Technology for the New House

Since we got possession of the new house today (!!!), the very first things on our to-do list are to get the technology set up. All pictures are linked! 

The Nest

I've posted before about the nest and our love for it still runs deep. The hard part about this new house? We need two of them. Le sigh. The upside? Upgraded Nest!

Bluetooth Deadbolt

In that same previous techie post, I posted about our Kevo Lock. We still love that one, but we are going to give this bad boy a try this time. Kevo appears to only work for i-phones that have downloaded the Kevo app. With the new lock, we are hoping to have a numerical code that can be given out to non-techie folks too (and then changed when needed). 

Nest Cameras

We have had three of these for over a year now and I love them so much. Besides the security video that they provide, we get to capture fun family moments that otherwise might have been missed. Lyla rolling over for the first time is one example. The biggest use they get though is the answer to the ever-asked question of, "What time did she go down?" We can pull up the video and look to see when the last motion was. We use this in her room along with a traditional monitor. It's great. We love it. (The most cost effective way to buy these is in a three pack for $500. At $200 each, you save $100 with the bundle pack.)

HUE Lighting

This one is brand new to LB and I, but he got a crazy deal on a starter kit of these and I am pumped to try it out. "Set the room to relaxation mode." Yes please! I will report back with how they work/if we use it ASAP. 

What techie things do you use to make your home more functional? I can't imagine life without a nest thermostat or techie deadbolt. #realtalk

PS: While not technically, technology for the home, I started a new pinterest board to keep track of all our new house purchases so you can get a feel for the visualization. Once on the new furniture starts be delivered/put together/put in place, I will link directly from that post/page/house tour to the furniture source so that you can "shop our house."

Techie House

Warning: this is the nerdiest post I have ever written. If there are two things that are true about LB and I, they are these: we love technology and we love music. Second to those fundamental truths, we also like saving money and making things easier on ourselves. One of the very first things we did when we bought this bad boy was to get a nest thermostat. We replaced the old school thermostat cover with this bad boy and it took all of 15 minutes. Our lives, and our heating and cooling situation have not been the same since. (Holy moly, I want to get crown molding and board and batten in that hallway.)

nest

Upstairs Hallway Nest

The Nest is definitely the thing that we use the most often. It's too warm in bed? Turn down the AC from your phone/iPad/computer. Too cold downstairs? Turn up the heat from your comfy spot on the couch. Forgot to turn the heat down when you left the house this morning? No worries. Just do it from your phone while you are on the train. The Nest also keeps track of your energy usage.

nest 1

nest

The Nest also learns your patterns and creates a schedule based off of those. You can then go into the Nest app and tweak the schedule from there.

nest 3

Are we glad that we spent the money to get the nest? Yes. Abso-freaking-lutely. I think it has saved us a bunch in heating and cooling even though I drive LB crazy with my AC drill sergeant behavior.

The other piece of techie nerdy lovin' we invested in was the Kevo lock.

kevo 2

This thing is great. While the blue tooth can be sort of finicky (I have found that we have to have our phones unlocked for it to work), it is awesome. You literally just walk up to the door and tap it. Boom. Deadbolt opened. The greatest feature, hands down, is the fact that we can send e-Keys to friends and family. No more making spare keys. You can still totally do that, and re-keying the door is incredibly easy. This is a screen shot of the app showing the eKeys we've sent. Ashley uses hers all the time to steal/borrow our tools.

kevo

What was NOT so easy was the installation. LB lost pretty much an entire day, getting this thing installed. I would ask him to give a run-down of how he got it up and working, but I think it might send him into some sort of catatonic state. (2 weeks before the wedding is not the best time to do this).

kevo 1

So those are two ways that we pimped our house out a little bit. How about y'all? Ever thought about getting a nest? Got questions? We've got answers!