Music on the Porch

We have a screened-in porch off in our home and we love music. Already having some speakers hooked up to an Airport Express in the office (which so nicely fill the downstairs with tunes during work, parties, and in-between), we wanted to add some music to the porch as well. It was so simple and works so well I thought I’d share what we did.

First – get an Airport Express (http://bit.ly/19h8syz).

Second – get some nice speakers. I opted for some in ceiling speakers as they’d be out of the way and I had easy access to run the wires already. I went with some Micca 8″ speakers (http://amzn.to/17Kk2SH) which got great reviews – and turns out – sound super!

Third – get a speaker amp to connect the Airport Express to the speakers themselves. I went with a Lepai 20 watt amp (http://amzn.to/14jYcF3). Note: you’ll also need some speaker cable – but you can get that just about anywhere.

The installation is very simple. Start with the speakers. These install like old construction switch boxes (if you’re electrically inclined you’ll know what I mean). Cut a hole with the template you’ll get with each speaker, attach the speaker wire, then set the speaker in the hole and use 4 screws with tabs on them that will kick in and hold it right in place for you.
Continue Reading

Your Personal Brand – It’s Important

I had a good friend recently tell me that I should share my thoughts and try to be better about writing/blogging. He said it was important in itself – but also important it that it builds your personal brand. I kind of agreed – in that, “perfect world”/where-I-had-time sort of way. I could see it would be good for networking, for positioning myself for the future, etc. – but it seemed difficult to start doing. Plus, I was always busy with something else in the short-term. No time for long-term stuff. Every time I would try to sit down and write something, I would either develop an immediate onset case of writers block or I would come up with ideas that were not “good enough.”

He told me this didn’t matter – and I was setting the bar too high. My definition of “good enough” and someone else’s probably were not the same. And just because I didn’t find something interesting perhaps didn’t mean much – the mere fact I’ve done something could be of interest to someone, somewhere.
Continue Reading

Stay Above the Median

I’m planning on buying a house with my wife in the (near?) future and we’re in the learning phase of mortgages, financing, PMI, debt-to-income ratios, points, taxes, blah blah blah.  It sounds exhausting doesn’t it?

Through the process I’ve thought to myself, maybe we should wait and put 20% down.  Then we can get a fixer-upper¹, save on things like private mortgage insurance², and probably get better rates from a wider variety of lenders.

That’s a lot of coin, though.  No matter how you dice it.
Continue Reading