Smart Home Projects, Development Insights, and Stoic Reflections

My experience installing SmartWings motorized shades, pairing them with Home Assistant, and using Tempest brightness and a window sensor to automate them.

I'm building a personal RAG system around selected Obsidian notes using C#, Ollama, SQL Server 2025, MCP, and Open WebUI. Part 1 explains the problem, the planned architecture, and what I want to learn.

A Hello Kitty Halloween inflatable gives me another reason to use Home Assistant: scheduling an outdoor smart plug and using backyard Tempest wind readings to decide when it should stay deflated.

I installed Hydrific Droplet on our main water line, calibrated it, connected it to Home Assistant, and explored alerts and automatic shutoff options.

I replaced two 26-inch 1080p monitors with a Deco Gear 40-inch 5K2K ultrawide. Here is why I made the switch, how I use FancyZones and virtual desktops, and what changed in my daily workflow.

Hands-on review of the Aqara Thermostat Hub W200, including installation, Matter setup in Home Assistant, what works well, and a few things that still need improvement.

Learn how to integrate the UniFi G4 Doorbell Pro with Home Assistant using Doorbell MQTT UniFi. Automate animations, sounds, and profiles with MQTT and Docker.

Doorbell MQTT UniFi is a lightweight C-based service that integrates the UniFi G4 Doorbell Pro with Home Assistant via MQTT. Automate custom animations and sounds locally using profile-based control, asset downloads, and Docker deployment.

Moving the rest of the homelab into its own VLAN and firewall zone, deleting years of accumulated cruft, and turning a loose collection of services into an intentional, maintainable system.

Migrating core homelab infrastructure into a dedicated VLAN, defining trust boundaries, and documenting the decisions that make the system understandable and resilient.