Weekend Off = Weekend Chores

[Arks]

My guests apparently conspired to give me the weekend off. All 5 rooms empty, so in addition to changing AC filters, I got busy on some jobs I've been wanting to do for a long time.

• Installed light dimmers in each room. The rooms are all really well lit. Too well. Everything looks washed out when they're all on. Much better with the lights dimmed about half way. But it's good to be able to turn them up all the way for cleaning, then set them back to half so things look their best when the guests arrive.
• Labeled light switches. I have several locations that have multiple switches in one spot, and guests aren't there long enough to figure out which switch turns on the overhead light or ceiling fan or porch light. I'd labeled them before but the labels peeled off after a few weeks. So this time I relabeled them all and mixed up some clear epoxy. With a toothpick I spread a thin layer of epoxy over each label and over the edge a tiny bit, to tack it down to the switch plate. Should be a permanent solution. (Note if anybody wants to do this, you must remove the plate and lay it flat until the epoxy hardens, or it will run.)
• Put blocking inside the thermostats so they can only be set to the positions I want. For instance, they all have a slider that selects Auto or On. If the guest slides it to On, the fan blows non-stop until they change it, or we, after they leave, realize the fan is running non-stop and slide it back to Auto. So now it's blocked so it can only be on Auto.
  
  And on my 3 heat pump units there's a slider that switches between Cool, Off, Heat, and Emerg. If the guest slides it to the Emerg position the expensive electric coils kick in to give instant heat. But a) it's not needed, the place heats up plenty fast in regular heat pump mode and b) they never switch it off of Emerg so it stays there sometimes for days. Now it's blocked so the slider won't move into that Emerg position.

So, an empty weekend put to very good use!

 

[Breakfast Diva]

And all those changes will save you $$. A weekend well used!

 

[user 26]

RE number three ... did you buy something special or what did you use to create blocking in thermostats? I'm wondering if it would be possible to prevent people from turning the heat sky high? We're talking people who crank up the heat and walk around in short sleeves and crack a window.

 

[Morticia]

Nicely played.

 

[Arks]

RE number three ... did you buy something special or what did you use to create blocking in thermostats? I'm wondering if it would be possible to prevent people from turning the heat sky high? We're talking people who crank up the heat and walk around in short sleeves and crack a window..

RE number three ... did you buy something special or what did you use to create blocking in thermostats?

Looked around in my catch-all drawer and found some plastic wall anchors for hanging pictures. I hot glued them under the thermostat cover to prevent the sliders from moving places I don't want them to go.

 

[Arks]

RE number three ... did you buy something special or what did you use to create blocking in thermostats? I'm wondering if it would be possible to prevent people from turning the heat sky high? We're talking people who crank up the heat and walk around in short sleeves and crack a window..

 

[Arks]

• Installed light dimmers in each room. The rooms are all really well lit. Too well. Everything looks washed out when they're all on.

I'll add that with the lights on full bright, every flaw, every speck of dust shows. On half-bright, not so much. Another good reason to dim the lights!

 

[Lee2014]

RE number three ... did you buy something special or what did you use to create blocking in thermostats? I'm wondering if it would be possible to prevent people from turning the heat sky high? We're talking people who crank up the heat and walk around in short sleeves and crack a window..

RE number three ... did you buy something special or what did you use to create blocking in thermostats?

Looked around in my catch-all drawer and found some plastic wall anchors for hanging pictures. I hot glued them under the thermostat cover to prevent the sliders from moving places I don't want them to go.
.

RE number three ... did you buy something special or what did you use to create blocking in thermostats?

Looked around in my catch-all drawer and found some plastic wall anchors for hanging pictures. I hot glued them under the thermostat cover to prevent the sliders from moving places I don't want them to go.

My mom cleaned out a room for us and had a bucket labeled, "things you might need some day". We also have a catch-all drawer.

 

[Morticia]

• Installed light dimmers in each room. The rooms are all really well lit. Too well. Everything looks washed out when they're all on.

I'll add that with the lights on full bright, every flaw, every speck of dust shows. On half-bright, not so much. Another good reason to dim the lights!.

• Installed light dimmers in each room. The rooms are all really well lit. Too well. Everything looks washed out when they're all on.

I'll add that with the lights on full bright, every flaw, every speck of dust shows. On half-bright, not so much. Another good reason to dim the lights!

One reason I dislike this time of year - the angle of the sun! Every dust bunny, every spider web, every nick and ding shows like a beacon. I have to switch my usual chair so I don't see any of it!

 

[Aussie Innkeeper]

I love days spent like that. Makes you feel so productive, and think of all the $$ you'll be saving!

 

[Breakfast Diva]

• Installed light dimmers in each room. The rooms are all really well lit. Too well. Everything looks washed out when they're all on.

I'll add that with the lights on full bright, every flaw, every speck of dust shows. On half-bright, not so much. Another good reason to dim the lights!.

• Installed light dimmers in each room. The rooms are all really well lit. Too well. Everything looks washed out when they're all on.

I'll add that with the lights on full bright, every flaw, every speck of dust shows. On half-bright, not so much. Another good reason to dim the lights!

