Category Archives: News

Gutter in action

May 8, 2023NewsDeck, roofbkrijger

Aesthetically not ideal, but functionality sufficient;

After I extended the rain gutter by a few inches, rain is now transported just off the edge of the deck.

One day I will install a downspout that ends up in a wooden barrel. Until that day, this will suffice.

Finally a little bit of rain; thunderstorms have been forecasted for days, but today the rain added up to a whopping 0.25 inch.

On my way back from my visit to HCPL I took the backroad that follows the river. It wasn’t as low as I thought although the river pass was completely dry.

In the gutter

May 5, 2023Newsroofbkrijger

Don’t worry, I did not end up in the gutter. But I did install a rain gutter today;

In case you have a hard time seeing the gutter; that’s because it’s brown. Mounted on the fascia boards. Rather flimsy aluminum, but at least aluminum so it won’t rust or crack.

It will prolong the life of my deck boards, as the rain and condensed water will now be funneled off to the side.

Instead of an ugly down drain, I simply opened up the right end cap so that water can poor out that side. It should hit just off to the right of the deck. There should be little leaves and other debris in the gutter as there are no trees taller than my home nearby.

And yes, the gutter is mounted slightly non level, allowing water to run off to the right side.

Maybe there will be a thunderstorm, in which case I can check if it works as intended.

Not one night stand, but two

May 3, 2023Newsupstairsbkrijger

I’m not a fan of one night stands, so I made two. From the very last leftovers of the cedar wood I had. I had to improvise a little, but I think this looks nice.

Here’s a closer look at one night stand;

As this bedroom has no air conditioning of its own, I added a tower fan that is quiet and has a remote.

Closet Storage Space

May 1, 2023Newsupstairsbkrijger

Today I picked up some free storage space for upstairs; The Armoir fits pretty well here;

The upstairs bedroom had 0 storage room also, so this one fills up the corner nicely;

Next I will need some storage space for the HCPL amenities such as towels, paper towels, shampoo etc. But that’s for local stock to easily re-supply the bathrooms and kitchen, so I might add some shelve space in the technical room.

Office Floor Installed

April 29, 2023NewsOffice, upstairsbkrijger

Today I installed the office floor. It’s called Beach sand and I think it definitely makes the upstairs look more finished.

It looks like wood, but for costs and practical reasons I went for vinyl.

Hot Tub Gadget

April 28, 2023Newsgadgets, hot tubbkrijger

I treated myself to a new gadget. A man can never have too many gadgets. It’s a Bluetooth hot tub thermometer, that is linked to wifi using a base station with display and of course an app.

It has a little display on the thermometer (I’m holding it in place as the bubbles make the thermometer dance around) but the main purpose is that you can see from inside what the water temperature is. You can even set an alert when it reaches a certain temperature.

This was taken after I used the tub for about an hour. It only went down from 100F (37C) to 97 so still very comfy. The additional purpose of this gadget is to have a historic view of temperatures, both in the house as well as the hot tub.

That way I can keep better track of the temperature inside. I could already see the current temperature, but no historic data so now when a guest says it was hot, I can check how hot it really was.

Sadly, they don’t have an API yet, so I cannot link it to the smart mirror.

No more cracking up

April 26, 2023NewsTruckbkrijger

Today the windshield of my truck was replaced. The crack that passed inspection for 6 years finally was a reason to fail inspection.

~~Tomorrow I’ll try get through inspection again. Fingers crossed~~ 🤞

Today my truck passed inspection, and renewed my registration, so I can finally legally drive again. If the cops pull me over and yell “License and registration!” I’m good.

Office Chair

April 23, 2023NewsOfficebkrijger

Although the IKEA seats are fine, they’re not made for spending many hours a day on. So I ordered an office chair, which arrived today;

It’s comfortable and has an adjustable spring tension when you lean back.

Even smarter Mirror

April 21, 2023Newsgadgetsbkrijger

My SmartMirror that my brother Karel made has been serving Ozuye well over the last 5 years. But when I arrived it had old information on it and an update did not help. Being a software developer that also creates Raspberry Pi apps, I decided to make my own Smart Mirror App;

Here’s a first version of it. The font is more in style and the mirror is even smarter; it now talks to the Tempest weather station, and shows the data in both metric and imperial units. The API was pretty easy to use. I also included a new feature; burn ban status. Here in Texas, a burn ban can be active when there’s a risk of fires due to lack of rain. I found a way to read the fire department posted data to display an icon indicating the burn ban status.

The forecast information shows the week ahead, with both an icon per day, minimum and maximum temperatures and an hourly temperature curve.

The green line is comfortable, the red line the highest recorded temp ever in Texas and the blue line the lowest. That way the curve gives an easy overview on what kind of temperatures are expected.

One thing I still have to do is read the PIR sensor (Passive infra red) to blank the screen when nobody is around for a while.

The large centered text will rotate between 5 different messages, which I will be able to set from the cloud. That way I can even show a custom message for guests when needed.

In the future, I will try add a location chip in each of the outdoor seat cushions. Then when it starts to rain and the pillow are outside, I can show a message to store them inside.

Ice storm damage

April 13, 2023NewsTruckbkrijger

Although this happened a lot earlier, during the ice storm, I now get to see that it affected my truck too;

That branch on my truck hood broke off. I had to cut some off before I could pop the hood to reconnect and charge the battery, which was completely dead. ~~We’ll know in an hour or so if it survived.~~ After one hour of charging, the truck started on the first attempt, so I could get groceries.

Ozuye Lodge

B's log home