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House Hacking Project: Video Surveillance If there is a bump in the night, or you are away from home and your security alarm goes off, wouldn’t it be nice to check on your home immediately? Modern home surveillance can deliver the goods with proper planning. Between desktop programs and cell apps, you can see what… Continue reading House Hacking Tips and Tricks 14: Video Surveillance

House Hacking Project: Water filtration This week, we will explore a few tidbits about water filtration: refrigerator, under sink, and whole house. We have great water in North County, but the City of San Diego hasn’t fared so well in the past: details here (editor note: this isn’t fresh data, and likely has been remedied.)… Continue reading House Hacking Tips and Tricks 13: Water Filtration

  House Hacking Project: Semi-Yearly Maintenance The dreaded daylight savings time change will be upon us, and it is that time of year to get caught up on a few easy chores around the house. First on our list is replacing all of the batteries in our smoke detectors. We neglected this for a few… Continue reading House Hacking Tips and Tricks 12: Semi-Yearly Maintenance

House Hacking Project: Easy Electrical Project   So enough is enough. This motion sensing switch cracked after a few years, and the push button was hardly usable. We never leave the lights on to need the “off” feature, so we opted for a regular switch in its place. After turning off the power, it is… Continue reading House Hacking Tips and Tricks 11: USB Outlet and Wall Switch

House Hacking Project: Weekend Project: Potting Cactus Ocotillo leafing and in bloom. In light of the extended drought we are experiencing, water wise landscaping is a great idea. Cactus (which are succulents) are perfect plants for this since they adapted to live in water scarce environments. They can take full sun, blazing heat, near freezing… Continue reading House Hacking Tips and Tricks 10: Potting Cactus

House Hacking Project: Special Paint Sometimes projects can be easy and quick, and yield great usable results. This week we are featuring a project that fits that bill. Any fun utility or craft room can use a note/collaboration area, and going old school chalk board is a neat way to go. Simple part: you just… Continue reading House Hacking Tips and Tricks 9: Painting

House Hacking Project: UPS Backup UPS. Not the shipping company, but uninterruptible power supply. What is it? A battery powered backup device, that provides a continuous source of power in brown out or black out situations. They also serve as a surge protector. Depending on your needs and budget, you can get a small unit… Continue reading House Hacking Tips and Tricks 8: Battery Backups

House Hacking Project: Easy BBQ Cleaning   Summer is waning, and no doubt you enjoyed it as much as we did. We used our BBQ and Traeger grill extensively this year, and with that comes a little clean up. Some insurance to make sure these fire up the next time we use them 🙂 This… Continue reading House Hacking Tips and Tricks 7: BBQ Maintenance

House Hacking Project: Overhead Rack Who can’t use more storage? Especially in the garage right? We thought so, and we installed an overhead garage rack. It pays to shop around, we found Costco has this even cheaper. Anyhow, purchasing the kit is the easy part. Most folks buy them installed, but that can double the… Continue reading House Hacking Tips and Tricks 6: Overhead Storage

House Hacking Gone Awry 1 It can happen to anyone. You plot out an improvement, buy the required parts and tools, and get to work. Only to find later that your kit is missing something or not functioning properly. It happens very infrequently, but the effort to remedy the situation can become oppressive in some… Continue reading House Hacking: Project Gone Awry 1