Echo Dots!

Brianna and I really like our Amazon Echos. Recently a smaller, cheaper version has become widely available, called the Echo Dot. We bought three Dots for less than the cost of an original Amazon Echo.

I put one in the basement, and one in the nursery. I moved the full-sized Echo that we had in the master bedroom down to the Great Room on the first floor. I had special plans for the new Dot in the Master Bedroom.

Our home came with an old, broken security system. I have removed just about all the old security system components, but I left the control panel in the Master Bedroom since I didn't have a good idea for what to do with the hole in the wall behind it. Now, I did.

I touched up the paint:

And I used my 3D printer to print myself a copy of an Echo Dot wall mount:

It took a little fiddling, but I got the mount on the wall, and spliced a micro usb cable onto the old security system wiring:

Unsurprisingly, the 5 volt power supply that came with the Dot was not sufficient to power the Dot from down in the basement (where the security wiring re-emerges from the walls). I pulled my variable power supply off the shelf, and found that 6 volts was enough to power the Dot. I will replace the variable power supply with something more permanent in the near future.

All in all, I think it looks pretty good! And this one will never be buried under the stuff that seems to accumulate on the dresser :-)

New "Portable" AC unit

Our old window AC isn't working all that well anymore. We ordered a new one, and it arrived this afternoon. This evening, we got it installed.

Here's the old set up, for reference:

And here's the new unit:

Looks pretty decent. The giant ducts on the back are a bit of a downside, though:

I'm tempted to cut them to a shorter length, but that seems too "permanent" some how.

Note to self: it's a Haier 13,500BTU HPND14XCP. $359+tax from Walmart.

Edit: wow, this thing works great! It was dropping the room temp a degree every 10 minutes, where the old one dropped about a degree an hour!

Lincoln did not approve of the change. He was very verbal about it.

Edit 2: Old AC is gone. Posted on Craigslist and had it picked up that afternoon. We got two summers of use out of it, but I'm glad to see it go, now that we have the new one:

Master Bedroom Electrical

Whenever Brianna is out of the house for a day or two, I take the opportunity to knock a couple items off my Electrical To-Do list (yes, I have an actual list).

This weekend, I replaced the GFCI in the master bathroom:

I also added a new outlet inside the bathroom vanity. I cut a hole hole in the cabinet and drywall to the right of the sink, and ran a cable up to tie into the GFCI above. Then I installed a junction box in the wall, and ran flexible conduit over to the left side of the cabinet for the actual outlet.

The hole under the outlet leads to the drawer where Brianna keeps her hair dryer and curling iron. I'm  going to run a power strip through that hole so the appliances can stay plugged in. And hopefully there will be less cords running all over the countertop.

I also installed a motion-sensing switch in the master closet. The light turns on as soon as you break the plane of the doorway, and stays on for two minutes after it last senses motion (the timer is adjustable).

Incidentally, that's the last switch (and the GFCI was the last outlet) to be replaced in the above-ground portion of the house. Every smoke-stained switch and outlet has been replaced with shiny new white versions (and a lot of them are smart!).

Sunday Odd-Jobs

Between coats of paint, I touched up paint in some other areas around the house, including a "whoops" of a wrong color on the kitchen ceiling, a scrape on the wall of the main floor hallway, and fixing holes from an old towel rack in the master bathroom:

The new towel rack is anchored on studs - I call it long-term child-proofing.

While I was painting, Brianna took a nice nap in the early afternoon, and then did some shopping. Among other things, she picked up some plastic tubs to help organize the closet, after I so rudely dumped everything out of it yesterday.

Brianna also made some delicious enchiladas for dinner, with enough leftovers for several lunches this week.

Air Sealing the Attic

Brianna is in Colorado Springs today for a baby shower, so I have time to do messy and smelly house projects.

Our heating bills were over one hundred dollars in March and April (each!) this year, and the master bedroom got pretty sweltering during most of the summer. Hopefully, and four hundred dollar purchase in insulation (along with a big sweat-equity donation by Brian) will pay off in a year or two.

I air-sealed the attic this morning, in preparation to blow in insulation. I really need to practice yoga for a week or so ahead of going up the attic. I feel that being more limber would really help with maneuvering around the attic.

