Modernizing the Modern Home

One of the reasons why the blog was not updated last year was due to a ton of projects we were working on.  Lots of these projects I've wanted to do since we moved in but we did not have the time to do them.  I've also been waiting for some of the technology to catch up with my vision of a Modern Home. Now the wait is over!  The house is entering the Digital Age! <<Queue Ode to Joy>>

One of things that really bugged bug me was the original builder used the standard ole flip light switches that have been around since the dawn of time. They are functional but they are pretty mundane. So I replaced all the internal house switches with Lurton Dimmers. This had two effects: Lower power consumption and a nicer look.

Now you may have noticed I said “internal” light switches above. The reason for that is I found some interesting switches for the external lights. I could have gone with a simple timer but no! It must have tech in it! The Honeywell switch I found actually gets programed by longitude and latitude.  Once that is set, it calculates sunrise and sunset on a daily basis.  The lights turn on/off with the sun no matter what time of the year it is.  The only real downside to theses switches is that they don’t work well with LEDs but they look cool.

With all the light switches done, including a motion sensor activated one in the walk-in closet I just HAD to add more tech to standard household devices.  First up is the thermostat. The Builders put a standard no frills one in and it was functional but it needed a bit of automation. Originally I wanted to get an Ecobee since it was the first internet connected thermostat on the market but then Nest came on the scene.  The Nest was designed by some former Apple Engineers and it has a nice blend of form and function.  Putting this in saved us about 8%-9% of electricity as well as the dimmers and LED lights saved us another 2%-3%.

Technology marches on and so do I! Nest recently (as of this posting that is) came out with new smoke detectors.  Since we already have one Nest product it was time for two. To help us with this project my Litter Sister started us out with one as a gift. We have really high ceilings on the second floor which makes it painful when the backup battery in the smoke detectors dies at 3am. Climbing up a 10ft ladder while half asleep in the wee hours of the morning is not fun.  So the two highest Smoke Detectors were replaced with Nest Protects.  No more waking at 3am for me since the Protect is smart enough to know what time it is and it will not wake you until you get up.

That was the past and now it’s back to the future! Some of the projects on the slate for this year is replacing the door bell and automating the locks. Both are still in the early days of development but I’m keeping an eye on these emerging techs.

For the doorbell I’m keeping an eye on Skybell and Doorbot.  I like the idea of being able to see who is at the door without going to the door.  It’s early days yet but I like where things are going.

The other little upgrade I’m looking into automating the house entry.  It is super early in the product cycle and I really don’t trust a lot of manufactures to have good wireless security but still.  Having the door open up as I walk to it has that great Star Trek feel to it.  Right now it looks like the August Smart Lock is the one to beat and its due out later this year.

Blue!

We have not touched our this blog for over a year so I thought it might be time to do so.  In the past many people created a blog about the experience of building a modern home in Agave and even updated the blogs for awhile after they had their houses built, but most have not been updated in two years. Also the developer left, so no homes have been built in some time.  The great news is we may have a new developer soon interested in the maintaining the modern look of the neighborhood which may mean more blogs!   I think its a great way to show others what the experience has been like and what people are doing with their homes whether being newly built or for someone that buys a previously owned home. 

I also updated all the links on the side of the blog.  I think people are curious about who built the modern colorful homes in east Austin so I tried to list the architect and if possible a link to a house that was built out here under Architecture in Agave. 

Since the last post here was from 2012, we have made quite a few changes to our Emily Little 1725 sq ft home.  We have been here for 5 years and as everyone knows that can mean a fresh coat of paint, fixing a few cracks (due to house settling) etc...   The first project was some interior painting - light grey ceilings, green wall in bedroom and some great accent colors on small sections of a wall in one bedroom and one bathroom where we have cinder block. I will post pics of those later. 

Second, we desperately needed to paint the exterior (with several coats of paint).  Luckily we chose CertaPro and they did an awesome job (Roger and Chris Hazard recommend them)! Now I have to say that actually picking out the paint colors for the 4 different areas to be painted (base, stucco at top of house, color for the eaves, and then the metal work) was a MAJOR pain. There was at least 10 trips to Sherwin Williams to get the paint samples and about 30 different shades. After several months we finally got it right.  We noticed there was not a lot of blue in the neighborhood, mostly greens.  Then we noticed several other people had their houses painted right around the same time … and we saw more blue!  I happen to have a light blue Mini Cooper and I guess it looked like I tried to match my car.. which is NOT the case :).   The car pictured below is obviously not a Mini Cooper but the Mini Cooper's color is about the color of the light blue in the pictures: 

This is not all that we have done, but I leave that for the next blogger to talk about - they all relate to electricity!