A few months ago, I visited a close friend's house. His smart home runs on Google, and I quickly got used to saying 'Okay, Google' to turn on the lights and other devices. I was hooked and decided I wanted to build my own smart home. However, I didn't want to rely on Google, Amazon, or Apple, since those companies already have too many fingers in our homes.
A bit of research brought me to Home Assistant. Given my background, I thought installing it would be a piece of cake. A weekend job, perhaps. Certainly not more than a week.
A month later, I'd gotten some things done, but I was still struggling with some parts of it.
I bought a couple of books along the way, but they were useless. I watched an endless number of YouTube videos ' shout-out to the good folks who make them! ' and read lots of content on websites.
The problem wasn't a lack of information. Instead, there was too much information, too many videos, too many differing approaches on how to do almost anything, and too many differing opinions. And no one said, 'Do this thing first and this thing next and ''
Two months into my 'one week' project, I decided to write this book. It's twice as long as I expected, and it still can't cover everything that I think is important. I've decided to write a companion book for the things that this book can't cover. Home Smart 102 will be out soon with more information.
The book isn't written for programmers. Instead, I hope that anyone who is comfortable using a computer can pick up this book, follow the steps, and create their own smart home. Reasonably easily and without jumping through lots of hoops to figure out what they need to do.
Home Assistant and the Home Assistant Community have paved the way for the rest of us.
Come on in! The water is great. When you first get some automations running, you'll be hooked, too. Rob Chambers Boston, MA March, 2026
Rob Chambers
Boston, MA
March, 2026