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Creating a Smart Home: Major Mom Style

02 August 1602 August 16 by Major Mom

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.

Cleaning Things Up a Little

02 August 1601 August 16 by Major Mom

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.

DIY Guest Room Transformation: Planking the Wall!

13 October 1512 October 15 by Major Mom

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 stain “beetle 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.

DIY Guest Room Transformation: Painted Bedroom

11 October 15 by Major Mom

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.

DIY Guest Room Transformation

11 October 1511 October 15 by Major Mom

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.

The State of Things

21 May 15 by Major Mom

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.

(Mostly) DIY Kitchen Transformation

22 April 1519 April 15 by Major Mom

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.

The Basement Home Stretch!

07 November 13 by Major Mom

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 … Read more

Where Have You Been, Major Mom?

09 September 1309 September 13 by Major Mom

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.

House Shopping in Colorado

07 June 13 by Major Mom

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.