Well, hopefully after today, I won't need to be up in the attic again: one less reason to exercise!

I think I sealed up every hole in the ceiling drywall. I even puttied in some screw holes from figuring out the lights in the master bedroom. On the other hand, I kept thinking of more air holes to seal while I was up there, so it's entirely possible I missed one or two.

Here's some "before" pictures, before the new insulation comes in:

 I did some other prep work, primarily emptying out the closet (where the access to the attic is):

Lowering the Bed

I lowered the bed for Brianna.

...and you can't really tell.

We have a Bidet

Just a warning: this post might wander into "too much information" territory.

I've never actually used a bidet before, but it seems like everyone who has one can't imagine going back to a standard american toilet. I have been wanting to try one for a number of years now, and a week ago a number of bidet toilet seats under the BioBidet brand popped up on woot.com at a steep discount. Brianna was game to try it out, so I ordered one. It was one of the packages that arrived on Friday.

Once Brianna got home today, I couldn't really keep painting, so I got to work on installing this in our master bathroom.

This particular model requires electrical power to heat the water stream (and heat the toilet seat, which might be nice in the winter months). The water closet in the master bathroom doesn't have a power outlet. I considered adding an outlet to the junction box that contains the switches for the light and fan, but that really wasn't a convenient location. I decided to simply route the power cord through the wall between the water closet and the master bedroom and plug it into a GFCI outlet in the master bedroom.

I then covered the hole with wall plates intended for HDMI and audio cables:

(man, I have got to replace that ugly gold TP holder).

Once I had access to power, I installed the bidet:

I got the version with the wall-mounted remote control - without it, all the controls are actually behind you while you're using the bidet.

Once I verified everything was set up correctly and nothing was leaking, I tried it out. It's an, ahem, startling experience.

Odd Jobs

I also took care of a couple of things that were a lot higher on Brianna's to-do list than they were on mine.

First up was repairing the ottoman that goes with the gliding chair in the nursery. The screws on the right leg of the ottoman had completely stripped out. I replaced them with a few bolts, and everything is working normally again.

I also moved the power cord to one of the lights in the master bedroom. I thought it was perfectly logical to have the vertical line run above the outlet when I installed it, but turns out Brianna had a plan for the corner the whole time.

Bookcases!

I fell into temptation and bought a bookcase for full price (Thanks for the gift card, Uncle Bill!)

I also unpacked our books!

Notice I said "unpacked" not "organized" - that will come later.

Anyway, I'm pretty stoked to have my books unpacked again - it's been over six months! And I like having matching shelves, too!

Oh, one more thing - in keeping with a general theme of babyproofing, these bookshelves are anchored to the wall so they can't fall over - that's another first for me.

Mattress Topper

I stopped by IKEA today. I have a gift card burning a hole in my wallet, and I really want to get a second, matching bookshelf into the master bedroom.

I didn't find the right bookshelf, but there was a mattress topper that would match our bed. We've had chiropractors and pregnancy nurses on our case to get a mattress topper, so I picked this one up.

Actually, it kinda overhangs, doesn't it? Eh, well, we'll try it for a while.

(I'm saving that gift card for a bookshelf!)

Decorating

A week of not sleeping much so I could fit in an extra coat of paint caught up with me last night. Going to the gym (for a measly half hour of exercise) kinda piled on top of that, and I went to bed at Brianna's bedtime: 8:30pm.

I didn't manage to get the dining room window blind hung before going to bed, but I did get a picture hung in the master bedroom:

The frame matches the dresser pretty well. Brianna and her mom found the picture last week while shopping together. Three dollar thrift store purchase? or million-dollar find from a New York auction house? You decide.

Curtains

My mother-in-law Lily and her sister came up and gave us the gift of hemming our various curtains for us!

Thank you so much, ladies!

Nest Protect Smoke Alarm in the Master Bedroom

Last night/early this morning, our son gave Brianna a kick to the bladder, and in her haste to get to the water closet she bumped nose-first into a wall.

