5 Household Robots That Make Your Life Easier - AllConnect.com
Easily take care of common household chores and carve more time for yourself with the latest generation of household robots. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), today’s robots can wash your floors, monitor your home’s climate, clean your windows, and more. Here are just some of the ways household robots can make managing your home easier.
Read the whole article here.
AllConnect.com
Today AllConnect.com published my article on Smart Home Robots, and that marks 5 years of my writing for this great, consumer-focused website. Read all of my smart home and consumer electronics related posts for AllConnect here.
6 High-Tech Gadgets for Your Vacation Rental Bathroom - Tripping.com
How (and why) to turn your vacation rental bathroom into a smart bathroom. Read the post here.
The Best Hardwood Floors for Messy Kids and Pets | Homes.com
Hardwood floors trump carpet for households with kids and pets. It’s a whole lot easier to clean up when spills are on wood, not wool. Plus, hardwood is more forgiving than ceramic, concrete, or tile. But if you have rambunctious pets and messy kids, you may be concerned about whether hardwood floors will stay beautiful in your home. Here, we’ll look at the four factors to consider if you’re thinking about installing hardwood.
Read the full article here.
A Day in the Life of a Smart Home Assistant - Dwell
A look at the hard work an AI smart home assistant has to do in the homes of 3 top tech gurus. For Dwell's Smart Tech issue. read the piece here.
Building the House of Tomorrow - Dwell
My essay on building the future smart home for Dwell's Smart Tech issue. Read the piece here.
The Ultimate Guide: Protecting Your Kids Online - Modern Parents Messy Kids
Children using the internet is a modern parenting dilemma.
How can we let them enjoy and benefit from this world-changing, infinitely educational tool that can span the globe in seconds while also protecting them from its potential dangers? Setting aside the issue of how much “screen time” children should have, here we will look at how to make that screen time safe, fun and productive—whether you are thinking of letting your preschooler play with your iPad or considering buying a computer or smartphone for your pre-teen.
Read the full post here.
The ABCs of LED Lighting (Infographic) – Green Homes – MOTHER EARTH NEWS
View the infographic here.
How to Monitor and Control Indoor Air Quality in Your Home | care2.com
The air that we breathe is, quite literally, our life source. But it could also, quite possibly, be killing us. Air quality is becoming a modern crisis, with the World Health Organization (WHO) classifying air pollution as the world’s largest health risk, linking one in eight total global deaths to air pollution exposure, both indoor and out.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the air inside our homes is commonly five times more polluted than that of the outdoors, and in some cases, up to 10 times. So, what can you do to protect your health, and that of your family, from this silent killer lurking in your home? Detect and correct. Find out what is causing air pollution in your home and then take whatever steps you can to help correct or mitigate those causes. Here we’ll look at how you can achieve this.
Read the full article here.
HOW AMERICANS ARE EMBRACING THE POWER OF THEIR HOMES | Earth911.com
Just a few years ago, living off the grid conjured up images of tiny cabins in the middle of nowhere. Today, the dream of average American homeowners powering their homes with alternative energies is coming true. Solar panels on your neighbor’s roof are no longer an oddity, and electric cars are less of a curiosity and more of an everyday sight. It’s not hard to imagine a time when wind turbines in the backyard will be commonplace and geothermal heating an expected utility in all new homes.
Read the full article here.
Smart Home DIY: 5 Reasons Your Family Is Going To Love Smart Door Locks | FunTimesGuide.com
The phrase “latchkey kid” was a popular one among my generation — the first where many families boasted two working parents. Coming home from school to an empty house was a pretty common occurrence for many of my school friends. However, thanks to smart door locks, today’s latchkey kids can dispense with the key entirely and parents can dispense with the worry over whether their children made it home safely!
Read the full article here.
Saying Goodbye to Stanley: How to Keep the Memory of a Pet Alive | ElephantJournal.com
On the day my future husband and I moved into our first home together, we made one important stop before collecting the keys: we picked up an eight-week-old puppy from a farm in Driggs, Idaho. Twelve years later, in another new home 3,000 miles across the country, I lay with that puppy under a huge South Carolina oak tree as he took his last breath.
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Before and after: Tips for the ultimate bathroom makeover | TwinCities.com
Updating a bathroom can be a major undertaking, but the benefits are vast. From creating a calm sanctuary for your morning routine that sets you up for a successful day to adding substantial resale value to your home, a bathroom makeover is well worth the investment. Read my post on renovating our 1960s era master bath here.
7 Ingenious Ways To Use LED Lighting | Homes.com
Lighting has come a long way from its origins as a way to extend the working day. Today, thanks to the versatility of technology, lighting has become a key component of interior design. It helps us accentuate and reveal the beauty of our homes, while also providing functionality.
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) are tiny light sources that require less energy and are more durable than traditional incandescent light bulbs. They can also be fashioned into different shapes and emit far less heat than traditional bulbs, making them suitable to put in places you would never have thought to put a light bulb, such as under a couch, to create a stunning modern look in your living room. The versatility of LEDs has brought indirect lighting to the forefront of modern interior lighting design, creating a realm of fabulous possibilities.
Read the full post here.
How smart home devices help monitor and mitigate indoor air quality | MultiBriefs.com
There are a significant number of connected, Internet of Things-powered devices that incorporate some sort of indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring that can help mitigate indoor air pollution. From standalone IAQ monitors and devices that do double duty as security systems to smart HVAC systems that filter the air when dangerous levels occur, consumers can now easily monitor the health of their homes and businesses. For more read the full post here.
DIY Kid Art Table from an Old Cabinet | CraftingAGreenerWorld.com
We recently remodeled our upstairs bathroom and decided to reuse an old cabinet we had in there as a DIY kid art table for our two children. This is quite a labor-intensive project and cost about $60 in supplies, but considering this style of art table runs upwards of $200 brand new, it seemed like time and money well spent—especially as we were able to feel good about putting parts of the old cabinet to good use.
Read the full post here.
The Best Smart Sprinkler Controller - Wirecutter | A New York Times Company
After spending two months with six smart irrigation controllers in a sunny South Carolina yard, we’re confident the Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller (Generation 2) is the best choice for most people with an in-ground sprinkler system. Any smart controller will save you water and money compared with a simple timer, but the Rachio is the best of the ones we tested.
Read the full guide here.