Advice The Home Improvement/Automation Thread

I have one of those, came with the house. Deal for us is, unless the grass is "dying", we don't water. This summer - we didn't water, grass was fine. I flip on a hose that is connected to 2 sprinklers for my garden, but that's a whole 'nuther ball game.
I think the app one's are great - I just wanted to join in. Working from home and bored-like.
I lived with ours for a long time, but it went tits-up a few weeks ago, and I don't want any of my saplings to die. They're watered on a drip zone.

I could turn off the sprinklers, but that would just encourage shitty weeds to grow instead, which would then trigger my cunty neighbor to report me to the city again (yes, there's a city statute that says I can't have weeds growing on the property. The consequence is that the city hires a company to take care of it after a certain amount of warnings and then they put a lien on my property to pay for it).
 
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Now you're just being mean. If I was going to do that, I'd have suggested he pave it from edge to edge - something a former MIL did at her place.
Also not an option for me. Residential zoning specifies a fixed amount of driveway space in front of a house (it's the lesser of a fixed sq. ft. number or a percentage of the front yard).

If I was smart, I'd do the front yard up in xeriscape, but I'm not smart, so w/e.
 
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Also not an option for me. Residential zoning specifies a fixed amount of driveway space in front of a house (it's the lesser of a fixed sq. ft. number or a percentage of the front yard).

If I was smart, I'd do the front yard up in xeriscape, but I'm not smart, so w/e.
Maybe someday on the xeri for you. Nice thing about it, plants never need to fill out. Just not die. :p
 
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Maybe someday on the xeri for you. Nice thing about it, plants never need to fill out. Just not die. :p
I'm leaning closer now that we had to take the ash tree down up front.

The Maple I'm getting delivered on Monday to replace it won't be big enough to hold the tire swing for another 5 years, by which time, none of the kids will be interested in it anymore :/
 
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I'm leaning closer now that we had to take the ash tree down up front.

The Maple I'm getting delivered on Monday to replace it won't be big enough to hold the tire swing for another 5 years, by which time, none of the kids will be interested in it anymore :/
Shame. Ash is a real nice tree, when they grow. I dug up a sapling at my folks house, planted at my last place and babied it. About 10-12 years out it's 6" in diameter and 30'+ tall. Borers - gone in one summer.
 
Shame. Ash is a real nice tree, when they grow. I dug up a sapling at my folks house, planted at my last place and babied it. About 10-12 years out it's 6" in diameter and 30'+ tall. Borers - gone in one summer.
mine was about 24" across, and it got some kind of crud 2 years ago. Spent the summer of '19 trying to nurse it back to health, wintered it as best I could, then in May only one branch grew leaves. Had it taken down in the spring, ground the stump 2 weeks ago, and am getting the Maple on Monday.

A 3' deep hole, 6' across was a bitch to dig.
 
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Went through Smartthings and Konnected and got them all updated. Whacked them up with Home Assistant just fine.

Loaded up the Homekit integration. That took a little bit to figure out.

But the nice thing is that when you install it, it presents you with lists of what to include and exclude. So I don't have the Sonos speakers, and Phillips Hue stuff showing up double.

But I can still use those things independently in HA for whatever, like a door or alarm chime.
 
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Went through Smartthings and Konnected and got them all updated. Whacked them up with Home Assistant just fine.

Loaded up the Homekit integration. That took a little bit to figure out.

But the nice thing is that when you install it, it presents you with lists of what to include and exclude. So I don't have the Sonos speakers, and Phillips Hue stuff showing up double.

But I can still use those things independently in HA for whatever, like a door or alarm chime.
I would seriously consider making HA the centerpiece of your automation, and ripping the integration attachments out of everything else.
 
I don't know if its *all* like this, but some friends of ours put it in and you can literally only take about 6 steps on it in the middle of the day before, quite literally, burning your feet. Its SO fucking hot.
They must have the cheap stuff. At our hardware store here you can get around 5 different grades of it. From cheap to pretty expensive. The expensive stuff looks and feels like real grass.
 
They must have the cheap stuff. At our hardware store here you can get around 5 different grades of it. From cheap to pretty expensive. The expensive stuff looks and feels like real grass.
I assure you it was expensive. It looks great. But its hotter than the surface of the sun.
 
I won't bother with fake grass.

I'd much rather do xeriscaping in front (drought-tolerant plants and rocks, basically), but as long as I have dogs, there will be real grass in the back.
 
I assure you it was expensive. It looks great. But its hotter than the surface of the sun.
My parents got some of the mid range stuff installed around their pool, and it doesn't get too hot to stand on. Dunno what's going on.
 
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