After 20 years of tinkering with home automation, I thought it'd be fun to blog about how I've come to approach things.

First, the background

My entry into home automation was tinkering with old school, X10 powerline/RF lamp and outlet modules that were paired with remotes, motion sensors, and a "smart" module that you could program via a PC to begin adding automation.

Since then, I've played with tons of brands and ecosystems, but I've primarily used Zigbee, Zwave, wifi/mesh, and PoE devices.

I've gone pretty deep with Hue, Lutron, Arlo, Ring, Nest, NuHeat, Sonos, Amazon, Google, Apple, Liftmaster, Bond, and other random generic smart devices.

To tie the ecosystems together, I've mostly used SmartThings and HomeAssistant, but …

So, after having every single room in our house anywhere from 25-95% done for several months, I finally decided to buck up and finish a room... The master bathroom/closet... and I'm gonna tell you all about it.

Our goals were pretty simple. Make it bigger, more modern, more accommodating, and more "spa like" - a phrase thrown around wayyyyy too often during the entire process. Seriously. Almost every discussion that Kari disagreed with started with her saying, "well, that's not very spa-like."

Anyway, the existing bathroom was very utilitarian but had some nice features, like a connected walk-in closet and ... well, that was pretty much it. Other than that, it had a sink, next to a toilet, next to a shower, and ... carpet floors.

To be …

Seriously, who in the hell puts an offer on a house when they're 22 years old? ... and then stays in that house for the next 11-12 years?

Me, apparently.

It was a house on Southeast Rio Drive in Suburban, Ankeny, Iowa, that... because in my brief stint of looking, I realized, I could afford "a lot more house" in Ankeny. So, I closed on the house and moved in with Kari just after we turned 23. Shortly after, while she was cleaning our new bathroom, I asked her to marry me. lol.

The only way I can think to sum things up while living on Rio is via list.

• proposed to Kari, as you already know
• married Kari!
• built a shed, a bookcase, a bar, and a theater
• planted trees that are now taller than the 3 story home
• adopted our first dog, Ninja, and held …

After 6+ years of wanting to move out of the suburban house that I bought when I was 24 years old, Kari and I finally found a new home to move into.

We must've looked at/walked through 100 potential houses or lots (no exaggeration) over the years, but our picky asses could never find one we liked.

Our top 3 priorities were pretty simple: a ranch home, within 5 miles of downtown, and garage space for 3+ cars and a workshop.

Our other top priorities were: an open floor plan for entertaining, walk out basement, back yard privacy, an office near main living areas, 3 bedrooms, full master bath, full guest bath, a powder room, and to be near bike trails.

Our "nice-to-haves" were: something unique and awesome with garage/shed space in the back …

Oh man, so I got a new computer at work.

Dell Optiplex GX620
-P4 HT 3ghz
-2gb RAM
-150gb HD
-DVD ROM/CD-RW
-And a ball mouse, wtf? I need an optical mouse in this piece.

Combined with my new dual LCD monitors, I'm loving life at work.

I haven't even had it setup for a full day yet and I already want to get a new setup for home. There, I'm running the same computer I got back in 2002. It was pretty fast at the time, but it's over 4 years old. I've doubled the RAM and added 120 more gigs to the HD, but it's just not keeping up with my video/photo stuff anymore.

So, I need a new PC to compliment my new 22" wide screen LCD from Jeff. And then I'll compliment that with another one of the same monitors. And then compliment …

This weekend was pretty laid back, we had people and dogs visit Friday and Saturday night. I worked on the Rebel's Advocate video a bit. I started organizing some storage and found GOLD. I will soon scan what I found and post it. We also grilled out at Doug's, hung out with Nick and Nicole, etc.

Yesterday after we got home from Doug's, our house seemed a little warm. About 82 degrees warm. So I went and checked things out, it seems like the turbine that blows air into the house was broken which caused the A/C to overwork all day. I also learned that I'm supposed to change my furnace filter, hahaha.

So yeah, I slept in the basement last night, luckily our house is under warranty for 10 more days. Stupid houses.

