As most of you probably know, about 18 months ago , we bought a block of land in a development called Bingara Gorge , Wilton, NSW. It's been a rollercoaster ride, sorting out our block in SA and finalising our plans... So, finally, we have signed our building contract.
Our block of land in SA has been sold and completed and we are on the way to building our version of "our dream house".. It's probably very different to most people's idea of a dream home but we've been wanting to build as long as I can remember and to us, this will hopefully be our "final" house :-)..
The builder we decided to use is Urbanstylehomes. We had a look at the "big" builders, but to be honest, Product review, scared us off, so we went looking for local builders that had a good reputation amongst the local community. Mersina and Alex, the design consultants, are two of the most patient people we've ever met. To give you an idea, we've drawn plans three times, yep, three times from scratch! K and I had very specific ideas about what we wanted and didn't want and they have been absolutely fantastic to work with!
My aim is to post on a regular basis through the build, but I've said that before and we all know how that went down! I'll try to change my track record with this one..
On an aside note, we realised we'd left our front door unlocked for three days... and all our stuff is still here.
Going to G this afternoon to watch the rugby - should be a good one!
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Gadget developments...
It's been way too long since I've blogged... Somehow, life just got too busy..
I bought an iPad 2 for my wife's 30th birthday and subsequently won one myself through a draw at work, so I thought my first return to blogging would be a gadgety one...
I love my iPhone but had never really thought an iPad would offer anything I'd really use daily. I was so wrong. There are great apps offering streaming for video and any other multimedia you may have such as photos.. I have a HDHomerun which streams TV to pretty much any device on your network including Windows (Mediacenter), Mac and Ubuntu (using MythTV frontend).. Using this you can use any of these to schedule recordings and watch them. Using a brilliant app called Remote Potato, you can watch these on an iPad, iPhone or via http streaming over a LAN OR 3G connection.. This converts .wtv files on the server (PC) end and send the compressed stream across seamlessly!
Another two apps I use constantly are Buzzplayer HD and Air Video Both of which do similar except do not support wtv files. Buzz player is brilliant in that no conversion is required for avi's and you can copy content to your iPhone/iPad across the wifi to watch on the plane/train etc
A few days ago I installed Ubuntu 11.04 on an old laptop.. It installed within 30 minutes and is excellent for use as a server for media until I migrate to a real server (maybe with WHS 2011)... I like the Homegrouo thing too much and DLNA works well with our network connected Sony TV...
I love this part of the iPad, Kerry loves Kindle (installed on her phone, laptop and now, iPad), catching up with emails while cooking, IMDB, all the brainless Enews stuff and Skyping while on the go... Did I mention Kindle???
On the non gadgety side of our lives, we're still waiting for our plot of land in South Africa to sell, before we starting construction on our house here in Aus...it's just taking too long now...
We return to SA in July for a two week holiday to meet our Boet and Melis's baby daughter Lizzy :-)... Very happy to have an iPad for the 17 hour trip, especially to keep Abi, our 14 month old busy..
Well, that's it for my first iPad blog from the back seat of the car on the way to a little town called Berry... More about that here From the tip of Africa...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I bought an iPad 2 for my wife's 30th birthday and subsequently won one myself through a draw at work, so I thought my first return to blogging would be a gadgety one...
I love my iPhone but had never really thought an iPad would offer anything I'd really use daily. I was so wrong. There are great apps offering streaming for video and any other multimedia you may have such as photos.. I have a HDHomerun which streams TV to pretty much any device on your network including Windows (Mediacenter), Mac and Ubuntu (using MythTV frontend).. Using this you can use any of these to schedule recordings and watch them. Using a brilliant app called Remote Potato, you can watch these on an iPad, iPhone or via http streaming over a LAN OR 3G connection.. This converts .wtv files on the server (PC) end and send the compressed stream across seamlessly!
Another two apps I use constantly are Buzzplayer HD and Air Video Both of which do similar except do not support wtv files. Buzz player is brilliant in that no conversion is required for avi's and you can copy content to your iPhone/iPad across the wifi to watch on the plane/train etc
A few days ago I installed Ubuntu 11.04 on an old laptop.. It installed within 30 minutes and is excellent for use as a server for media until I migrate to a real server (maybe with WHS 2011)... I like the Homegrouo thing too much and DLNA works well with our network connected Sony TV...
I love this part of the iPad, Kerry loves Kindle (installed on her phone, laptop and now, iPad), catching up with emails while cooking, IMDB, all the brainless Enews stuff and Skyping while on the go... Did I mention Kindle???
On the non gadgety side of our lives, we're still waiting for our plot of land in South Africa to sell, before we starting construction on our house here in Aus...it's just taking too long now...
We return to SA in July for a two week holiday to meet our Boet and Melis's baby daughter Lizzy :-)... Very happy to have an iPad for the 17 hour trip, especially to keep Abi, our 14 month old busy..
Well, that's it for my first iPad blog from the back seat of the car on the way to a little town called Berry... More about that here From the tip of Africa...
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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