Shed-ding our Stuff

One project we've toyed with that I forgot to include in our outdoor goals for 2019 is constructing a shed. Even though I forgot to mention it, it's actually the thing we are most likely to do this year. Especially now that we're going to have a vegetable garden, it would be nice to have access to our gardening tools without having to go all the way to the garage at the front of the house. We have decided nothing at this point, and are looking to our reader (all one of you) for suggestions.

First, placement. We already have this concrete pad that seems perfect. We would have to destroy the wood burning stove (that we never used) and move the sandbox, but otherwise, it's ready. The problem is that it measures 7' x 15' and a common width for sheds seems to be 8'. We don't know enough about what kind of base a shed entails, so we are trying to figure out if some of it can overhang off the pad (i.e. put the foundation blocks about 6-12 inches back under the base).  Adding to the concrete pad sounds extreme (rebar and stuff we don't really want to do). We know we want something a bit sturdier and more "house-like" than the fiberglass one-piece ones from Home Depot or Lowes, but that's all we know so far. To our surprise, from what we can figure out, it doesn't look like we will need a county permit, and maybe not a town one either (locals, feel free to weigh in**edited to add that I found our town permitting forms at last and we do indeed need at least a town permit.**) based on the size we're looking at (8' x 12' probably). Beyond that, we're clueless.

In a related matter, our yard is under water like never before. We have had so much rain that the ground everywhere is muddy mush, and some of it, like here, actually has standing water on it. I'm relieved our yard is graded away from our house. (This further convinces us that the shed has to be standing up above the concrete pad, that's for sure.)

The last time it was this wet - and windy as it has been on some days - we had the big tree fall on our house. I feel like I'm holding my breath these days every time we get..."weather."

Little Brother

We never seriously considered getting a full-service security solution after being robbed. Way too expensive and hopefully not very necessary. But we did toss around the idea of self-installing something. The serious self-rolled security systems involve setting up a server to record video along with several expensive cameras. Just too much money and hassle. Should we ever make our house part of the internet of things, we may install cheap motion sensors on the main entry doors and ground level windows with some kind of hub (this or whatever Apple does?). But there's too much flux and uncertainty about which system will win out. So that project is on hold.

Our main concern is that packages get left on our stoop. Since our street is so highly trafficked, we are always worried about something getting lifted. So some kind of video camera or still capture system would work. A super popular one is the Dropcam. But this works by streaming all of the video through your home internet connection to Dropcam. So should Russian or Chinese hackers compromise Dropcam, they could watch your home camera from the comfort of their desks. But worse, Google bought Dropcam. Which means that eventually Google will decide to use the video streams to figure out how to sell things to you. So we wanted something we had some control over.

My brother is using this camera to monitor his front door and recommended it.

Nothing fancy. 640x480 resolution. IR sensors for night vision. Wireless network connection. But what I liked about it was 1. it's really cheap and 2. you can log directly into it and control it. We have it setup to transmit photos whenever it detects motion to an email account. D-Link isn't involved at all. The camera can't be accessed from outside our network. So it is (sort of?) secure. 

I originally put it in our bay window but the IR sensors don't work through the glass and I couldn't get a angle on our porch. I did a little bit of googling and it seems that a bunch of people are using them outside without too many problems. It's really cheap, so I think it's worth a try. 

Our walkway. The camera was originally next to the potted plant in the bay window. Now it is behind the gray pot center right.

Shielded pretty well from the elements from the bay widow overhang and the pot. It's also right on top of the outlet. 

The capture photo resolution is pretty lousy. But better than nothing. I think it'd only be useful for a actual theft for capturing the time and a general description of the thief. Unless the thief had really distinguishing tattoos. Since the emails get sent a minute or two after it gets triggered, I could conceivably catch a robbery in action.

Unfortunately a spider has decided that this location is great. Apparently a little spider walking right in front of the camera is enough to trigger the motion detector. Each morning I have a dozen or so captures of this little dude walking around.

Here he is during the day. 

I've removed his web several times, but he is quite clever. He immediately drops to the ground and scrambles away when I touch his web. A few hours later, a new web appears. I guess I have to keep knocking his web down to discourage him. 

Aside from spiders, the camera seems to work fine. The resolution is terrible, but there's a fairly steep price penalty to get a HD camera. We plan on getting at least another camera to cover the basement entrance. 

Grilling Time

We have been making do with a $30 grill for few years. It has not aged well. It has been rusting out from the beginning and we decided to upgrade to the charcoal grill that everyone seems to end up with - the Weber One-Touch Gold. It has a larger grilling area, holds more coal, has a neat cleaning system, and has more durable finish. It also has, to my surprise, a built in thermometer. Which is useful. The assembly was a bit more annoying than I expected, since the legs really take a lot of force to slide on and the bin underneath took more squeezing to snap it in than I expected.

Old rusty grill on the left, shiny new grill in the middle, and the coal chimney starter on the right

Fans on the Weber which can be moved with the lever (visible at 6 o'clock) to 1. let more air in and 2. push old charcoal into the bin below. The lid also has a latch to let you hang it off a handle.

The old grill has gotten pretty grungy. I really like how the new grill has hooks on the handles to hang grilling equipment

Thermometer

I have only used it a few times, so I'm still figuring it out how to best control the temperature. I have also had some problems with the coals taking a long time to heat up past 200 F. I found that the ash from previous grilling sessions was clogging the holes and preventing proper air flow.

After clearing that up, I opened up the bottom and top vents and can get the grill over 500 F.

If I close the top and bottom vents, the grill drops to around 300 F. The biggest annoyances are that the top lid handle gets uncomfortably hot when the grill is fully heated up and that the assembly is so fiddly. Fairly minor complaints. The real test will be to see whether the grill will still be going strong 10 years from now.