Smart Home Products: Panasonic DIY Home Surveillance Camera Kit

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Angela

Being able to add smart systems to your home is the plus side of having to rewire the whole house during a home renovation.

We started off by installing a Nest thermostat. The Nest monitors the heat and adjusts it according to when we are home. We can control it with an iPhone app so that it will be nice and warm when we arrive home. As an added bonus, it is better looking than most thermostats. We just missed out on the Nest’s smoke detector, which came out just after we installed the ugly garden variety one from the hardware store.

That is about as far as we got until we received the Panasonic DIY Indoor/Outdoor Home Surveillance Camera Kit and the Panasonic Home Network System Smart Plug to try out.

Panasonic DIY Indoor/Outdoor Home Surveillance Camera Kit

We had always planned on having some sort of home surveillance system and even had our electrician run CAT-5 cable to a location on the back of the house for this purpose. Since the front of the house is old brick, we did not want to drill a hole so we thought we would wait until we replaced the front door and install an outlet on the door framing.

As time moved along and we got busy, the security system got pushed down on the list of priorities. We always joked that the most valuable things in our home are those that can’t be carried off anyway like appliances, cabinets and countertops.

It was, therefore, serendipity to receive the Panasonic Home Surveillance Kit because it has an outdoor camera for the backyard and another to monitor the front of the house from indoors (and we can turn it on from our phones to watch what the cats are doing all day–which is what I suspect many systems get used for).

What to know:

you need a home wifi network
although the system is wireless between the Hub and the cameras, you do need to plug the Hub into a power outlet
the cameras also need to connect to a power source

Installation

Step 1 is to connect the Hub to your wifi network. This is pretty straightforward and there are instructions provided. Once this was working we plugged in both cameras and connected our phones to the system to verify that everything was working ok.

These cameras are designed to mount directly against the house and come with mounting screws. In our case, we planned to mount the camera onto an electrical box which our electrician installed. This required some custom work. First, we took a standard outdoor box cover and drilled 4 pilot holes lining up with the 4 holes in the camera’s mounting plate and screwed in the provided screws. The camera was now nice and tight against the cover plate.

Next, we needed to accommodate for the camera’s power cable. To do this, we drilled a hole slightly larger than the cable and filed its edges down to avoid any sharp points that might cut the cable’s insulation. The factory cable comes with a connector, which I was not planning to use so I cut it off and strung the power cable though my new hole and added a dab of silicone to keep the water out.

Next came hard wiring up the camera and installing it on the back of the house. The electrician ran CAT-5 from our basement to this box and CAT-5 can carry a low amperage DC current in the range used by this camera. To hardwire this we simply took 2 of the CAT-5 wires and used crimp connectors to connect them to the 2 wires in the camera’s power cord, which we had previously cut. With this all connected, we mounted the box cover plate to the cover with the watertight gasket (which came with the plate) between the brick and the camera plate.

Next, we connected the camera to its power source. Each of these cameras came with a power transformer, which steps down the line AC current to a low amp DC current. Again, we hard wired the 2 wires we used in the CAT-5 cable to the wires in the camera’s power supply and plugged the system in.

Once the camera powered up it reconnected with the wifi network and using the app we installed earlier we could see the image of our backyard. Using the swivel joint on the back of the camera we adjusted its position so that it captured the deck as well and we set the other camera inside to monitor the front of the house.

The camera has night vision, a microphone and a speaker so if you set one up inside you can yell at your cats to get off of the counter or (just for fun) set it up in your daughter’s room to make sure she is working on her homework and shout out words of encouragement!

Panasonic Home Network System Smart Plug

This device couldn’t be easier to use and replaces the awful dial timer plugs that we usually bust out each holiday season to turn the Christmas tree lights on and off. First, you have to set up the Hub as described above and then open the same Home Network app you downloaded for the home surveillance cameras to:

set lights and electronics to turn off and on during different times of the day
one hub allows you to control up to 50 plugs throughout your home
if you are unexpectedly late you can turn on lights for pets at any time
great for holiday lights

One more thing to check of the to-do list!

