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Abode Home Security Review

Abode is a DIY security system which can be self-monitored, or professionally monitored.  With self monitoring, the system has integration with Google, Alexa, and Homekit, but with as little as $6/month Abode can be integrated into other home automation systems such as Home Assistant.  The real value comes in when going to the Pro monitoring.

Welcome!

Hey! Welcome to the site.  You’ve made it to the very first post!   Thanks for being here with us and we hope you enjoy the adventure as we go along on this journey of working on our houses and all the interesting stuff along the way.  We hope you stick around and join us for

We usually have a lot of parties or gatherings here at the house.  Most of the events or gatherings usually start in the early afternoon and more and more people come as the time continues.  The sun sets and the backyard gets darker, but the party continues.  It’s time to switch on the lights.  Backyards

Quick Update – Garage 9/15/2021

Quick update on the progress of Avalon – There are a few projects with contractors that are coming in. One of them involves getting solar panels and the powerwall.  In this area, we’re prone to wind and fire, and the last couple of times, the power company decided to give us a rolling blackout for

My Synology NAS and Essential Packages for the Smart Home

Finding Synology NASIn the past way long ago, I was lured into the expensive black hole called photography.  I had one of the most popular DSLR cameras at the time (Nikon D90), and with it came RAW files that processing of large files on multiple computers brought about a new challenge.  Where to store all

Project update – Avalon Living room 9/2021

Well we have to start somewhere, so might as well start from one of the more basic projects being done at the house.  We’ll be calling this house Avalon, and it was bought with not much work done on it by the previous owner, and whatever work was done, there were a lot of design