We have a small deck that needed a bit of sun coverage over the summer, and went shopping for an umbrella. We decided on this 10′ Patio Hanging Offset Umbrella with Solar LED Lights; it looked like it would get…
Halloween is just around the corner, and with a 3D printer you can make some neat decorations that can be downloaded from Thingiverse. This year, I tried something new: Glow in the Dark Plastic! The filament isn’t cheap, but it…
OK, so this one’s not strictly speaking “home automation”, but it does fall under “home improvement“. I’ve always thought of spray paint as the tools of the trade for (graffiti) artists, but when faced with either spiffing up or throwing…
I do a lot of work in the garage, and Virginia summers can be hot, so I found a quick and easy solution: install a wall-mount fan in the back of the garage: I was a little worried that this…
When I moved into my house, it had an old 1980s-style tape deck intercom system that I replaced with a custom Home Command Center. That meant the intercom units on the walls were basically just non-functional eye-sores: Recently I received…
We’ve covered a myriad of things based on how you can make your Smart Home smarter based on your location information, but one we haven’t touched on yet is locking your door. We’ve already got a Morning Industry deadbolt, a…
In working on an automated sprinkler system, I started with the very basics: getting water where I wanted it. We’ll talk about the sprinkler system in an upcoming post, but the first thing I wanted to do is to get…
