Getting There...

 First it was just a room with two windows.  Then was the time to start imagining what the space could become as a corner office with a view.

Then, even before the official move in it starts to take shape.

A corner desk with enough area to support a second monitor and still maintain a view of the driveway, our street, and see who turns in from the highway, The folding chair is only temporary.  It will soon be replaced but that folding chair is easy to move and it provides us with a spare chair when needed.  It has a twin in the other office.  They are amazingly comfortable, but not quite right for desk work.

Hers and His.... a Dish, and a Visitor

Here are the microwaves.   She has a smaller one, which she claims is cute.  He has the big one (2.2 cubic feet) because he uses the microwave to prepare meals sometimes.   And she claims he doesn't do a good job keeping the microwave clean so now each of us has control of their destiny -- sorry microwave.

And we have a dish...  for DirecTV.  You'll remember the TimeWarner stories, (or look back in previous posts for the details.)  Our HOA says dishes can't be mounted on the front of the house, but that presents a problem.  The street runs sort of  East and West, and so houses on the North side of the street have their fronts facing South.   The satellites for TV -- well at least DirecTV lie to the South.  So for the dish to see the satellites it needs to be facing South.

It was tight, with only about a 1/4 inch space to get the dish on the East side of the house, but facing South.  That dish is NOT on the front of the house!


Monday (5/4) we were waiting for subcontractors and Alese said to look outside.   We watched as this cute canine walked through the lot across the street from us, crossed the street, and progressed down two lots before venturing into the field and over toward Port Royal.   It was fun to watch her from the top deck, but even with being down-wind, she turned to look in our direction at every noise we made.

Progress!

 Progress.  The house has been cleaned a couple of times.   It's looking much more done.


The blue plastic that was protecting the counter tops is gone and we can see the pattern in the granite.  I Like it.


We also have the exterior locks in place -- no more contractor locks.  We have one combination lock, which means it's almost impossible to be locked out.  Enter the secret code, and turn the deadbolt. It means Alese can be out in the yard playing with flowers and not ever worry about being locked out.

 It's also convenient when we're leaving,  Push one button and turn the deadbolt; the house is locked

Rain, Rain, and more Rain.

We've had record rains.  So much so that the water table is way, way up.

And, we'd had all that sand brought in, but rain proved that the sand wasn't stable enough to stay in place without help.   We got about a half-dozen bales of hay and spread the hay at the edge of the sidewalks and driveway so the water that runs off the roof (remember no gutters -- hurricanes like to use them as spears) then runs across the cement and would like to make canyons in the sand.  The hay does work.  

The birds like the expanded water.  And if you're really a good birder, you'll notice that there are more than just our predominant laughing gulls.

The water also brought out some other visitors  That little black dot to the right of the photo on the left is a very small toad (or frog)  For size, reference the key fob to the left side of the photo.



And Alese is looking at a turtle.  I don't know if it was one of the family we see in our Easterly pond or if this was from the West side, but it definitely preferred not be bothered and retreated into it's home.

If You Visit We'll Know Who Is Ringing The Bell

You may remember a ways back, when I said we wouldn't have a security system but instead a set of cameras.  We now have 4 cameras mounted around the house to give us views of the driveway, the back doors, the front sidewalk and the front door.

Cameras are up and working, but their aim needs to be fine-tuned.   So does the system.  For now it's recording full-time on all 4 cameras, but we can set it to record just when there's motion.

When we lived in Massachusetts we had spotlights that were on a motion sensor.  We'd walk very slowly to see if we could sneak up on the lights.  I assume we'll try that with these cameras once they are set to detect motion.

You can see the IR lights around the camera lens for capturing night-time action.  I'm also looking forward to catching views of night-time visits from the coyotes and other wildlife in the neighborhood.  


We have internet to the house now, but the camera system isn't on that yet.  When it is we'll be able to control and monitor the system from a computer.  There are also apps that will allow us to use the iPad or phone to check on the views remotely.

We can do split screen and watch all 4 cameras, 2 cameras, or just one.   It looks like it will be a fun toy for a while.  We'd be able to set up the smart tv to monitor them, but I don't know why I'd do that.  

I got a Raspberry Pi as a gift from Adam, and I'm thinking that setting it up to run a monitor to watch the cameras might be an interesting application.  That will take a while though as once we're in there will be a lot of IKEA boxes that need opening and parts assembled.