Honest smart home experiments
Home automation from real Joes.
One suburban homeowner trying things in his house and reporting back honestly: what worked, what didn't, and whether it was worth it.
Real bills, real mistakes, real verdicts. Read the latest below.
From the blog
All posts →- Your callMay 20, 2026·Energy
I kept smelling gas in my home office. So I swapped the water heater for a heat pump.
My desk sits a few feet from the water heater, and I kept catching a faint gas smell. Here's why I picked a heat pump tank over tankless, the rebate that made the price sane, and the honest payback math.
- Worth itMay 12, 2026·Pool & yard
My pool guy charged $130 a month for five minutes of work. Trouble Free Pool replaced him.
I paid a pool service for almost two years before a backyard camera and a Reddit-famous website convinced me to take over. Here's the test kit, the chemistry that actually matters, and what running my own pool costs now.
- Worth itMay 8, 2026·The garage
A $30 mosquito net turned my garage into a room
I got kicked out of the home office when our second kid was born and ended up working out of the garage. A magnetic mosquito curtain made it livable. Here's the install, the two-year lifespan, and the accidental neighborhood trend.
- Worth itMay 5, 2026·Smart home
I tried to automate my porch lights and electrocuted myself
A new homeowner's first foray into smart home tech, featuring a Schlage lock, a Z-Wave switch, two breakers nobody told me about, and one very surprised middle finger.