House
23 October 2023
There are a lot of topics I considered writing about in the past several months, but I didn't follow through on any of them. It's probably because I've been busy though; I bought a house! I still feel impostor syndrome about it, but I am excited about all of the house-related projects I'm able to do.
Some of them I'd like to share on this blog. We're still trying to get unpacked, but as soon as that's finished, I'll have a clean slate to get started on projects. And when I say "clean slate," I'm talking less about the house itself, and more about my mind (the house was built in 1910 after all, so it's not exactly new construction). But there is a lot of potential for certain types of projects, particularly tech-related ones. Since there is a basement, I have access to the underside of the floor on 1F. This means I'm able to run wires relatively easily.
This brings me to one of my upcoming projects: wiring a few rooms with ethernet via wall jacks. I'm excited to be able to do this, because I'll be able to use a wired internet connection on the majority of our devices, not just my computer which was typically close to the modem.
So, I plan to document that project through pictures, videos, and of course writing. I will write an article on the project when the time comes. But this won't be the first project to come down the pipe. I've decided that my first project will be a traditional home security system — with keypad, door sensors, and alarm. The main reason this needs to come first is that it will serve as the basis for my IoT infrastructure, which will ultimately be controlled via HomeAssistant.
HomeAssistant is what I'm most excited to be able to use, to its fullest potential, now that I'm not in an apartment where I'd have less control of my physical space. So, when it comes to a home security system, my initial idea was to use separate door sensors, window sensors, and some kind of alarm unit that I can use on a Zigbee network through HomeAssistant (a piece-meal solution).
But upon doing some research, I came across an IoT video series by Wendell from Level1Techs on YouTube (this guy is very knowledgeable btw — I highly recommend his content). In this series, he theorized that a good alarm system could be the key to having an efficient IoT setup, since it serves as the backbone and provides a gateway to the status of certain physical entry points into your house (like door states: open/closed). Importantly though, it should just work on its own. Its functionality shouldn't be tied to some company's cloud server, or even your own network's current status.
I will dive a bit deeper into the particular alarm system I'm going with in the accompanying article I write for that project. And I will discuss the why behind that choice. Coming soon.
I could have talked more about the house itself and how my life has been going, but I ended up talking about projects I want to do for the house. That seems to be the theme of my blog: things I want to do.
Well, now, I need to actually start on those projects. Do you believe in me? I'd wager a guess that you have some degree of faith in me. You're reading this after all. :)
To be continued…
— Derek Andersen