Home.Smart.Homo

We had some water-related concerns, and since I eventually want to add a kitchenette in the basement, removing the mediocre wet bar we were never going to use to add a utility closet was an easy call!

To soften our hard water, I added a water softener with a non-contact water flow sensor powered by a ZEN17 universal relay on the discharge line so I know when the water softener is regenerating. I also added an Spin Down Sediment Filter and iSpring 3-Stage Whole House Water Filtration System, which filter out 95%+ of sediment, rust, chlorine, pesticides, herbicides, solvents, VOCs, and various other contaminants from the water coming into our house!

To fix wasting water while waiting for hot water, I added a hot water recirculating pump (controlled by a z-wave outlet) to the hot water supply line off the water heater. Using the bathroom and kitchen motion sensors, it was easy to create a rule in to turn the hot water recirculating pump for 5 minutes when motion is detected in any of the bathrooms or kitchen. By the time we use a faucet or turn on the shower, we wait for

Pros of having a backyard may include a place for dogs to play in/burn off some energy and space for a garden to grow fruits and vegetables, but when that space is the low spot of your neighbors’ properties and your own, coupled with a several-feet thick layer of clay a foot below the ground, it’s the recipe of disaster for a muddy mess. Not to mention, instead of grass, at least a quarter of our backyard is moss from all the excess ground water – definitely not desirable. Ironically, while our dog Baxter hated messes and would avoid puddles the first 2 years of his life, he’s since thrown caution to the wind and will run through puddles, dig holes into the ground, etc… A muddy mess, literally every time we let the dogs out to the bathroom.
While killing the moss (naturally, without harsh chemicals) and seeding new grass will be necessary, fixing our water issues (including water leaking into our basement back in December during excessive rain while the ground was partially frozen and our drain tile couldn’t handle the excess rain) will be 2-phased… While I’ll eventually install underground downspout extensions to divert rainwater away from the house to the village’s storm sewer system, the first step to help drain excess/standing water out of the topsoil was to install a French drain/drywell system in the lowest point of our yard. Digging a trench and a couple sizeable holes in our yard was a small price to pay.
Since installing the system a couple weeks ago, our yard is no longer soggy and the lowest parts no longer have standing water. And best of all, even after it’s rained, the dogs have at most come back with damp paws, no more mud up to their stomachs.

One of the perks of moving to the burbs: having a garage to work in to contain the mess (at least some...)! Definitely spouse preferred. However, being the Chicagoland area, winters can get pretty frigid, and nobody wants to work in a cold space. As such, a heater is essential. Especially if I'm planning on being productive with renovations over the winter months! However, I had to make it smart (obviously...).
Such a product that's controllable via zigbee or z-wave isn't really readily available, so I figured out how to modify a $100 240V Comfort Zone garage heater to be controllable via a Sinope 24V zigbee thermostat. Adding a control transformer and 2-pole 40a 24V contactor in the heater allowed me to hookup a 24V thermostat to control the heater.
Even if it's not a smart thermostat, this is a lot easier for temperature regulating than a k**b that's 8+ feet off the ground. But, by electing for a smart thermostat, I'm able to warm up the garage from my phone, smart displays/speakers, or even watch before I even go into the garage. I can also include it in automations to reset back down to 45°F when there's no activity in the garage for X minutes, turn off if the garage door is opened/back on when it's closed, etc.
This allows me to conserve energy, but maintain my garage at a temperature that will allow any snow/ice build-up to melt off the vehicle, not to mention that won't kill the 20V tool batteries or ruin any paint, glue, etc. that's stored in the garage. Additionally, since our bedroom is above the garage, it helps prevent our bedroom/bedroom floor from getting too cold in the winter (which is also spouse preferred...)!

It's amazing how much something as simple as updating lighting can change a place! I updated the front door, side door, and garage accent lights and added pathway lights (mounted atop custom wood pedestals I created for extra flair and to tie them into the exterior stained wood aesthetic), all Philips Hue.

Setting up Scenes in the Hue app is super simple, and I was able to integrate them with my smart home to add additional logic. You know what that means...automated holiday lights! Yup, depending on what holiday it is, they'll automatically set to a specific Hue Scene just before the sun sets and then shut off at midnight. If there isn't a specific holiday, I have Hue Scenes picked for different seasons, because it's always good to be festive!

Naturally, other decorations can be added for effect. This year, I kept it simple for Halloween with some bats flying up the side of the house and a couple pumpkins, letting the lights do most of the heavy lifting. Just wait to see what I cook up in future years when I'm not also trying to renovate a house! 😅🧙🏻‍♂️🎃