This week …

So this weekend was awesome. Rich, Ben, Kevi, Lindsey, and Steph all came up to stay with us. We had a house warming party Friday night, which was really fun. We had about 30 people show up and almost everyone brought beer, wine, or alcohol... so my refrigerator is insane. There was a lot of hanging out, playing cards, playing ping pong, soaping, heeling, smoking cigars, etc. Thanks to everyone that came out and for the gifts, Kari and I had a blast.

Saturday, Ben, Rich, Kevi, and I went to ICP. What an awesome show. Esham did pretty much all old school stuff, it was a really tight, but short set... ABK also had a really good set, Mack 10 was awesome, and ICP did a great great show. All good stuff. Their set was pretty cool …

I just wrote this big long article about how owning a house is weird and when I hit submit my session timed out and I lost the article. I really hate web sites.

Anyway... I've lived in my house for about 3 weeks now. So far it's been really cool. I'm sorta poor, but I feel so rich, haha. It rules.

It's weird because it seems like everything you do for a house both sucks and is really rewarding at the same time. Like building a work bench, setting up wireless internet, setting up an entertainment center, even cleaning the garage. Planning for new stuff is the same way. It all sorta sucks because it costs time and money, but it's so awesome once you get done. One thing that sucks all the time though, is Ankeny Sanitation. …

Well, I moved into my house.

Friday I took off work at noon to start moving, then my parents showed up around 8ish to help out for the weekend. We moved a lot of stuff. It was lame. I'm so tired and sore. Plus I had to buy a washer and lawn mower, and pay mortgage and rent. I am broke. Then we had to run a gas line to my dryer because my house is setup for an electric one... BUT my dryer is setup for LP and I have natural gas... So then I had to order some parts and change those out sometime this week. Working with gas sorta makes me nervous. On top of that, I have a LOT of unpacking to do... :(

Saturday night kari's family met up with us (and gave me some pretty nice house warming gifts). We went to my aunt's house for an …

Yeah it's been a while since I've updated, which doesn't happen to often on this site. I've basically spent most of my time packing for the big move. Actually I can't really think of anything cool that I've done recently... except get more poor.

Anyway, today I got the keys to my house. Wow it feels good to step in it for the first time and be all like, "this is mine." Haha, rule! So tonight until Sunday I'm going to be moving and unpacking, etc. My parents get here Friday to help out. Big things goin on, BIG THINGS.

Yesterday I put an offer on this house... and they accepted. I move in at the end of September.

-2,000 sqft total
--1,300 sqft main level
--700 finished sqft walkout basement
-loft office
-fenced back yard
-only 5 years old
-wood floors
-etc

Guess I have to film a new cribs episode soon.

Hmmm, the weekend.

Friday, Kari and I saw dodgeball. funny movie. Kevi also finished editing the third nutpunt video, which is sort of a continuation of the characters and ideas of our "I against I" video. Today he got it all converted to flash and uploaded to the site: www.nutpunt.com. Too bad the flash is a little choppier than the actual video (especially the first time you watch it). But, whatev, it's still funny.

Yesterday my parents came to visit for father's day. We hung out for a while, which was nice. Then we met up with Kari's family to eat at Spaghetti Works and then to the Iowa Cubs game. Spaghetti Works was'nt as good as I thought it'd be. Anyway, Kari and I bought our dad's matching icubs shirts to wear to the game, …

Man... Due to this lame cold weather I've been getting really bored which has caused me to do a ton of thinking lately (and way too many updates on this site).

Watching Jason move into a 4 bedroom brick house in a nice neighborhood is really starting to take a toll on me. I have no freedom in this apartment. The lame brass door handles, and dining room light are really bothering me. I can't put my miniramp up, I can't really do anything. So I think it's time to move into a dope crib.

Ah crap... Money. I think that I make a pretty respectable salary, but I just don't think I can afford what I want in a house. So why not move into a townhouse for now... Hmmm, that would be really nice... no lawn mowing, no plowing, no shoveling, a …