Aug 3, 2026 6:09 AM
I’m Turning My 1907 House Into a Smart Home—Without Ruining It
Smart locks, automated lighting, a robot litter box, and other modern upgrades that don’t completely destroy the old-house charm.
Photo-Illustration: WIRED Staff; Getty Images; Zoiinet
At the very end of 2025, my wife and I bought our first home, a 1907 Craftsman in the heart of Portland, Oregon. It’s a beautiful old house, listed on the National Historic Registry, and is largely unchanged from the day it was built. This is exactly what we dreamed of in a house. It’s loaded with history and vibes, mostly unmessed with across the decades. We’re now simultaneously updating and restoring the home with a limited budget, big ideas, our own style, and plenty of sweat equity.
The place we moved into was the level opposite of a “smart home”—and figuring out thoughtful ways to integrate modern technology into this old house without sacrificing aesthetics or ruining the vibe is the guiding principle.
We’re only getting started, but after a busy six months of learning, researching, and working cutting-edge technology into a house from the Roosevelt administration (Teddy, not FDR), I’ve kept a running log of the tech choices we’ve made along the way. Today, our house is starting to feel simultaneously old and new, which is very much the goal. It’s a lot of work, but I assure you it’s also a wonderful time.
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A Smart Thermostat
Photograph: Jordan Michelman
Ecobee
Smart Thermostat Enhanced
Replacing the home’s heating system was a day one fix—our furnace was kicking off carbon monoxide and needed to be addressed immediately. We had a local furnace company in the basement before even moving in. But for daily use, we paired our spiffy new furnace with Ecobee’s new, midrange Ecobee Enhanced smart thermostat, which has a larger touchscreen than the basic Essential model and built-in radar for motion detection.
In making this choice, I consulted WIRED’s in-depth review of the Ecobee, which prioritizes the unit’s ease of setup and intuitive interface—this made a strong case for selecting the Ecobee over other similar smart thermostats, like the Google Nest, which lacks the Ecobee’s presence sensors.
The Ecobee gives us a monthly recap of our furnace usage and the average temperature in our home; walking into a low home-energy-score environment in a home that lacks insulation and gets drafty, having this monthly recap has been helpful already. Many states have a smart thermostat rebate program through local gas and power companies, and right now we’re earning around $10 off each monthly bill for having a smart thermostat in the house.
The Ecobee sits unobtrusively in our dining room; I’ve toyed with adding a vintage-leaning thermostat backing plate into the mix (Atomic Surplus makes really cool ones), though most of these are more midcentury than early 20th century. For now, a pop of digital in our old dining room doesn’t look too out of place.
A Smart Air Conditioner for Older Windows
Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
Courtesy of Midea
Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
Midea
U-Shaped Air Conditioner
Installing a proper whole-home air conditioning system into our home—which had never been done before—proved dauntingly cost-prohibitive as a day one update. And so instead we’ve opted to go with a couple of these excellent smart units from Midea, whose products install into any standard-sized window and simultaneously cool, dehumidify, and ventilate.
These are perfect for the two working bedrooms in our home: They are whisper-quiet because the condenser part of the unit is actually outside, and the unit’s U-shaped design makes it so you only have to have your window open around six inches to install, as opposed to the normal 20 inches of most traditional window air conditioners. Our windows are very old and don’t open all the way—this makes the Midea’s U-shape especially helpful, and guided our decision to select this unit.
The Midea’s app functionality is really nice. You can put your airflow on a schedule, and it can be turned on and off remotely, a function that we used with great relish on the drive home from a recent camping trip. It has a clever sleep function as well, which lets you set the room colder as you’re falling asleep, then warming things up as the ambient temperature cools outside over the course of the night. Plus the filter is easy to access and clean.
At some point we will likely upgrade the air cooling system for the whole house, but these Midea units have made it possible to delay that choice without sacrificing comfort in our sleeping space.
A Smart Lock That Doesn’t Require Hardwiring
Photograph: Jordan Michelman
Photograph: Jordan Michelman
Philips
4200 Series Built-in Wi-Fi Fingerprint Keypad Smart Deadbolt
I don’t want to make it sound as if our front door was held together by rusted chicken wire upon moving in, but it wasn’t far off. Addressing the door locks was a top-line need, and this system by Philips checked every box.
