02. August 2016 · Comments Off on Creating a Smart Home: Major Mom Style · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
Smart Homes are coming. You can't escape it...

Smart Homes are coming. You can’t escape it…

Earlier this summer our family took our annual trip “east”. For the past several years we had been flying east, but this time we drove because we’d be spending quite a bit more time visiting with friends and family. The boys and I were “out east” most of the month of June, while Dave flew out for the latter part of the trip and drove home with us.

We visited our friends Don and Maryann in North Carolina. Their home was pretty well set up with a number of devices that were all tied together with their Amazon Echo. They could control lights, the door locks, and even their holiday decorations with Alexa. They were working on tying a humidistat into the system while we were visiting.

We also visited our friend Lisa, who lives in St. Louis. She was similarly increasing the intelligence of her home with WiFi enabled lighting and door locks.

Home automation had been on our family’s mind quite a bit. We were worried about crime in Colorado Springs, and our own neighborhood isn’t immune to that. More »

Cleaning up a big mess...

Cleaning up a big mess…

I’m doing a little housekeeping in my blog world this week. One of the things I was trying to straighten out turned into a monumental mess last week, for which I apologize.

I’m trying my hand at a capability called “IFTTT.” Which stands for “If This, Then That”…it’s a website where you can connect social media, blogging, mobile apps, and even smart home apparati together and you can have things work together pretty seamlessly. I like the idea of it, but I’m still learning here. More »

12. October 2015 · Comments Off on DIY Guest Room Transformation: Planking the Wall! · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,

IMG_5195

I’m not sure it’s actually called “planking”, since my first thought would have gravitated towards this kind of planking. But it’s what I’m calling the process Dave and I went through today, putting the planks up on the wall in our guest room.

We picked up the wood, called blue stainbeetle kill” ponderosa pine, at our local Home Depot. The planks are actually cut for paneling on the opposite side, and there are tongue-and-groove cuts on the long edges…for vertical paneling. I’m sure Home Depot was happy that we were picking the most beat-up planks for our project. We purposefully took the pieces with holes and gashes. More »

Most of the room is this color: Behr Ultra Premium Plus in a color called "Dry Pasture".

Most of the room is this color: Behr Ultra Premium Plus in a color called “Dry Pasture”.

We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day to paint a bedroom. Even though it’s mid-October, today Colorado Springs hit a high temperature of 87F, shattering the record for this date by FIVE DEGREES! We were able to open the windows and let the warm air quickly dry the walls and we were able to put both coats of color on the walls in about 4 hours.

The colors we chose were ones that we already had from previous painting work. The greenish color is Behr’s Ultra Premium Plus “Dry Pasture“, which we already have on our dining room and basement bathroom walls. We had a full can of Dry Pasture in the basement storage area, which ended up taking care of about 85% of what we needed. Isn’t it always like that? Dave ran to our local Home Depot and picked up another can while I worked on the corners and top edges. More »

11. October 2015 · Comments Off on DIY Guest Room Transformation · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , ,
Some of the accessories have already been placed in the spare bedroom but when it's fully complete it will be transformed into something pretty cool! We can't wait!

The guest bedroom is the last liveable part of the house that has not been painted since we moved here. It’s still the original builder-grade paint, in fact. Some of the accessories have already been placed in the spare bedroom (lamp on the nightstand, some antlers on the far left edge) but when it’s fully complete it will be transformed into something pretty cool! We can’t wait!

Hello there! I’ve been a bit scarce lately, mostly because my MacBook’s keyboard died. I turned it in this weekend for repairs at my local Apple Store, which was a monumental task in and of itself. The Apple Store here is so swamped, you have to make an appointment to turn in the computer for repairs, and they were booking a week out.

In the meantime, I’m using a Acer touchscreen laptop we had bought a few years ago, but had given us so much trouble with Windows 8.1 not being compatible with the built-in WiFi adapter. Last spring I blew away the Windows operating system and completely replaced it with the Ubuntu system (Linux). I found the proper drivers to re-activate the touchscreen with Ubuntu, and things are going decently. I still miss my MacBook, though…I’ll have it back by next weekend.

So on to our next project: changing the guest room from a plain junk-storage space that occasionally hosts guests to a no-kidding guest bedroom. This past summer when Dave and I visited the local Parade of Homes we saw a DIY idea that we both agreed was worth trying to do: planking a wall to look like a log-cabin. More »

IMG_2464 (1)

This was one of two times I donned a uniform since early December. For a dining out. Photo courtesy of our friend Paige.

