Our day started with the surprise discovery that we did not have our usual domestic hot water.  The HVAC guys were here yesterday working on the hydronic heating system, which includes the water heater, and I had a moment of concern (and annoyance, I admit).  I knew the “boiler” was working because they tested some of the heating loops yesterday before they left.  I also knew it was a zoned system with five loops and more than a dozen valves, so it was possible a valve was left in the wrong position.  Sure enough, the valves for the Florida room (library) loop and the domestic hot water loop were both closed.  I opened them, but unfortunately the hot water tank did not return to its normal temperature in time for either of us to get the hot showers we had planned on taking when we got up.  But we left for our usual Saturday morning ham radio breakfast in South Lyon knowing that we would have our usual hot water when we returned.

There was a good turnout for breakfast and we chatted for a couple of hours.  (BTW: the extended group breakfast chat is one of the hallmarks of retirement, and often occurs on a workday.  It just so happens that Saturdays work best for the members who like to attend the SLAARC breakfast.)

Following breakfast we headed to the recycling center in Howell.  We do not have curbside recycling, so we have to take our recyclables to Recycle Livingston on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Recycle Livingston runs a very efficient operation and always seems to have lots of workers.  We presume are (mostly) volunteers.  Besides our normal recyclables, we have been accumulating corrugated cardboard as we continue to unpack moving boxes.

When we got back to the house we set up the Wi-Fi enabled main thermostat, a Honeywell Focus Pro TH6320WF that TOMTEK installed yesterday.  This thermostat is located at the start of the main floor hallway and controls the heating loop for the living room / dining room / kitchen zone and the air-conditioning for the whole main floor.  When properly configured it allows us to monitor and control these two parts of the HVAC system.

The TH6320WF was fairly easy to set up, in part because it is a very clever device, and in part because the directions are very clearly written.  When power was first applied it came up in Wi-Fi Setup mode and behaved like a wireless host (router or access point), broadcasting its own name/ SSID .  When I opened my iPad2 and scanned for available Wi-Fi networks it was on the list and I selected it.  I then opened my browser (Safari) and pointed it to the thermostat’s home page.  From there, I activated the thermostat’s wireless client mode and connected it to our primary home wireless network.  At that point the thermostat had an IP address from the AT&T gateway and was able to communicate with a website whose purpose is remote monitoring and control of this type of equipment.  Before that could happen, however, I had to create an account on the website.  The account creation process sent us an e-mail.  Following the instructions in the e-mail we completed the registration and activation process.  We are now able to remotely monitor and control this thermostat using a smartphone, iPad, or computer.

The rest of the afternoon was spent selecting and hanging wall art.  While the hanging part can be tedious, deciding what to hang and where to hang it takes time, judgment, and patience.  It was heavily overcast and starting to rain by the time we got started.  The living room tends to be a bit dark on this kind of day so we decided to hang photographs in the recreation room.  We hung 40 objects in the last three days and have at least two dozen more to install.  Getting the “objects d’art” on the “walls d’house” has dramatically transformed the look and feel of the interior and made a significant dent in the “clutter d’move”.

By 6:00 PM we were tired and a bit hungry.  Since Linda had not had time to prepare our evening meal we decided to try the El Patron Mexican restaurant in Howell.  The vegetarian fajitas worked well for us, they had Dos Equis amber on draft, the wait staff was pleasant and efficient, and our waiter had a subtle sense of humor.  Nuf said.