Efficient, affordable, and smart, these locks remove the need for bulky jangling keys (the bête noir of our rental days) and replaced them with an all-in-one unit that connects to our Wi-Fi, uses our unique fingerprints for entry, and can be easily updated with one-time codes for guests, the occasional pet-sitter, and so forth.
There are many smart home locks on the market, and WIRED’s guide features several great choices, but the Philips 4200 does not require its own “hub,” dongle, or additional apparatus in order to start working immediately. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are built into the 4200, which runs on batteries and doesn’t need to be hardwired. And the all-in-one nature of the 4200 helps keep things smartly priced: The entire unit is available for around $120, with no additional products or subscriptions required to do its thing.
Perhaps you’ve encountered a smart lock like this during an Airbnb stay, but having it on the door of your home is kind of a game changer. It’s simplified a step of our life, and allowed our kid to have the autonomy to come and go from our home without needing to bring along her own keys. To me, this is emblematic smart-home tech: subtle, effective, and unobtrusive. I will never have to drive back home again at the start of a road trip to make sure the door is locked, because now I can just check the app. (It was already locked anyway.)
A 21st Century Bidet
Photograph: Jordan Michelman
Courtesy of Toto
Toto
Aurora Washlet+ S7A with Integravity System
The toilets in our home had been updated (at some point in the ’70s), but left much to be desired. Happily for all involved, shortly after moving in I undertook a comprehensive overhaul of WIRED’s authoritative guide to bidet technology. The glimmering jewel of all that good-natured buttmaxxing was an opportunity to install the Toto Aurora Washlet+ 7A with Integrativity System, which is without qualm or peer the nicest toilet I have ever experienced.
This mighty throne seamlessly integrates Toto’s universally well-regarded S7A bidet, providing automatic seat lifting and lowering and auto-flush. When paired together, these functions let you use your toilet without ever touching a button. The nozzle, heated seat, air dry, and oscillation capabilities are outstanding. You can also pair oscillation with a pulse action on the S7A for a noticeably more thorough experience.
I went ahead and hired a plumber for this installation, and he helped me navigate some of the quirks involved in putting a brand new high-tech unit into ancient pipes—in particular, the distance from the back wall to the toilet flange required a different size of “rough-in” than what comes standard from Toto. I also had to install a new electrical outlet near the toilet, which involved hiring an electrician.
But my goodness, was it all worth it. The innovative Integravity System cleans and refreshes the toilet each time you flush. Toto calls this “dual phase cleaning,” which reduces the time between flushing and rinsing to ensure the bowl sparkles after every use. It also only uses one gallon of water per flush, which is well below the Environmental Protection Agency standard of 1.6 gallons per flush.
Now the primary upstairs bathroom in which it sits is subtly perhaps the nicest and most complete room in the entire house. Does the Toto S7A “look vintage” in any way? No. Frankly, I think a person in 1907 would be positively astonished by the experience of using this technology, which is a funny thing to ponder. But our goal is to create a home that feels simultaneously old and new at the same time, and accepting compromises along the way. With this in mind, the S7A feels essential; something about its sleek, modern form creates a sort of pleasing aesthetic friction in our old house, particularly in the updated 1970s bathroom in which it resides.
Smart Lighting
Feit
A19 LED Smart Wi-Fi Light Bulb
Zoiinet
Remote Control Light Bulb Socket
The house I’m working with is an outdated mystery of coiled electrical systems, and someday we’ll need to fully unspool the mystery. But for getting started on actually living in the place, a combination of smart lighting and ambient lighting solutions has made a huge difference in the home. I’m convinced lighting is one of the most important things we can do to make inhabited environments more comfortable, especially if you’ll be working from home.
Feit Electric makes an outstanding smart light bulb, which we’ve used to retrofit vintage light fixtures in a room without an overhead light. It allows us to put the lights on a timer, and can be controlled from its own app. You can also pair these lights with an Alexa or other smart home management system, and we’ve got that set up in our kid’s bedroom, which lets her use voice commands to turn the lights on and off in her room. You can adjust the brightness and hue easily using the app, and installation was effortless.
We’ve also been very happy with the Bluetooth light system by Zoiinet, which in our primary bedroom we have set up to provide overhead lighting. This is kind of the ultimate old house hack—rather than rewiring the room to add in overhead lighting (the bedrooms only came with wall mounts), we were able to install this socket without needing to hire an electrician. The socket is coupled with a touch switch, which we have installed on our wall, just like a normal wall switch. Set this up, and Bob’s your uncle—you’ve installed overhead lighting in your old house with weird electrical needs, all without having to get into the electrical system at all.