I did one of my last harvests of the year now overnight temps are dropping. Admittedly, with all the renovations and summer life events, starting a garden our first year was overambitious. Thankfully, automating the watering of the garden with a smart water valve and a dripline system cut the day-to-day maintenance drastically. And I made the str8 husbands in the neighborhood look nad... Regardless, a first garden means lessons learned!
• Different animals LOVE certain plants. And, it may then be too late in the growing season to start new seedlings or get plants from a nursery. So, don’t put them in the ground if you don’t already have a fence capable of keeping them out!
• If you’re starting from seedlings, plants that vine out (like peas) can’t be started too early, and some can so you can extend the harvest (like peppers and tomatoes).
• Use cages for tomato plants, not rods. They expand out too much, and the rods only support the center.
• While seedlings are tiny when they go in the ground and it’s tempting to plant them close together, once the plants take off, that means they start crowding each other, reducing sunlight exposure, making it harder to harvest, and potentially reducing airflow and causing issues (like powdery).
• If you’re going to make a trellis for some plants, make sure it’s big enough for how much the plant will grow…
• Some plants take up a lot of garden space and don’t produce enough to make it worth growing them (like cauliflower and broccoli). Save yourself the headache and buy those at the store.
• Keep an eye on the fruits and vegetables for when they’re getting ripe. If you miss your harvest window, plants may become over-ripe (overripe eggplant is yellow?), or birds or other animals may get to it before you can!
• While some plants keep producing (2,000 cherry tomatoes later), others only have a certain amount of growing before you can’t harvest anymore (like lettuce). Consider planting new seedlings part way through the growing season to come in behind the prior plants.
• Medium-sized plants may be better for raised beds. Small plants may be better for a tower. The vining plants and trellises, keep in the ground.

Little touches here and there can add up! I made a new house number sign with some leftover wood and stain, which helps tie in the fence with the house. The new numbers are also a lot more modern, and help tie in the older style with the updated look we're going for. More to come...

What around 210 feet of cedar fence looks like! This is definitely not a project I want to undertake again... (Especially when you factor in discovering unmarked, dead comm. cable from the '40s and think you hit a live utility...) BUT, it definitely adds a lot of character to the backyard and property. I still have to add the rest of the post caps and smart locks on the gates, but I'm in love, and it was definitely worth all the effort! The dogs are also extremely happy they can run in circles off leash, and we can breathe easy knowing Baxter isn't off exploring the neighborhood...

As much as I love technology that can be integrated with other systems, not everything HAS to be smart in that sense. Even if you're not ready to redo an entire kitchen, something as simple as exchanging an old faucet that isn't user friendly to one that can reach both sinks (and okay, still has a motion sensor to make turning it on/off when your hands are dirty) and suits your taste better can be a worthy, *smart* upgrade. Also, it doesn't take much time and can be done while waiting for guests to come over, say for mother's day lunch! Hygiene is important, and a motion sensor operated soap dispenser and faucet are a great, relatively inexpensive upgrade.

For Earth Day, several companies had sales on products aimed with a goal to help minimize human impact and conserve energy and resources. I purchased a few of these smart home products, one of which was the Flume 2 Smart Home Water Monitor. This sensor is installed on the water meter (non-invasive and super easy... it literally just straps to it) the city uses to measure your home's water usage and then bills you for.
I can literally see minute-by-minute how much water we're using and detect if there's a leak in your house, which has already been a big insight. Not only can I tell just how many times one of us gets up to p*e, but I noticed a strange trend... About every 5 minutes, even in the middle of the night while we were sleeping and no water should have been used, about 0.5 gallons of water was registering... A half of a gallon may not sound like much, but that's 7 gallons an hour/168 gallons per day/1176 gallons per week/61,152 gallons per year! It adds up really quickly! A little investigating led me to discover the toilet in our guest bathroom, which we don't go in or use often, had a bad fill valve and was running to top off the toilet tank about every 5 minutes! Literally dumping water (and money) down the toilet!
Needless to say, the $150 I spent on the has already paid for itself, and then some! Often times people think of as an expensive hobby, something that they can't afford, etc. My stance is that it's an investment, and instead of paying higher utility bills, I'm able to take control of our environmental impact and minimize our footprint.

It's a bit daunting starting a smart home! I got my feet wet back in 2017 with a couple Google Home Mini speakers, mostly for playing music, setting timers, etc. Then a few Philips Hue smart bulbs and a Nest thermostat.
Then I learned of the ability to use sensors with a smart home hub to interconnect different platforms, and further down the rabbit hole I went! I loved being able to use sensors to automatically use equipment we really liked but rarely used (e.g., color changing string lighting on our balcony, chandelier in the hallway to our primary bedroom, light above our kitchen sink), shut off equipment we no longer needed on (e.g., lighting and vents that were left on), and to be able to make our environment more comfortable (e.g., fans turning on at night before bed, air purifiers running if the air quality is bad) and secure (e.g., wifi cameras).
Home automation is taking a problem you have and finding an automated solution for it. This should happen automatically, not because you're using a voice command with a smart speaker. I relished in never having to touch a switch, because the lighting was on at the perfect level every time, never having to turn on/off the bathroom fan, because it happened automatically with the humidity level, etc. One person's problem isn't going to be applicable for everyone, but you can take a concept from another person and adapt the solution to fit your needs.
When we put in an offer on this house, I understood the assignment! Time to draft a new automation plan, which would include several solutions we hadn't needed in a condo! This also meant time to start searching for deals on additional smart home equipment, because, while it pays for itself in saved time and energy, we all know it's not cheap, and you want to ensure you're getting reliable equipment that won't cause issues with your other equipment, will work reliably, etc. Time to start deploying everything!

Well, there comes a time in every gay couple's life when they realize they just NEED more space and must give up the downtown life and move to the suburbs 😭... BUT, that also means the start of a new adventure, and the opportunity to put the on an entire home and property vs. a small condo 🥳! Follow along as I transform this neglected house into our home, sweet (smart) home! 🏡👬🏳️‍🌈