Gotta love what you do...

This is my dining room table as of 1:30AM this morning1 Why does it look this way?

Easy- I was troubleshooting a problem that we were having at a clients house integrating a Control4 system with a doorbell and intercom system, and I wanted to replicate the issue we were having.

Even though I have Control4 in my house- it wasn't the same system, so I couldn't just use what I had-

I connected a HC300 to an audio matrix switch, and integrated it with Sonos, a doorbell and a phone paging system. This system gives you the ability to pickup the phone, make an annoucement over the speakers (page) and then someone else can pickup the telephone to answer you... It's a great clean solution that does not require any extra wires in the house (other than an audio system) there is no extra wall clutter and it does not require a proprietary phone system either.

I got everything working the way it is supposed to- and so tomorrow we get to install it! Thankfully my wife was sleeping, and I have time to get it all cleaned up before she wakes up!

High-tech Eskimo?

What else are you supposed to do when there's 3 feet of snow on the ground?


Build an igloo! Otherwise known as a big CAVE inside the big mound of snow piled up at the end of the street...

There's really not much to it, just grab a shovel and start digging. It helps if you are using a small trowel type shovel to break up the snow and ice first, then use a larger snow shovel to remove the loose snow... It really only becomes a problem when you're burrowed in a tunnel and trying to get the snow out- Ninja claws seem to work pretty well too! If you can start the tunnel from both sides, I would recommend doing that as well. It's a whole lot easier to clear the snow when you don't have to crawl on your belly and scoop it past you.

So now that you've built the largest snowcave in your city, what are you going to do with it? After all it's only fun for an hour or two- then it's just cold. Well I would hate for any kids to go into the snowcave and get caught under a ton of snow- even though I made sure it's pretty sturdy. So I wirelessly extended my Control4 home automation system in the house to the snow fort- and placed a motion sensor inside to alert me whenever anyone comes by... This lets me call my wife and tell her that some kids are playing outside...

If I really wanted to, I could set a speaker that shouted at the kids to get out...

Onstar for your house?

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Create temporary codes to give to a friend staying for the weekend, or a code that only works during certain hours for the housekeeper. Receive email alerts when your kids get home from school, and have the lights and music automatically come on to your personal preferences.

When you're ready for bed- simply touch the "Goodnight" button on your nightstand to turn all the lights off, close your garage door, arm your security system, and now, lock your doors!

Security and Peace of Mind come in these three flavors- and are available to order now!

Same theater, more pics- maybe even a video if I have time...

Create a relaxing atmosphere with the right music!

Welcome to Meltdown Day Spa!
www.meltdowndayspa.com

It has been about 4 months since they opened, but I had not seen the 100% completed project until today.




Our portion of the project was small, but the music system we provided adds to the atmosphere when you walk in.


Here are some of their signature services:
ancient detour
thai yoga massage
meltdown salt & pepper scrub
morrocan rassoul body wrap
volcanic ash meltdown soak
timeless caviar & pearl facial
heel your sole pedicure




Each of the treatment rooms has its own sound system that allows your choice of music. You can listen to the shared sources (iPod, radio or cd changer) or you can even bring your own music while you meltdown!

Meltdown Day Spa offers complete Manicure/Pedicure services as well- check their website for monthly specials and services.

http://www.meltdowndayspa.com/specials

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D-Box at the Tysons Luxury Expo!

I think we had more exhibitors sitting in the D-box chairs than actual customers. Sunday traffic was a bit slower than it typically has been in previous years, but it was still a great show overall.

It's amazing the difference a week can make...

This is the before picture of the hallway. Our client (Tony) wanted to do something to "jazz up" his space. His theater room was built about 8 years ago and we had already done a few upgrades to the system.

It was nice for the time, and it still had some appeal- but it wasn't as good as it could be. In our initial walkthrough I made some suggestions for the future- (because I didn't think he didn't want to spend the money- after all, a few days prior he told me that he and his wife got into a fight about spending money...)
The faux painting on the walls was very well done, but not suited to my tastes, the projector was about 2 years old, and he was happy with the sound system... So what could we do on a budget to improve the aesthetic of the room? My suggestions were to replace the carpet, and create some appeal when you're entering the room so that before you even walk into the room you know it's something special! He also wanted to raise the back row higher, so there was an unobstructed view of the screen.

As you can see from this after picture, I believe we have accomplished our desired effect! The walls were painted a dark brown, gold painted trim was added to make the halllway more elegant, remote controlled, color changing LED lighting was added to create a color wash on the ceiling. The walls have some shadow boxes made for moovie posters, curved marble tiles add some elegance, and my favorite part is the suede-leather porthole door!

This normally would not be a big deal to complete this project in less than a week- but going from concept to completion in less than a week was an amazing feat! (Tony wanted to surprise his family and have this all done while they were on vacation) So with the initial concept in place on Tuesday, and the deadline set for next Tuesday evening, I had my work cut out for me!

I didn't do all the work on my own- I'd like to thank Ramzy Andary for having his team take care of all the construction with zero notice, and a very special thanks to Taylor of Nic-lor floors, for getting her installers to drive down to Richmond (and back to Clifton) at 3:00 on a weekday, so that the carpet could be installed when it was promised. She went above and beyond to help us get it done! Good service is hard to come by these days, so when you get awesome service, and people followup and do what they say they'e going to do- they deserve some recognition!

This is the before sightline-it's fine if you're sitting up in the backrow- but when you recline in the back row, the fromt row chairs block the bottom of the screen. Moving the screen up was not an option due to the bulkhead iin the room- so the only option we had was to raise the seating platform even higher. By adding another 7" only underneath the seating- Tony now has a perfect view.

This is the new back row configuration- For a smaller room, I'm surprised that we were able to fit 10 chairs total in here! The prime seating here is a pair of leather D-Box Motion simulator home theater recliners with motorized recline! If you've never heard of D-Box, check the back of many Blu-ray DVD's... If you love action movies, you have to at least look at it.