From Smart Bulbs to Skynet: The 2026 State of my Home Automation

From Smart Bulbs to Skynet: The 2026 State of my Home Automation
When I left Elastic, one of my goals was to dive deep into home automation and finally "level up" my setup. Looking back at where I started when we first moved to Graham, it’s almost comical. Back then, "Home Automation" was just a few Philips Hue bulbs and a Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant that didn't do much. It was essentially a glorified light switch connected to Alexa. Fast forward to today, and the Raspberry…

Co-Writing Music with AI

Co-Writing Music with AI
I set out last week with a simple but slightly provocative question: Can I write a song with AI the same way I would if I hired a professional producer and songwriter? I didn’t want the AI to just do it for me; I wanted to see if we could collaborate. After five days of prompts, stems, and late-night sessions in Logic Pro, I have a finished track... and a massive identity crisis. Here is…

Cedar Wall 1-day Build

Cedar Wall 1-day Build
The studio room has had a white block wall since we moved in. There was no power and I had no interest in drilling to mount anything so it really blocked my options in the room. I helped a friend building a studio and he had a few sound panels left over to give me. I wanted them on that wall, so it was time to tackle. I had one main concern. I didn't want…

Nova’s Fast dev API

Nova’s Fast dev API
Today's been about getting this thing set up properly. I'm not a developer by trade, but I've always been a coder. That being said, I consider myself a prototype developer, so my projects tend to be loosely managed. I wanted to grow this project up a bit, so I took a step back to think about how it's going to work and decided that I wanted to focus on an extensible API first. The Machine…

Nova Assistant: It was only a matter of time

Nova Assistant: It was only a matter of time
My house is definitely smart to the extreme. I have a lot of automation that runs all aspects of the house, security with AI, and dedicated servers for automation and AI. One example of how I have already wired some of these things together, is a Python service using Ollama & Llava as a false positive checker for Frigate. That being said, all of this private goodness is still connected to Amazon's Alexa ecosystem for…

A Special Place for Tadpoles

A Special Place for Tadpoles
The folks at Hoshi Koi were nice enough to let us scoop up some tadpoles with our pond plants. They said the fish wouldn't bother them, but there were no tadpoles the next day, so I decided to try again with a dedicated pond. I really just want to attract frogs, but I can always stack the deck. I added 6 White Cloud Mountain Minnows and bunch of tadpoles a few weeks ago. I was…

The Wildlife Pond is Alive!

The Wildlife Pond is Alive!
There is still a little weeding and cleaning up to do, but all of the major pieces are in place. The goldfish from last year all made it through the winter split between a fish tank in the dining room and a stock tank in the garage. I built some fish hides last month and got them moved in. This week the pond plants showed up. It has really come together from that nasty hole…

Shop Nation Miter Saw Dust Collection

Shop Nation Miter Saw Dust Collection
I have always had a dust collection system connected to my miter saw, and it has always been terrible. Recently cleaning the shop, I found the internal pipe completely blocked and realized it hadn't been working in a while. Think about that, it's so bad when it is working, I didn't even notice when it stopped. I had seen the Shop Nation videos and decided to give it a go. I bought the DeWalt version…

Chicken Casa Complete

Chicken Casa Complete
I have learned so much about estimations and weather. I thought I could knock this thing out in a few weeks. For those counting, it's been 13 weeks since January 5th 2025. A sprained ankle delayed me a little bit, but most of my miscalculation was due to not being realistic about Western Washington weather. If you watch the build video, you will see me cover my material and work quite a few times for…

Chicken Casa v2 almost complete

Chicken Casa v2 almost complete
Between a sprained ankle and the weather, it's taken me over a month to get 8 good days in, but that's enough to get it completely framed, wrapped and the roof covered. Next I need to install a door, the trim, the siding and the metal roofing. There is some painting and more weather coming, so not sure how long it will take, but I was shooting to have the roof on tomorrow, so I'm…