After ages upon ages, today I finally installed the ZWave Smart Switch to control the water heater heating schedule and to measure how much power is being used by the water heater. For about 2 years now we’ve had the water heater continually connected to power, providing non-stop hot water even during the times of the day when it doesn’t matter.   We’ll see going forward whether or not any power savings will result from having scheduled hot water.

It’s been a long, long time since we moved the Brimnes king out of the master bedroom into the living room.My daughter is now 3 years old, on her way to 4, andwe’re just now getting back to moving the bed back to its original location. The bed frame that we acquired when we were first married is the Ikea Brimnes King sized bed.  Ours is black unlike the one you see here. It’s a decent design, but it has two major flaws that need to be addressed. Flaw #1: The handles that are attached to the faces of the drawers are certain to put unnecessary gashes in your legs.  They’re sharp and they stick out just far enough to catch you off guard.  It will happen.  Many times.  Remove them.  You’ll find that you don’t actually use the drawers much.  Nobody wants to bend over for every day items.  Our drawers end up being storage for Christmas decorations, sporting goods, linens for the bed, and camping gear.  With the handles removed, you can still pull them open from the bottom of the face of the drawer.  It’s not terribly inconvenient. Flaw #2: While the headboard appears to be a great storage solution, there’s a ton of wasted space behind and below it.  The bookshelves on the sides simply aren’t that deep, and that leaves a huge gap behind the headboard that’s never used. I plan on creating a remedy for this.  Perhaps I could turn that space into a top-load blanket or pillow box. Flaw #3: Ahh…yes, one other flaw that I thought of.  Any flat, horizontal surface in your home will inherently collect crap.  Unless…unless it’s a door.  Much like the top-load freezer we own, it’s much more likely not to accumulate crap if it needs to be opened. In any event, the bed is going back to the newly remodeled master bedroom and aside from the IKEA hack that I intend to invent and fabricate, the only thing I have to worry about now is the fact that the tile floor isn’t perfectly flat.  As a result, the bed needs to be shimmed so it doesn’t rock.  The variance is minimal, but it’s enough to cause an issue, and due to the direction the room is “bending” it makes the frame teeter slightly from his to hers. Follow along as I come up with some solutions for these issues.