Last year, I learned how to assemble simple hobby electronics kits. Following my recent frustration at the basement flooding problem we are having (the sump pump stops working, the sump overflows, and the ADT sensor never triggers), I went and looked for some solutions to the problem. What I came up with is an electronics mini-kit that senses the presence of water and sounds a horn alarm.
I recently came across the Botanicalls houseplant sensor, that posts twitter tweets when it senses the plant needs water and after the plant is watered, via an ethernet port on the sensor.
While surfing the web, I came across an article about setting up the same kind of notifier for a doorbell. If I had the know-how, I’d take that one step further and rig up a webcam to snap a picture when the doorbell event is triggered, so I could include a picture of the person(s) ringing the bell.
I’ve long wished that the house could inform me when there’s a problem. With a little learning and a little practice, I might just be able to enable it to do that!

Current Mood: Mischievous

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The contractors have finally put down the grass seed. Woot!

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As you may remember, this weekend is Open House at my place. We have some last minute items to reveal.

• We made some changes to the basement:
  • We hung up black cotton fabric behind the bar and along the staircase perimeter, so now the basement is visually halved.
  • We also have both of our fluorescent-tube style blacklights mounted to the rafters, so you may want to wear something blacklight reactive. Or not.
• We have two kegs for the party:
  • One 1/6 keg of Woodchuck Amber Cider
  • One 1/2 keg of Woodchuck Dark & Dry
• Our only pet has scales and lives in water, so don’t worry about those pet allergies!
• The Menu:
  • Burgers & Dogs (we have a small amount of veggie burgers if needed)
  • 7-Layer Dip
  • Tabouleh
  • Baked potatoes with toppings bar
  • Marinated cheese
  • Assorted veggies & dips
  • Assorted cheeses & crackers

  We’ve also heard that there will be taco salad

So far, we’ve only heard from two people about crash space. If you think you’ll need to stay over, please let us know!

Don’t forget your funny hat!

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The temporary Use & Occupancy permit was issued today. Let the mortgage settlement process can begin!

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We finally passed the well test. Next step, converting the construction loan into a standard mortgage. Stay tuned.

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Our Open House will be April 26th, 2pm to whenever. That’s one Saturday after Baltimore Pirate Invasion. We have decided to start a new annual party tradition, and throw a Funny Hat Party every April for April Fool’s Day. Because we are only just now moving in, we are delaying this year’s party until the end of April to give us enough time to get the house ready.

As mentioned, the theme is “Funny Hats”. No hat, no entry. We like to have to figure out the joke, so be creative. By hat, we mean, “some sort of thing that you wear on your head”.

This year’s party will feature cider on tap, a small selection of liquors for cocktails, as well as soda and water for the kidlets and recovering alcoholics (so not kidding!). Beer will be BYOB, and we’d appreciate if you’d take your leftovers back home with you!

From 2pm to 7pm, the party will be kid-friendly. At 7pm, we let the rogues & scoundrels out (let the drunken debauchery begin!). If you are of the aforementioned Rogue & Scoundrel set, please make sure that your hat is “48 inches tall” / PG if you’re going to be there before 7 (you’re perfectly welcome to have two hats, though).

Your presence (not your presents) is all that we require. We will have munchies, but will welcome buffet contributions. Please DO NOT bring a ‘housewarming’ gift as we have effectively combined two complete households, and thusly have all the stuff we could possibly need.

By now, you may be thinking, “That’s great, but where the heck is the party?” Since this is a public post on a public blog, you’ll need to ask me for it if you don’t already know what it is (a hint: it is the same address as it has been for the past 4-5 years). You can ask by posting a comment on this post or by sending email to jacqueline at cordelya dot net.

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We’re heading to the house now. Anyone wanting to help can send email to Jacqueline at cordelya dot net, or send a twitter direct message to cordelya.

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The well test came back positive for bacteria. We will have to re-chlorinate the well and plumbing, let it sit for 24 hours, run the water until the chlorine odor is gone (several days), and then re-test. We can’t get the Use & Occupancy permit until we pass one well test.

* We are still emptying the PODs container into the garage this weekend. We just can’t *live* there yet.

Stay tuned…

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Here’s the latest on our moving plan:

The PODs container will be delivered this morning. We are waiting for the well test results. Our Use & Occupancy permit depends on that alone (note: it’s a temporary permit, for those who care - the yard can’t be completed until later this spring). We should find out today what the test results are. Once we have the permit, we can begin to move things into the house. Without the permit, we can only move things into the garage. At any rate, we will be unloading the PODs container this weekend so that it can be sent back to PODs next week. We will have bottled ciders and probably some pizza for those who help.

Next weekend is the Big Moving Weekend. We will have cider on tap and will for certain be ordering… pizza
We will be pulling everything out of our other storage unit in Constant Friendship (about 10 miles from the house). We have a pickup truck, but it is not running so well these days, so transportation would be helpful.

If you’d like to help us, you can respond by leaving a comment on this post (at Cordelya.net, not in the LJ feed), emailing me at justcordelya at gmail dot com or emailing Dirk Sharpe at dirksharpe at gmail dot com.

You may also see an email from Dirk Sharpe (Dirk Sharpe @ LJ) on this. Oh, and btw, he doesn’t post on his blog because he thinks nobody reads it. If you know him (or even if you don’t), go leave him a comment (on his actual blog, because, like me, he doesn’t check his feed at LJ) and maybe he’ll post more.

I apologize for the “LJ this, LJ that”. 59% of my readers are LJ users.

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With only an estimated two weeks to go until we can start moving in to our new house, the time has come to start soliciting for moving help. We are going to need help in many forms, and not just for heavy lifting. We will be providing pizza and cider on all moving occasions (beer will be ‘by request only’) Here’s what’s what: more…

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