This sped up my plans to get a Nest Protect in the master bedroom considerably. After trying unsuccessfully to buy one at two local stores (the web sites said they were in stock, but no one was able to find one when I asked) I stole the Nest Protect from the basement and installed it in the master bedroom. I ordered a replacement from Amazon.com.

It's positioned between the bed and the water closet, and when we tested its motion-sensing nightlight feature, it worked quite well. Hopefully 2AM trips to the bathroom will be less painful from now on.


***Update: The next morning***

Brianna said it worked perfectly! The nightlight feature turned on as she got out of bed, and I never noticed a thing!

Easy Saturday

Neither Brianna nor I had much energy yesterday. We did manage to get the world map back up on the wall, and this time it's tacked in place.

Sleepy Time

Well, Brianna and I went to bed before 9pm last night, and slept straight through til 7am. Not sure why I needed to sleep so much, but the end result was: virtually nothing got done on the house last night. Incidentally, the bedroom was at a comfortable 70 degrees the entire night. That part was awesome.

Remember that Vinyl stick-on map of the world? It didn't really stick:

I feel like some sort of allegorical statement can be made here:

"Two white kids in the US were so busy trying to patch up the Americas, they didn't even notice when the rest of the world slid off the map." 

Can you come up with better? 

Master Bedroom Air Conditioning

Our wonderful HOA has rules against window AC units. I was hoping to wait until after our chicken coop was approved, then put our window AC unit in a discreet side window and hope for the best. But, it doesn't seem that is going to happen in the time frame I was hoping for.

In googling around for solutions, I discovered that pot growers have been using window AC units as indoor/portable units for awhile, to keep their grow rooms cool. We are growing a baby, and it turns out it needs to be kept cool, as well (or at least Brianna does, if I'm going to have any chance of sleeping myself).

This afternoon, I set up our AC unit to run inside.

Once I bent the case back into place, the whole thing came together pretty easily.

The window fan pumps outdoor air into one of the intake grills - the rest of the outdoor intakes are blocked off. The hot air vent (the entire rear section of the AC unit) is aimed directly outside through the window screen - no additional air redirection involved.

It's ugly, but it seems to be working. It's chugging along now, blowing cold air directly at the bed, which feels pretty nice. It has only dropped the overall temperature in the room by 1 degree in the hour it's been running, though.

I didn't make any allowances for condensation in this set up. Once I see a small puddle of water, I'll have a better idea how to handle that problem.

Decoration!

I finally got the trim installed in the master bedroom. In retrospect, I wish we hadn't taken the trim off the walls to paint - there is a noticeable gap between the trim and the wall in a fair number of places, despite my best efforts to keep it flush.

But! Once the trim was installed, it was time to put up an actual decoration!

New trim is visible!

See Hawaii way off on the left?

I ordered this vinyl map off amazon a few weeks ago. I'm pretty pleased with it! Hopefully it stays up.

I'm trying to talk Brianna into letting me put colored pins into places we've visited. Unfortunately, Brianna hates the very idea of putting holes in the walls. But you guys are with me, right!? Colored pins would be totally cool (and might help keep the vinyl from peeling).

Quiet Night

Brianna and I both had long days at work yesterday. About the only house-related thing I got done was a second coat of paint on the guest bedroom trim.

The sprinkler system went off as expected this morning, which is a good sign for things to come. Walking around the yard this morning, it looks like there are two more leaks in the pipe that need to be plugged, one sprinkler that needs to be adjusted, and at least one sprinkler that I'm hoping to replace in order to make it quieter.

Finally, I think Brianna is going out of her way to make a point: I have teased her a fair amount about her stuff accumulating on any horizontal surface. But thus far, the only things that have accumulated on the new chest of drawers is a box of screws, a knife and some staples: all my responsibility.


The shoe imbalance is another matter.

Painting Trim

I painted the trim that belongs in the Master Bedroom today. It was in such bad shape it needed two coats of paint. It'll dry overnight, and tomorrow I'll bring it in from the garage. Cars will just have to suffer being parked outside after four months of staying nice and cozy in the garage overnight.

I was hoping to get the trim in the guest bedroom painted today, but at this point in the evening I don't think it's going to happen.