Do you have a bomb shelter?
I finally have a basement, one step at a time!
Cool idea.....pretty neat thing for the cats to have access to.
Yeah, really looking forward to seeing the two boys enjoy it!
I can't see the pics!
Hmm, weird, I'll make an album for you: https://photos.app.goo.gl/J3XRLcFAPEBWHFQf8
And that actually includes all pictures thus far, not just the few I posted.
Love this! I said on the cat appreciation thread that we are considering making one as part of our next remodeling phase. We still have to run it by our contractor though. We may have to wait until we redo the deck but we can at least work on getting the doors installed. Any advice for the planning phase and things to consider that we probably haven't yet?
How are the cats enjoying it?
Two cats thus far are absolutely loving it. One in particular will go out even in the rain and/or really cold. Hell, one morning he hopped in the shower with me, got soaked, and 10 minutes later was out there in 40 degree weather.
As far as things to consider, I'd say the one thing I kind of screwed up, or might redo a bit is how I connected the catio to the house. Probably less of an issue if you put it right up against. The other thing is know going in if you want an open roof like I have or want an actual roof. If the latter you'll want clear for sunlight, but then have to worry about sloping and knowing how to put that on correctly. And keep in mind, I have no formal training in building or most of what I'm doing, so a lot of winging it, and there are probably a few things I didn't consider in this.
Do you guys have any smart devices hooked up to your home? After closing our home, I went through what all our previous owners had set up. They had a smart thermostat from American Standard for their AC and an LG oven that can connect via their app. We then bought more smart enabled appliances with Google Nest cams, doorbell and speakers. Also added LG washer and dryer that connects to the LG app as well.
I tested out one of those smart bulbs for a lamp and it's pretty cool how you can control the brightness, color temperature, etc.. They do cost more than the regular bulbs and I'm not going to bother with the rest of the house with those smart bulbs.
The amount of options available is insane and the sky is the limit with these things. Any here set anything up for their home?
I re-built my smart home within a month of moving in to our new house. Couple of key components:
Smart Hub: Used Wink in the past and SmartThings now, spend a few $ to get a good hub so you have full Z-Wave/Zigbee support. Will greatly increase your product availability as opposed to relying on WiFi.
Smart Lock: I use Schlage Connect. Hate having to use keys, haven't used a home key in 5 years. My car doesn't use a key. I keep 1 key in my wallet for the main door at work and that's it.
Smart Switches: You can use bulbs for temperature/brightness control, but I greatly prefer wiring in smart switches (using Zigbee GE switches right now) for lighting control so you still easily have a normal switch option as well as smart control.
Smart Doorbell: Used to use Ring, but have happily switches to Nest on the new home. Been working great, and I have the version for homes without doorbell wiring.
Smart Thermostat: Used Nest previously, but heating system in the new house is primarily a pellet stove which doesn't work with that. However if your system is compatible, highly recommend Nest.
Smart Cameras: Wyze. Dirt cheap good cameras. Doesn't integrate as well with other stuff, but for $20 you can basically get a constant feed on anything.
My favorite thing about pulling it all together is automations and routines. I have a 4 button widget on my phone. First one is for leaving the house, shuts off all lights and locks the doors. Next is for coming home during the day, just unlocks the back door. Then for coming home at night, unlocks and turns on certain lights. And finally sleep, which locks doors and turns off all switches except for the bedroom fan. And all those can be voice command activated as well. I suppose I should have noted earlier almost every room as a Google mini, speaker, or screen hub. Kitchen in particular has one with a screen that makes cooking and setting timers super helpful.
Lastly I can smart link certain things, in the new house that has been helpful on some lights that should go together, but are wired on different switches. So on the smart end of things I'm able to link them so if one turns on/off it sends a command to the other to do the same, and like magic it's like they are on the same switch.