Cindy and Greg

As some of you know, my brother is in the midst of a re-model of his townhouse in Washington, DC. During this re-modeling he has been thinking about adding a security system to the house as a general pre-caution. He has one problem, no landline in the house. He utilizes Perceiva VoIP for his home phone (read: “spam phone number”) and he he uses his Sprint Blackberry for everything else. Most alarm systems from the likes of ADT, Brinks, etc require an analog phone line, or an ungodly expensive GSM transmitter (which is all fine and good if your home is in an area that has good GSM coverage). During his search, he came across a company called Ingrid Home Security. These folks have thought out of the box and developed a home security system targeted to service providers like Cox and Comcast to resell to its customers as part of a “triple play” type solution (telephone, Internet, television and now home security). They have made their product available to consumers.

So after some time reviewing the technology (while Stephen reviewed the company, their investors, etc), Cindy and I decided to place an order. We have been looking for a security system on an off for a few years because of the traveling I do, I hate leaving Cindy home alone. Anyway, we placed the order Sunday morning (5/25) and our order arrived on Friday 5/30 (they apparently upgraded us to 2 day shipping). The boxing was very Apple like (that will make sense to a few of you). It was clean and neat, with easy directions. As I was installing the system, it was incredibly easy to follow and understand. I would recommend reading the directions so you can really understand the system. I had the doors secured in about 30 minutes. We have 14 windows on the main level and choose to go with window sensors, in lieu of the more economical motion detectors because of the pets. The windows took a little bit of thinking to make sure the senors did not impact the way the window opened (either for air or for cleaning), but I found a good method of installation. I did run into 2 problems during the installation, both user related. The keychains didn’t program at first, but I found I needed to program them while standing near the keypad console (makes sense if you think about it). And the senors in my office didn’t seem to want to connect to the security grid the first time I installed them. I fired off an e-mail to IngridHome support desk and had a phone call within 2 hours. They said that sometimes you just need to play with it a little bit, which I asked if that was code for user error, the woman kind of chuckled.

Some of the  truly unique about Ingrid is that it connects to your broadband AND your analog phone line. You can use either or both to support your system. You get a web console called MyIngrid (creative, yes) that gives you a full view of the system, its health and all the configuration options possible. You can have it send you text messages/emails when you have a change in system status, a failure, or breakin. You can program various users and assign notification levels based on the user code entered to disarm the system (for example, the kids coming home from school, get a text page to let you know they are home). You can even bridge systems in geographically diverse locations together (how cool is that)?

There are a couple of wish list items for the Ingrid:

1. Temperature Sensor (monitor temps in specific locations within the house)
2. Carbon Monoxide Monitoring
3. Water Sensor (for flooding)

Check out a couple things:

• Comparison matrix
• Various components of the system
• InGrid Videos

I should add, the entire system was under $700 bucks and less then $30 a month to monitor. This compares incredibly well. ADT/Brinks advertise a system for $200, but then if you have more then 1 window or door, you need to add senors for those, if you want smoke detection you need to add those as well. So the system from ADT/Brinks for our home was well over $1000. Plus the monthly monitoring was more expensive especially when you included the smoke detectors.

So color me impressed!

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So for a little more then a year now, we have had two lighting fixtures that were out of reach. Once sits about 10 feet above the kitchen counter, it is a spotlight that provides light around the sink. This light burned out just after we put in the granite countertops, so we couldn’t stand on the counters to replace the bulb. The other was a spotlight over the fireplace. This we could have reached if we really tried, but we didn’t.

So yesterday after a trip to Richmond, we stopped at Home Depot and picked up the bulbs and a little tool to help change light bulbs that are that high. Amazing how replacing two bulbs can change your perspective on a room.

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As a part of the technology upgrade in the family room (a very small part of the over all budget if you can believe it), we decided to get rid of the 4 remotes we needed to control the TV and consolidate into 1. We (read I) decided to go with the Harmony 1000 with the RF extender, so we could keep the components of our system in the built-in and not have to worry about direct line of site. So we have had the remote in the house for months now…but as with most projects as soon as I run into an issue, instead of reading the manual I put it off to the side. Yesterday, while Cindy was on duty at the office, I made it my mission to get it up and running. So as of last night, we went from 4 remotes, to a single color touch screen unit…pretty darn sweet. I am sure it will require a little tweaking over the next couple of days and I do want to get the overhead fan/light working with it, simply for the coolness factor. Here is a little picture of our new remote.

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We got a call from Rob at Crate and Barrel the day we before we left for Banff, our furniture is in! It is suppose to be delivered on Wednesday, November 7. Finally, this project is coming to an end. Pictures will be posted once the furniture arrives.

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Well last night I got to play Mr. Fix-it. Our master bath toilet decided that it wanted to run constantly. This brought back memories of the nightmare before Christmas, where the night before both families showed up the toilet on the main floor decided to leak and run all over the place. After hours of trying to fix it, I finally got it to work enough to get through the holiday.

Well after a quick trip to Lowes last night, I had the toilet in the master bath fixed in about 10 minutes after replacing the innards of the tank.

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We continue to make progress on the family room. The TV was re-hung by Williamsburg Communication (we hung it too high) and the room has been painted. The new carpet is slated for October 16 and with that, we will just be waiting for our furniture from Crate and Barrel.

Weight Watchers continues to work, I am now down 18+ pounds and and Cindy is down 13 pounds.  I quickly came to realize last week that Weight Watchers and traveling don’t go well together. As I walked through my least favorite airport (ATL) around lunch time, the only thing I could find was Moes (gate C14), but I passed on that and got a water and hopped on the plane.

Anyway, we will post pictures of the new family room upon completion.

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Some of you may have heard that Cindy and I have started a project to re-design our family room. At this point a lot of the work is done, we are waiting on the painting and carpet. Once this is done we will need to wait for our furniture from Crate and Barrel to be delivered, but we are narrowing down on the room. Here is a run down of what we are doing:

• Replace the couch with the Crate and Barrel Axis Sectional in a Mocha micro-fiber suede
• Move the large Rojo cabinate into the dining room and replace it with the Rojo Media Cabinate (also from Crate and Barrel, Rob from the Short Pump store is our new best friend).
• Remove the “bathroom marble” fireplace surround and replace with the same granite from our kitchen
• Build and install a mantel around the fireplace
• Removing the built-in over the fireplace
• Replacing the TV and mounting it on the opposite wall (we choose the Samsung LNT5271F, 52″ LCD)
• Install new surround sound system
• Paint the room
• Wire audi/video from the new TV to the built-in behind the sofa
• Replace my office door with a glass insert door
• Finally, new carpet (removing the crappy builder burber)

Today we came home to find our mantel installation completed. See the before and after shots below:

Before…	After

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