Hello everyone, new poster here. ::waving:: I've nosed around city-data a time or two, I can see there's definitely a wealth of knowledge on this site! I don't participate in conversation boards very often (whatever they're called, obv idk lol) anyway, here I am.
Yup here I am, in my fixer, the subject of my perpetual project. It's a 75-year-old kindergarten-drawing sort of house, 1300sf, very basic. The previous owner built it with help from some friends. It's generally solid, although ugly (as in, I instantly rejected it the first time my realtor showed it to me and didn't buy it until 6 months later, at that point in a big hurry, after another deal fell through). It's on 2+ acres a few miles outside a small town, seasonal views. Yes, I've got several projects going on here, most maintenance was neglected for a year or two before me due to previous owners' illness & death, although their local relative kept up with it some.
All my houses have been fixers to one degree or another, I've only ever been able to buy from the bottom of the market. In previous times that worked out pretty well for me, but this house is becoming more of a fixer the longer I stay here, while it should of course, be the opposite. Part of my difficulty is related to a life altering brain injury I 'acquired' several years ago. It's hard to define how I'm affected by it, but one thing is I was always into DIY - within my abilities - so basically I've done everything myself forever, excluding electrical, plumbing, & anything that takes place on a tall ladder. For those jobs, I get somebody else.
Nowadays though, I have all the time in the world (until that moment when I will have no time at all, but in my belief, the mundane will be of no concern to me after my death). I'm retired, have few real obligations, but I see that my home-fix project/s are not making progress, and even regular maintenance isn't being kept up. I'm literally getting less done at home now that I don't have a full time job, how weird is that?
Currently trying to choose camera(s) for outside so I can see what's near my house (a. don't care for outside lights very much, b. there's no discreet way to look out the window day or night, and sometimes even when I'm here, I'm "not at home" to visitors for one reason & another).
So. First of all there are literally 100s of choices. Secondly, it seems security cameras and game/trail cameras are separate categories mostly, hard to decide between the two types. I already know in general terms what goes on outside my house (I spend a lot of time outside) but want to know the details of when it's too dark to see or when I'm just not outside or by a window. Mostly there's lots of wildife (bears, deer, and so on down the line in size). Bears, in particular, often linger near the house for hours, not because I left food or garbage out (no way! they'd be all over it). But they do come up the steps (sometimes sounds like a person) and I hear them moving things around in the yard, knocking stuff down, etc. (Thankfully they don't seem to realize the multiple ways they could get inside my house, a classic case of someone not knowing their own strength.) This is half of the reason I want a camera.
The other thing is, various people I don't recognize often drive their cars in here (long-ish private dirt road with only one other home a ways past mine, it's more like my driveway than it is a road). Sometimes they park outside my house, in my parking area, next to my cars. But they don't come to the door as a normal visitor would (nor do they phone me from the car, which I prefer, bc I'm so easily startled anymore). This happens at any time, literally around the clock. It's not that I'm afraid of them, but I'd definitely curious to know who it is and what they're doing.
Hmmm what else, well, my house has four sides so it would be good to have cameras pointing at each direction. Most of the bear action
which I definitely want to see, is on the sides that aren't the parking area. And, sometimes the car doors open & close (still without coming to the house) and if any humans are getting out of the car & wandering around my yard at night w/o announcing themselves, I'd like to see them. As I said, I'm not scared of them, just want to know. (Maybe after seeing what they do I'll be scared of them, it doesn't feel that way to me really, but again I would surely want to know.)
If anyone has read enough of that to get the gist of it - I would so appreciate your input, thank you.
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