Category: Home Improvements

  • Workshop organization

    Workshop organization

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    Halfling13

    Shifting away from the gaming news to more of a home improvement topic, to show off some of the garage workshop improvements we have been working on. This also doubles as my location for the resin 3d printer, so it is sort of relevant. As is typical, when we moved in, the garage became a…

  • Home Assistant Automation – The Front door is open

    Home Assistant Automation – The Front door is open

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    Halfling13

    Digging into the code today, to document how I have our door sensors configured, in case this example is useful for anyone else. In our case, we have a set of door sensors (we use YoLink brand, but any Alexa-compatible will work) attached to various doors, including the front. These are configured thru their respective…

  • Home Assistant

    Home Assistant

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    Halfling13

    With our new home, I have been diving further and further into home automation, and learning the coding of Home Assistant along the way. Unfortunately, it has a bit of a learning curve, so its not for the casual user, but after a bit of effort (and a lot of youtube videos) I have started…

  • House Update

    House Update

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    Halfling13

    Another week, and more updates on the house build and future “super basement” (per the kids). At this point, we have a foundation. The inspectors will be out this week to certify all the necessary parts, then there is waterproofing of the foundation and backfilling of the soil. From there, the floor of the basement…

  • The house has begun

    The house has begun

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    Halfling13

    After many weeks, months (and years) waiting, the actual build of the new home has begun with the ground breaking. This was delayed from last week due to some apparent challenges with the utilities (who measured and placed the utility box in the middle of the future driveway). That hurdle was finally cleared, which allowed…

  • Pi-Hole

    Pi-Hole

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    Halfling13

    In preparation for the new home, and my plans to improve overall the new networking, I have implemented a virtual server running Pi-Hole. Functionally, Pi-Hole is a software tool that attempts to block all advertisements, similar to a web browser adblocker, except it can be used to block all traffic from all devices on the…

  • Minimal Updates

    Minimal Updates

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    Halfling13

    As our housing plans go into high gear, the number of updates will continue to drop temporarily. This is partially due to far too many things going on, as well as basic lack of availability of computers. Over the next few weeks, there will be a lot of changes on our home front, then a…

  • New Year, new Internet

    New Year, new Internet

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    Halfling13

    For many years, many more than I can recall, I have always had AT&T for my internet service provider.  They have been a mostly reliable provider, with solid service, decent prices, and the top speeds in my area.  However, they have slipped a bit recently in the speed category and pricing.  Since I work from…