One reason I dislike this time of year - the angle of the sun! Every dust bunny, every spider web, every nick and ding shows like a beacon. I have to switch my usual chair so I don't see any of it!
.

I know what you mean! I just had to wax a guest floor because of the way it looked in the light. I should have been grateful for any light though because now I won't any light for a number of days with all the storms we're going to get starting this afternoon.

 

[JBloggs]

I have to ask, is there a reason you don't have those plexi lock boxes over your thermostats yet?
I know this year you are playing catch up on some of the weird guest anomalies we are always talking about, you have earned your innspiring apron in 2015.

 

[TheBeachHouse]

• Installed light dimmers in each room. The rooms are all really well lit. Too well. Everything looks washed out when they're all on.

I'll add that with the lights on full bright, every flaw, every speck of dust shows. On half-bright, not so much. Another good reason to dim the lights!.

• Installed light dimmers in each room. The rooms are all really well lit. Too well. Everything looks washed out when they're all on.

I'll add that with the lights on full bright, every flaw, every speck of dust shows. On half-bright, not so much. Another good reason to dim the lights!

One reason I dislike this time of year - the angle of the sun! Every dust bunny, every spider web, every nick and ding shows like a beacon. I have to switch my usual chair so I don't see any of it!
.

Perfect solution!! Move the chair. Just don't see it!!!
I have that too. The sun comes in in the morning and it looked like I have a third cat under the sideboard with all the fur they had left there!

 

[Arks]

I have to ask, is there a reason you don't have those plexi lock boxes over your thermostats yet?
I know this year you are playing catch up on some of the weird guest anomalies we are always talking about, you have earned your innspiring apron in 2015.

.

I have to ask, is there a reason you don't have those plexi lock boxes over your thermostats yet?
I know this year you are playing catch up on some of the weird guest anomalies we are always talking about, you have earned your innspiring apron in 2015.

Each unit has it's own thermostat. Just as in a hotel room, people are free to set their room to the temperature they want, and change it as needed. Some people are warm-natured, some cold-natured. Then need to be free to set their comfort level.
I just don't want them turning on the emergency coils, or turning the fan to always on. Otherwise, they can set it like they would at home.

 

[Generic]

Brother P-Touch... an innkeeping labeler's best friend.

 

[Samster]

RE number three ... did you buy something special or what did you use to create blocking in thermostats? I'm wondering if it would be possible to prevent people from turning the heat sky high? We're talking people who crank up the heat and walk around in short sleeves and crack a window..

Your comment about short sleeves and people cranking up the heat gave me a vivid flashback to the times when we had folks here who cranked up the A/C even higher in the summer and walked around in the house in sweatshirts/pants. What?????
Good luck with changing that behavior.... ;-)

 

[Samster]

Time well spent! Smart solutions!! We have a really fancy programmable thermostat in our second house (unfortunately each room didn't have their own) and we had to lock it out after someone messed with the programming and actually turned the heat off. Another guest called us at 2 am or something to tell us it was cold over there. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 

[TheBeachHouse]

Time well spent! Smart solutions!! We have a really fancy programmable thermostat in our second house (unfortunately each room didn't have their own) and we had to lock it out after someone messed with the programming and actually turned the heat off. Another guest called us at 2 am or something to tell us it was cold over there. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!.

People are weird.
I was chatting with a couple at breakfast and he complained that the room was too hot. I turned it around as though it was a compliment and said things like, "We made sure each room had it's own electric fireplace so everyone could control their heat!" "I love that you could just turn it off and not have to worry about sleeping in a too hot house!"
Seriously, the room was hot because you had the space heater on. No other reason. LOL

 

[Arks]

Time well spent! Smart solutions!! We have a really fancy programmable thermostat in our second house (unfortunately each room didn't have their own) and we had to lock it out after someone messed with the programming and actually turned the heat off. Another guest called us at 2 am or something to tell us it was cold over there. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!.

We have a really fancy programmable thermostat in our second house...

I was careful to specify to the installer that I wanted the simplest thermostats possible. Red up arrow for warmer, blue down arrow for colder, nothing more. But if you open the little drop down door on the front cover, there are the Auto/On and Cool/Off/Heat/Emerg. buttons they can play with. But now I've fixed their little red wagons!

 

[Morticia]

Time well spent! Smart solutions!! We have a really fancy programmable thermostat in our second house (unfortunately each room didn't have their own) and we had to lock it out after someone messed with the programming and actually turned the heat off. Another guest called us at 2 am or something to tell us it was cold over there. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!.

We have a really fancy programmable thermostat in our second house...

I was careful to specify to the installer that I wanted the simplest thermostats possible. Red up arrow for warmer, blue down arrow for colder, nothing more. But if you open the little drop down door on the front cover, there are the Auto/On and Cool/Off/Heat/Emerg. buttons they can play with. But now I've fixed their little red wagons!
.

We stayed at a place that had little symbols on the thermostat - snowflake for cold and sun for hot. Do you know how hard it is to read those teeny pictograms?
We gave up.