AdventureSloggr » Home Improvement

New Biometric Door Lock Installed

Adrian — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:23:07 +0000

Well, last night I finally installed the Adel Biometric Door Lock and got it to work. Skye’s parents came over yesterday during the day to help with installing a door that I couldn’t get straight on the frame. The new door needed to be shaved down on one side to fit properly. After that was done the door was ready for the door lock. Skye’s parents got the door handle in but for some reason it was not functioning right when I programed it. I took it off and reassembled the unit; I reinstalled it and got it to work. Yea!

It’s a pretty cool unit. In addition to the fingerprints, you can also get in via PIN number or mechanical key, which I guess is a fail-safe if you get amnesia and have your fingers chopped off. There is no worry of power outage either, there’s a secret battery point where you touch a 9V battery to juice it up temporarily since the 4 double ‘A’ batteries are inside on the backside of the unit.

To program it, I had to set up a master print code. This print is different from the entrance print. It is only used to program the other 99 entrance codes. To program the master print I had to remove some hardware and push a couple of buttons in the back at the same time with special tools to activate the unit to accept a master print. Once that was done I set up the PIN for back up entrance. I had to prep the unit and then enter my own 8 digit number to create the new PIN. Once that was completed I put the unit back together and started to program the unit for fingerprint recognition. There are 99 open slots for fingerprints. I put my master print down to activate the unit to accept an entrance print, inputted a two digit number, and placed a different finger on the sensor to read it and then read it again. It beeped telling me it was saved. I tried and sure enough, I heard the motor turn and activate the handle. I pushed down on the handle and the door opened. Pretty cool.

What now, Mr. Spock?! That’s what I thought…

Story of the Battery Early December I thought to myself I might be in...

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I Found My Office…

Adrian — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:34:35 +0000

Well, much to my surprise, I was roaming around the house after I put my son to bed and came upon a door, the door looked familiar yet somehow different. Beyond the door I found my office. We have been using it as a storage room since our remodeling fiasco started.

Improvements on the office have been continuing off and on for the past couple of years. A little history about our house. The house built in 1961. It’s original owners were my wife’s grandparents When they passed away in 2005 we purchased it at market value from Skye’s mom. Skye’s grandfather was an engineer and had a contractor’s license. He built the “Storage Room” in 1965.

Office before 2006 remodel

We found the drawings in our file at City Hall when we applied for the permits for our remodel in 2006. It’s about 20 feet long by 7 feet. It is technically connected to the house since it is behind the garage, but you need to go outside to get to it.

According to the city it is considered “Storage” so therefore not included in the square footage of the house.

Office/Storage Room

It is, however, built as if it were it’s own structure with a poured foundation, power outlets, lights, windows and wood paneling.

Storage Room 12-15-2005

Last September my wife and I made a big push on moving forward in fixing it up. We started staining all the wood in there, the beams the wood paneled walls and we painted the wall that shares the garage a dark brown. We covered the 9 x 9 blue and white asbestos tiles with a linoleum wood floor that was laid down in strips reminiscent of laying strips of wood floor. After that everything sort of stopped. We we had other projects like tearing out the jungle on the other side of the backyard to put in a new patio, and tearing out the other jungle on the other side of the yard to put in more grass.

So last night I started to set up my game plan.

Install New Door
Install Biometric Door-lock
Get the computer up and running on my newly
Set up Home network
Find a place for all my crap!

I think my task for tonight is to run some CAT 5 cable through the attic into the garage then into the office. Our wireless router is in the family room behind the television; I’m going to run a hard line directly from the router to a switch in the office then to my workstation. This way I can always extend my network in to the backyard by placing an access point off the switch to cover the left side of the backyard.

We’ll see what happens, Skyler wasn’t feeling too well last night, I may have to camp out on the floor by his bed tonight, again.

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Insteon 3-Way Dimmer Switch Installed

Adrian — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 21:11:00 +0000

Okay, after about two years, I’ve finally decided to install dimmer switches in the family room. Throughout the house I had been installing dimmers that are X-10 compatible so that they will all be networked through the house’s power-lines and ultimately be controlled by my computer one day. Slowly I am progressing to that, one step at a time.

Last night I received the SwitchLinc 3-Way Dimmer – INSTEON 3-Way Dimmer Kit from Smarthome (smarthome.com). What’s nice is that I can order from their website early in the morning and get the product the next day for the low end on shipping. Their headquarters are about 30 miles away. The SwitchLinc 3-Way Dimmer – INSTEON 3-Way Dimmer Kit works for lights switches that are three pole switches, meaning two light switches that control the same lights.