Rental Unit Kitchen Cabinet Installation – check

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Angela

It may seem like it’s taken us forever to make progress on the rental unit, and that’s because it has. When you only have weekends to work on it things tend to drag out. I’d say the kitchen is done but really not quite: there is a problem with the positioning for the plumbing for the dishwasher that we have to straighten out; we need to purchase and install the cabinet hardware; clean out the refrigerator and stove; install a backsplash and maybe a microwave.

We recently installed the kitchen cabinets that we mentioned in our last post and you can read about the details in our recent post for BrickUnderground.com.

A BROOKLYNITE’S STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO INSTALLING KITCHEN CABINETS

by Angela Tiffin and Drew Nichols | 2/11/15 – 9:59 AM

DIY kitchen cabinet installation is not that difficult (though we do recommend hooking up the sink and dishwasher, eventually)

Longtime New Yorkers Angela Tiffin and Andrew Nichols bought their first brownstone in South Park Slope in May 2012, and have spent two years renovating—first, their own duplex apartment and in recent months, a third-floor rental unit—much of it with their own hands. You can read more about the project at their blog, Brownstone Cyclone.

We recently went through the (surprisingly complicated) process ofchoosing kitchen cabinets for our brownstone—both for our owner’s duplex and a rental unit on the top floor. The next step: installing the cabinets, which we decided to tackle ourselves. Although we made a few mistakes along the way, overall it was a pretty easy job, and we regret spending the money on hiring a professional on past kitchen projects.

Shopping for Kitchen Cabinets

Posted on January 20, 2015 by Angela

Below is our latest post for BrickUnderground.com containing our advice on buying kitchen cabinets.

But first, here is a bit more detail on our shopping experience at Home Depot and IKEA for those trying to decide where to purchase cabinets.

We started out first looking at IKEA cabinets and for the rental unit and although the price was right there was little design assistance, their computer software (which you can download on ikea.com) is rudimentary at best (but good for planning) and there was a limited selection in cabinet sizes. With our irregularly high ceilings we couldn’t design them to fit. And don’t forget, the cabinets do not arrive assembled.

That being said, we have friends who installed IKEA high gloss cabinets in a very modern newly constructed kitchen and ten years and two children later they’ve stood the test of time with only minor replacements, so whether IKEA is right for you is relative.

When we renovated the kitchen in our previous apartment we went to the 23rd Street Home Depot in Manhattan to check out several kitchen designs and materials in person We dealt with a different person at each process. Someone who is not the designer came to our home to measure the space and later when we needed a cabinet door replaced because it was warped we dealt with someone completely different in customer service.

Also they subcontract installation to a third party, which lead to a problem when we installed our cabinets because our kitchen was measured with the old cabinets and drywall in place. We handled demolition and had the room re-drywalled. During this process one of the dimensions of the room increased by two inches. As a result our cabinets did not fit the space as designed. Thankfully, the installer was able to add filler pieces to solve the problem but it did not look exactly as we designed.

We purchased full-overlay cabinet doors but see the gaps between the cabinets on the right and left below.

Cabinets from Home Depot

While we were satisfied with the cabinet quality and service overall, we chose to go the small shop route this time because we wanted to work with one person for the entire process. For both our kitchens, the designer at Park Slope Kitchen Gallery came by and measured our space twice to make sure it was accurate before finalizing the order.

For more information about what style and type of cabinet to buy see our post below.

BUYING NEW KITCHEN CABINETS? WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

by Angela Tiffin and Andrew Nichols | 1/16/15 – 9:59 AM

Our kitchen cabinet odyssey involved a lot more decision-making than you might imagine.

We recently purchased new kitchen cabinets for the rental unit in our brownstone, after buying them last year for our duplex, which may seem like an easy decision. In truth, however, there are a dizzying array of choices when it comes to picking the style, the substance and the construction methods, not to mention where to shop in the first place. Below, what we learned in the process:

Brownstone Cyclone

The Ups and Downs of Home Renovation

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