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.
Category Archives: News
Hot Tub Gadget
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
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
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
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
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.
Taking nr 1’s and 2’s in style
A floating toilet is always a bit nicer than one that has an exhaust going down through the floor. Especially when it’s on a floor that is right above the kitchen stove. A bit of work to the pipes work and to get it to lock with the bolts, but it’s in and all works well
The green will be painted white, and the gaps filled (in reverse order). It’s the first floating toilet with soft close seat I’ve ever owned (or installed). Scratch that of my bucket list. The seat closes very very softly and there are separate buttons for number 1’s and 2’s
En-suite bathroom part nine
There’s a lot of grouts, even if the shower stall is only 36″. But it’s done and it doesn’t look half bad;
The top and ceiling still need to be finished, but that’s for tomorrow.
En-Suite Bathroom part eight
Today all the tiles were set. Tomorrow I will do the grouts and clean it up. I’m glad it’s a small bathroom, as I’m kinda done with those tiny tiles.
En-suite bathroom part seven
This may seem like a never ending story, but I’m still making progress. Today I put the moisture resistant drywall into the shower stall.
After that, I started with the tiles;
It’s not difficult, just a bit labor intensive. I guess that’s the downside of choosing a small tile. My plan is to tile to the height a little bit under the rafter. Above that I will paint the wall white.