The instructions were well written, if I read them when I decided to pull everything out of the walls. I partially read steps 1 through 6. I didn’t realize until after there were about 25 steps altogether. Go fig. I started at 8:30pm

Needless to say it took me a could of times to get this in the right way. The first time once all the wires were connected, wrongly connected, the 6 ceiling lights would come on, then go off, flicker, and then repeat. I thought to myself, sweet, we will just have to get used to that. After about 10 seconds of that I decided to figure this mess out.

I read the directions word for word and by 11:30pm the lights dimmed on and the family room was with light of any intensity. Now I know what to do next time. I’ll have to install another set in our bedroom. Hopefully this time it will only take me about 30 minutes to get those ones in. I’ll post when that happens.

Product-wise, these switches are nice to look at, they have a white light that is on the left side of the switch to tell you the intensity of the light strength. What’s cool is that you can program the lights to ramp up as fast as you want or as slow as you want and to what intensity you want it to go to. eg. You can set the intesity at 50% of full power and have it take 3 seconds for the lights to slowly ramp up to 50%. You can tap the pad again and have 100% intensity or you can hold the pad down to ramp up the intesity to whatever you want. Pretty cool.

For more information check-out Smarthome’s website for more information. www.smarthome.com

Directlink to this product:
SwitchLinc-3-Way-Dimmer-INSTEON-3-Way-Dimmer-Kit

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Home Projects, Lack of Time

Adrian — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 19:45:52 +0000

I’ve noticed, ever since having a baby, home projects have become harder to do in the waking hours of our 20 month old son. I have projects upon projects piled up and ready to go but in order for me to start them it is typically after 8:30pm. Lately, I’ve been too tired to start anything that I know will last 3 at least three hours.

I’ve have come to this conclusion..

I just need to do it, and do it now. Carpe Diem.

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Project-Office Part 2

Sloggr — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:05:37 +0000

This weekend Skye and I took Skyler over to my Mom’s house and worked on the office/ Man Cave. We got the rest of the staining done and laid down most of the new floor. It really makes a difference. We also painted the back wall a dark, dark brown. I think it’s starting to look pretty good.

Flooring

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Project-Office Part 1

Sloggr — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:46:13 +0000

This weekend we got to work on the office. I began to empty it out and stain the wood on the walls and ceilings. We will will see where it goes from here. Until then, here are some pictures.

Moving everthing out. Note the Blue & White tiles from c.1965

Half of the beams are stained

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Backyard rework…

Adrian — Sat, 10 May 2008 19:16:20 +0000

Well there is a new project on the list o’stuff ado. Clear out the jungle for an area to place our patio set.

Here is the list:
Clear out jungle
Dig trench for drainage
Fill trench with gravel (10x 50lbs bags of gravel) 500lbs of dead weight
Level dirt spot
Pick up 250 stone looking pavers each weighing about 5lbs
Layout the 250 pavers
Final miscellaneous tasks yet to be determined.

Here we go…

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We Are Back!

Adrian — Mon, 14 May 2007 21:56:56 +0000

Well we moved back in last Thursday! There is still a lot to be done but we are now living in our own home. The Kitchen is complete, for the most part. Counter-tops came in last week, the cabinets have been completed, the sink and dishwasher are hooked up. I just have to hook up a few appliances and such but, you know what? It’s all good.

Our backyard looks like a backyard again and not a trash dump. There is new sod back there and our sprinklers are working again, for the most part. I’ll post some pics up tomorrow.

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Remodel: Progress Report

Adrian — Sat, 28 Apr 2007 22:11:59 +0000

Well, of the 5 things that were said were going to be completed by last Friday only 1 thing was accomplished by the contractors. They finally fixed the tile that was broken up by the plumber to connect the tub.

I showed up on Friday after work to find the backyard still looking like a trash dump. The light in the bathroom still didn’t work and the two remaining smoke detectors were still nowhere to be found except for the two holes in the ceiling where the wires were still sticking out. Who even knows the status of the shower enclosure.

You know what pisses me off the most? It’s the fact that I spoke with them on Thursday to make sure all would be done by Friday. They flat out lied when they said that there is less than a day’s worth of work left on the inside of the house and that it would all be completed by Friday. I’m at a loss.

On a brighter note:

This past Saturday and Sunday we were able to make progress on the house ourselves. Skye cleaned/washed the Master Bathroom and hung up the towel racks. The bathroom is starting to come together. I was able to build the shelves for the pantry, hooked up the water for the refrigerator, and hooked up the gas for the Oven/Range.

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Measuring for Counter-top Templates

Adrian — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 22:37:25 +0000

I get to take half the day off to go back to the house today. The counter top people are coming today to take a template of the cabinets. They say the counter tops will be installed on May 8th. That would be great. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another [...] No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.