Personal Joel Personal Joel

Casa de Szerlip: Our First Big Project

It took us nearly three months, but we just finished up our first big project in the house. When we purchased the house in January of 2015 one of the big projects we wanted to undertake was removing the built-in's from the second bedroom and the outside atrium area. They weren't bad built-in's but they didn't fit the decor or setup that Jenn and I wanted for either of those areas. It restricted our options for the rooms and took up more space then we would have ever wanted. 

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Casa de Szerlip: The Start of a Smart Home

When I was still in High School I used to spend a ton of time reading tech blogs. Each year when these websites would do their predictions it was that home automation was going to be the next big market. However there never seemed to be the adoption that was expected. That was until the iPhone. Now you go to any home improvement store there are tons of options for connected hardware. The biggest product in the home automation category of the last couple of years has been the Nest Thermostat. 

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Casa de Szerlip: Good Things Come in Small Packages - Sonos Play 1

I'm not what you would call an audiophile. I don't love music. I don't have the same passion for music I do for TV, Movies, or Video Games. But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it. On the other hand Jenn loves music. She gets a lot of joy out of it. When we bought our house one of the things she wanted to do was have the ability to play music throughout the house. So when we're cleaning on a Saturday morning, or putting up Christmas decorations, the house could be filled with music.

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Personal Joel Personal Joel

Jenn & I Purchased Our First Home

After two years of saving, planning, and researching it was time. On November 26th (the day before Thanksgiving) we went with our realtor to view the house that Jenn ran up to our apartment to tell me about. It was a gorgeous sunny day and the community could not have looked anymore stunning. We toured the home which was empty but for a little bit of rented furniture. The house was perfect. It's a two bedroom detached condo, a little over a 1000 sq. ft with an awesome outdoor flex space, and a ton of natural light. I think we both knew even before walking into the house that we would probably put an offer down. However after a few seconds in the house we both knew instantly that we absolutely wanted this house.

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