the HomePod mini works as an always on computer for the various smart devices to connect to. One of the first smart devices we…
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Double the outlets
As Kate and I inhabit our new home we have been 99% satisfied with how everything came out. The only complaint is that we should have doubled the electrical outlets. Especially in the garage, mudroom, and bedrooms. Its really hard to run wires once the insulation and drywall are installed.
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Home Theater
I have always enjoyed watching movies and TV. I enjoy all kinds of shows and use Youtube extensively for educational and entertainment purposes. I am not a hard core fan of anything but I do enjoy watching moving pictures. I enjoy going to the theater but it can be annoying when people want to talk…
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Anticipation, Expectations, and Waiting
A colleague of mine wrote about waiting for a big running race he has this weekend: I’m always a bit uneasy and fidgety in the week leading up to a race. Four More Days of Waiting – Jon Penland Replace ‘a race’ with ‘moving into a new home’ and I would say uneasy and fidgety…
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Put a lid on it!
The house build continues to progress. Yesterday the roofers completed the standing seam metal roof. I guess I had gotten used to seeing the green seal, which they installed back in June, because it really struck me how much better the roof looks now! One of the coolest parts of the roof installation was that…
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Why does a home need to be smart?
As we are designing and preparing to build a home I have begun researching smart home options. When I search wikipedia for ‘smart home’ it takes me to Home Automation. When I search the rest of the Web for ‘smart home’ I see mostly things about lighting and security cameras. We live in a small…
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Home building update: Pause and Hot Tub
It has been a while since I posted about our home building project. While we have been able to settle on a design we are having a challenge finding builders who can meet our budget. Apparently the pandemic has driven up the cost of materials and also everyone wants a home or add on built,…