There are plenty of ways to make your home smarter on the cheap, but if you really want a fully automated home, it will be a serious investment. Companies are working on integrating everything with hubs and apps, but even starter kits cost a couple hundred dollars, unless you take the most bare-bones approach.
But billionaires can drop all kinds of dough getting their home-automation systems exactly to their liking. Case in point: Michael Barnick, a retired Apple exec who just completed his very own smart home … and promptly put it on the market, because his children grew up and moved out during the time it took to build. Ten years in the making, it’s outfitted with all the smart devices you can dream of and probably a few more.
The 10,100-square-foot home has four bedrooms and ocean views. Located on 3.7 acres of property in Hope Ranch, California, the house includes amenities you’d expect from a house that costs tens of millions of dollars, like a 12-person movie theater, three fireplaces, a huge kitchen, and a spa-style bathroom. There are a few unique features, too, like the yoga studio. But it’s Barnick’s passion for automation that really makes the house unique.
Driving through the front gates activates the lights, opens the garage, and turns on the fountain; when the shower turns on, so does the towel warmer. “For me it’s all about the technology and doing it well, not flashy,” Barnick tells The Wall Street Journal.
He got so into home automation that he started a company, Quantum Integration, which installs systems in other houses.
If you decide to buy the house (it’s going for $35 million), let us know. That automated towel warmer sounds awesome.
