Extreme smart home makeover

The best time to make your home smart is at the very beginning. Whether you’re building from scratch, renovating, or just moving in, a little bit of work on lighting, security, and energy management can go a long way. Getting started can be tricky, though: there’s no obvious path to follow, no starter kit of stuff to buy, no easy answers. And if you pick the wrong first gadget or tie yourself down to the wrong ecosystem, you might be in trouble.

In this episode of The Vergecast, David finds himself in precisely this situation. He’s a few days away from moving into a new house, wants to do some useful smart home stuff, and has absolutely no idea where to start. Luckily, The Verge’s Jennifer Pattison Tuohy has him covered. Jen and David spend the whole episode going room by room through the new house, discussing all the smart home options available — and which ones are worth the cost.

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We talk about a huge number of products in this episode, in a variety of different contexts, so in order to understand each one you’ll need to listen to the episode. But here is, to the best of our ability, every product and story we discuss in this episode, first in the kitchen:

And in the living room:

And in the bedroom:

And in the kids’ room:

And in the basement:

And in the backyard:

And in other, non-room-specific chatter:

Let us know if we missed anything, and we’ll add them here. And if you have ideas for David’s smart home, or thoughts about what we discuss, call the Vergecast Hotline at 866-VERGE11 or email us at [email protected].