Welcome to the newest addition to the family, the Nissan Cube Mobile Device.  Unique, fresh and contemporary (and painted in "Bitter Chocolate") - we love our new gas saver run-around.

It's been quite some time since we provided an update on all things from the Scott family (tribe.)  Work as usual continues on 30 Westfield, although at this point in time things seem less like necessities and more like improvements!  We took a shot at enhancing the opening between the kitchen and the family room with knee-walls and columns.  Working entirely from a picture from a magazine, we are quite pleased with the results.  Despite a few unplanned situations, work-arounds seemed to make the final result quite gratifying to us.

Having lived with a broken fireplace in the master bedroom, we decided to turn our attention to correcting the problem.  Understand that neither of us have any sort of experience with gas lines, regulators, and fireplaces, so we came into this as complete novices.  After decomposing the problem bit by bit we came to learn about Thermocouples, Termpiiles, Heat sensors, mili-vot systems and the like.  Add in the fact that the manufacturer of the gas insert has been out of business for seven years, we were on our own.  After narrowing down the problem to a bad thermopile, dusty vents, and a bad circuit board, we now have a fully functioning fireplace!

 Music continues to be added to the various rooms.  The latest being an in-ceiling speaker and system in the master bathroom.  Running wires from the basement to the attic proved a challenge, but made much easier after the discovery of a well hidden conduit running from bottom to top!  Thanks builders for thinking ahead!  We also ran speakers to the patio and driveway, so that should bring this project to a close (or until we think of some other place where music is needed!)

In the last posting we promised to update you on the music system being installed in our home.  Over the past few years we have been avid users of the SlimDevices Squeezebox line of digital music players.  Without boring you with the details, these are simply players that tap into your mp3 music collection, and play through your amplifiers and speakers.  What attracted us to them was the ability to synchronize multiple players to play the same music in different zones.

Not content to start from scratch at Westfield, we decided to look to build on this foundation, but were always concerned with the usability of the system.  You could either control from a web page, or using a remote control aimed at the device.  Not easy if you wanted to hide all you equipment!

Fortunate for us, Slim Devices was purchased by Logitech, who lost no time introducing a very slick next generation to this system - the Duet.  The Duet is part LCD based controller, and part receiver.  The receiver is simply a dumbed down player (without display).  The controller is where the magic begins!  Roaming from room to room, you can control any receiver in any zone, and have access to all your music library from the palm of your hand!  

Add in the latest in Internet Radio, Sirius access and Music Services (Slacker and Pandora), and we have found the answer to our gadget dreams!  See the picture of the unit to the right, and some screen shots below!  You can find out a lot more information about the device at Amazon .

For those of you following along on our adventures in refurbishing our new home, we are long overdue in providing an update.  We are one day away from having our professional painting come to and end.  Jeff Feist has been a consummate professional putting up with Margaret and I for so long, and has patient slogged away room by room helping us transform things.  His attention to detail is unmatched!

The foyer/hallway is finally rid of the maroon and gold that we have put up with for almost 6 months, and we are glad to see it go.  The "Weimeraner" paint gives everything a much more upscale, and cleaner look. 

Today we had new garage doors installed, along with new belt driven openers.  What a difference, both in look and sound levels.  Given that our bedroom sits over part of the garage, the reduction in noise when William comes home late is most welcome.  You can see the results in the photo gallery.

You may have noticed the addition of in ceiling speakers in the garage last weekend from our latest photos, this brings the total music zones in the house to 7 (pool, living room, master bedroom, dining room, study, kitchen, and garage.)  All that's left on this project is the patio, master bath, and driveway.  We'll provide an update at a later date on the system we installed, and the technology deployed.

Back to the garage: our next step is to have the poor drywall taping and spackle fixed.  That's scheduled for the week of Labor day, after which we have our hands full priming and painting the ceiling, walls, doors and windows.  At somepoint in the future, the garage floor is slated for coat of paint.

We are proud to announce a new arrival to the Scott tribe.  Welcome Hannah, born June 1, 2008, a Charcoal Labrador Retriever.  We brought her home on Saturday July 19, and she is settling right in.

 We'd like to throw out a plug for T.D. and Biff Wade from Bidawee Kennel in Elverson PA.  They have bred a beautiful and well tempered labrador.  Hannah is one of the newer variations of Labrador - namely Charcaol.  T.D. also breeds silver colored labs, also a new and georgeous color variant.

Update: We added some photos in the gallery!

We've almost finished picking the final colors and paint palette for Westfield, so we thought we would group them altogether here.  We were looking for a theme based on earthy colors, a scheme we thought would blend well with the medium brown of the Brazilian Teak floors.  We've laid them out here for your perusal and comment.

You can click on each color swatch to see how we used the color in our home.

Interior Colors

From the Benjamin Moore Affinity Collection

Weimeraner AF-155	Etruscan AF-355	Warmed Cognac AF-235	Dinner Party AF-300
Masada AF-220	Coastal Path AF-380	Tea Room AF-270	Atmospheric AF-500

From the Benjamin Moore Historical Colors Collection

Georgian Brick HC-50	Great Barrington Green HC-122	Providence Olive HC-98	Wyndham Cream HC-6

All of our trim is painted Benjamin Moore's "Simply White", OC-117, a brilliant almost pure white that looks fantastic against these colors.

 Exterior Colors

 From the Benjamin Moore Affinity Collection

Satchel AF-240	Truffle AF-130

What seems like a simple question ends up being quite contentious. Debate rages on about the best height for artwork, even gallery owners have different rules of thumb.  What is obvious is that most people hang their pictures and artwork too high.  The goal is to have artwork balanced at eye level for best viewing.  Given that is more comfortable for the average person to look downwards rather than upwards, the bulk of the artwork should be lower than eye level.  The average height of an American is 64.5 inches (wikipedia), and using the time tested rule of thirds, the upper third should be level with the eye.

So what this means is that there is no standard height for artwork, rather each piece must be looked at for its individual characteristics.  A good starting point, however, is as follows:

For those following the progress of our remodel and move into our new house, you may have caught on that we have been gradually replacing the traditional lighting controls with the Insteon standard.  Insteon is a fairly new way of automating many of the things in your home.  This includes lights, thermostats, appliances, even pumps. 

The creator of the Insteon standard, SmartLabs describes insteon as follows:

INSTEON is the most reliable, simple and affordable best-selling home automation technology in the world. INSTEON has quickly become the standard for lighting, appliance and home control applications. Over 1,000 manufacturers are involved in INSTEON R&D, spanning products in every imaginable home application. Unlike competitors, INSTEON benefits from being the world's only Dual-Mesh network -- communicating both over the home's electrical wiring as well as wireless RF.

Our experiences so far have been very positive.  We have installed controls for the better part of the downstairs, the landscaping lights, pool and patio lights.  Being able to control lights and scenes from around the house have made life a lot easier.  We also added something called the ISY from Universal Devices that helps us with programming and also allows us to set automatic schedules and controls.

Suggest you head over the SmartHome, the distribution arm of SmartLabs and take a look for yourself.

After closing on Westfield back in October 2007, both Margaret and I have been quite adept a new skills that neither of us ever imagined we would need.  To warn off the potential home-buyer who intends to fix up an otherwise troubled home, here's some of the things we had to do...

• Treat water damage (and remove mold) under drywall
• Run 9 new electrical branch circuits to power new kitchen (240v and 120v)
• Install 26 new recessed lights (Kitchen, dining room, study)
• Install an Insteon home automation system to control interior and exterior lights