I’ve purposefully been elusive about my employment status. Family and close friends know most of what I’m up to, but even they haven’t heard the latest. So here’s a summary. More »

19. April 2015 · Comments Off on (Mostly) DIY Kitchen Transformation · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , , ,
Ignore the mess, it's a big-enough task to keep that center island clean. Jacob was off to the side waiting to put some balsa glider parts on it.

Our kitchen as of April 2015. Ignore the mess, every time we prepare a meal things just seem to explode. Jacob was off to the side waiting to put some balsa glider parts on the clean island.

We are embarking on our next DIY project over the next few months. Our plan is to make phased improvements to our kitchen between now and the end of 2015. We’re taking our time on this, in part so we can save up money and pay cash for each phase, but also because we have to fit the DIY tasks in between our busy work schedules. More »

The laminate-floored stairs.

The laminate-floored stairs.

We’re in the final stages of our basement remodel!

Over the past couple weeks we finished out the trim work (baseboards, doors), installed the bar and bath cabinets, and finished up the electrical and HVAC work.

We are currently waiting for the cabinet countertops to be installed, and it won’t happen till the 18th. So we have some waiting waiting waiting going on.

I think we’ll be ready to move in by Thanksgiving week.

The bar cabinetry.

The bar cabinetry.

The stairs. I love it!

The stairs. I love it!

Some of the finished doors.

Some of the finished doors.

A minor setback. The drywall guy had covered up two of the HVAC vents. The HVAC guy had to poke holes in the ceiling to look for the vent. The drywall guy was very apologetic and came the very next day to patch up the holes. You'd never know they were there.

A minor setback. The drywall guy had covered up two of the HVAC vents. The HVAC guy had to poke holes in the ceiling to look for the vent. The drywall guy was very apologetic and came the very next day to patch up the holes. You’d never know they were there.

 

 

 

09. September 2013 · Comments Off on Where Have You Been, Major Mom? · Categories: Uncategorized · Tags: , , , ,
The endless fields of wild sunflowers helped keep me company on my drive to Nebraska in August.

The endless fields of wild sunflowers helped keep me company on my drive to Nebraska in August. The profuse rains in eastern CO this summer have really made the area bloom. As you can see, otherwise I have nothing to look at.

Yep, we’ve been busy! For most of the month of August, I’ve been playing hostess to a litany of contractors as we are aggressively trying to complete our basement. At the end of the month I went to Nebraska for 1 1/2 weeks of work. While I was there I completed (and passed!) one of my numerous Air War College essay tests.

More »

The kids were 4 months and 2 years old the last time they had to do this.

The kids were 4 months and 2 years old the last time they had to do this. In 2005 Jacob’s favorite house was the one with the toys in the living room for him to play with. We didn’t choose this pictured house, it was way overpriced.

Since I started my blog in late 2007, the house-hunting experience for our family had been pretty basic: Dave would fly out to the next destination and choose a rental home for the family. I’d stay with the kids.

For Dave, it was a whirlwind trip, but he could complete everything in as little as 48 hours…not just securing a new house, but also getting the boys registered for school.

This next assignment to Colorado Springs would be for a longer tour than the past two, so we elected to buy a house this time.

It was a tough decision, but we decided to bring the whole family on this particular househunting trip. We found a gap in the boys’ baseball schedule in early May that would allow us to take a long weekend and fly the family to Colorado; we would all shop for the next house together.

We were in contact with a realtor that a local friend here recommended, and she worked with us for several weeks in advance to hone our preferences and she has a list of ten houses waiting for us to view by the first weekend of May.

One of the houses went into contract right away so that left 9 houses to view. It was a very long day, and my head was swimming by the end. Ironically, we chose the one house that didn’t have an already-finished basement. The lower price made it appealing and we could apply some of the cost savings to finishing it ourselves to our liking.

The kids were great sports about it. They were exhausted by the end (the high elevation not helping things) but had many inputs.

It was a delicate balance of size, price, layout, schools and distance to our work locations. We chose a lovely house in the northeast part of Colorado Springs, centrally located. The boys can walk to their elementary schools, but will be bused or driven to middle and high school. But even the middle and high schools are closer than the kids are from their current schools.

We can’t wait to make our new house a “home” in the coming weeks.