Six Month House-iversary

Six months ago today I moved into my new home in the Fishtown section of Philadelphia. After ten years of watching my money go to landlords each month, last April I finally became a homeowner. Time has flown by and I don't think it has sunk in yet that this place is really mine. I suspect it won't totally sink in until I need to pay for my first major repair. I'll admit Fishtown wasn't my first choice. I would have loved a place in Center City or University City, but they were out of my price range. Fishtown was a good compromise - relatively safe and easy access to the rest of the city via the El. If anything, I wish I had found a place closer to an El station. Walking to the El adds an extra 10-15 minutes to my commute each way. On the other hand, there is a shopping center complete with supermarket, thrift store and a Radio Shack two blocks from my house which is very convenient. I haven't done much to the house yet, including decorating. The house was renovated a couple years ago and didn't need any work for me to move in. The biggest changes so far were adding a railing to the basement steps and installing a microwave over the stove. My dad is much more of a handyman than I am, so he's been a huge help. When I was looking at homes, I look at everything from fixer-uppers to newly remodeled homes. I'm glad I decided to go with something recently renovated. I don't see how I would have found the time and resources to do serious work on a house. There's still quite a few boxes from my apartment I have yet to unpack and my basement is full of stuff from my storage locked that I need to go through (and probably sell a lot of it). I wanted to have a yard sale at the end of summer, but that hasn't happened. Maybe next Spring? Some home projects I hope to tackle in the next few months:

• Install a dishwasher
• Install more shelving in the home office
• Add exterior electrical outlets to the front and back of the house
• Run a network cable from the home office down through the walls to the basement and up to the living room (for my Mac Mini media center / home server)
• Put a pond in the backyard (that will have to wait till next Spring)
• Try some basic X10 home automation

I do worry a little about burglars, so sometime I might try setting a webcam and some motion sensors that can send a message to my phone if something is amiss. I would have to call 911 myself, but its better than paying monthly security-system fees or dealing with false alarms. One downside to having moved in the Spring is that all the nice weather pulled me away from staying inside to work on things. I also spent time every evening tending my garden. Now that cold weather is here, I'll probably be staying indoors more and I can start getting more things done.

Thrift Store Roomba

I found an original model Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner at a local thrift store for $6. It was full of dust and hair and missing the AC adapter, but I figured for $6, it was worth a shot. I noticed that the Roomba has a weird power connector consisting of two inputs. iRobot has their Roomba manuals available as free PDF downloads and the manual shows the special adapter that originally came with the Roomba. They sell replacement AC adapters but they don't come with the double-barrel adapter. I posted to the official Roomba forum, and the best suggestion I got is to look for someone selling one with a broken Roomba on eBay. Given that I don't know if this Roomba even works, I'm not sure if I want to spend much money for a replacement AC adapter. Since I do have some basic electronics and soldering skills, perhaps I can build an adapter myself? Even if I do get the Roomba working, the programming options unfortunately aren't available for original Roomba models. That's no big deal. With the way that cat hair and dust form little tumbleweeds on my (fake) hard woods floors, an automated vacuum would be great. At worst, I can always sell the Roomba on eBay for spare parts.