For Keeping Old Floors Spic-and-Span
Photograph: Molly Higgins
Whisker
Litter-Robot 5 Pro
I’ve talked a bit in this story about my spouse and our kid, but there is another, no less crucial member of the family whose life has been improved by the implementation of smart tech into our new home. Her name is Jojo, and she’s a rescue cat from the Oregon Humane Society. Gray with a white tummy (the best variety of cat), Jojo is particular when it comes to cleanliness, going so far as to drop the occasional protest deuce outside of her litter box if it’s not kept up to immaculate standards.
Such concerns have been forever ameliorated by an automatic litter box. Specifically, WIRED’s pick for Best AI-Enabled Automatic Litter Box, Whisker’s top-line Litter-Robot 5 Pro. It’s by far the best litter box I have ever had the pleasure of owning after a lifetime of cat ownership.
Jojo took to the unit without any issue, and my wife and I appreciate the robot’s notifications about functionality, particularly with regards to how full the waste bin is, and when it next needs changing. The LR5 gives us regular data about our cat, and I think if you’re even slightly sort of a cat person, it’s nice knowing that your cat is regularly using the bathroom and behaving itself.
The box does a frankly incredible job of not smelling—the “Advanced Odor Control” actually distinguishes between what, precisely, Jojo is up to in there, and uses the robot’s tech accordingly. We keep the unit in our laundry room, on the same floor as our bedroom spaces, and I’ve never caught an unpleasant whiff from its general direction, ever.
Ultimately, the most important aesthetic consideration around why we like the LR5 is its relative unobtrusiveness: It disappears into the corner of our laundry room, and when it comes to litter boxes, that’s perhaps the highest compliment of all. Consult this guide, talk to your vet, book a pet psychic, and go with your gut. Our cat loves it. We love it. It’s a game-changer.
A Retro Vacuum
Sebo
Felix Premium Upright Vacuum
Sebo
Automatic X7 Premium Upright Vacuum
Having a really cute vacuum cleaner makes vacuuming—an otherwise boring chore that simply has to be done, especially with kids and pets—an altogether more delightful experience. There are a growing number of quite modern vacuum options out there on the market, but I was drawn to these charmingly retro “Rosey the Robot”-looking models from Sebo, a German brand.
Both the Felix and Automatic models are lovely enough to be left out or tucked into a corner—these are vacuum cleaners so attractive you’ll feel bad about sticking them in your closet, and in an old house like ours, closet space is already at a high premium. And they work great, with multi-brush agitation modes, hospital-grade filtration, exhaust filters, and a heavy-duty belt with lifetime warranty. I think most vacuum cleaners operate with an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality, but these are both charming to look at, and letting them be out as part of our house is quite lovely.
A Smart Sprinkler for the Yard
Photograph: Christopher Null
Photograph: Christopher Null
Photograph: Christopher Null
OtO
Smart Sprinkler
Maybe the coolest thing about our house is the yard, a jewel-box quarter acre on the corner of our lot. It was more or less in a state of disrepair when we took over, blanketed in a thick layer of English ivy (vile weed), badly in need of arboreal trimming and care, and totally unmanaged in terms of water flow and irrigation.
I personally undertook the first huge tranche of work on this project: yanking out around 40 Home Depot garbage bags worth of the cursed ivy by the roots, reviving the dead soil by way of “the lasagna method” (Patricia Lanza’s book was a crucial housewarming gift from my mother-in-law), and then replanting most of the yard using a wild meadow mix from Northwest Meadowscapes. A few months later, I’m happy to report we have blooms, the bugs and birds have returned, and we’re able to start dreaming about what might come next.
Crucial to the meadow planting process has been the use of an OtO smart sprinkler, a movable automatic watering unit that sets up via app and can be placed strategically around the yard. This is ideal for a large yard lot, which presents a series of irrigation challenges; someday we may upgrade to an in-ground system, but for now we consulted WIRED’s guide to smart sprinklers and went with reviewer Christopher Null’s qualified recommendation around OtO: pint-sized, intelligent, and solar-powered, with only a garden hose required to get started.
“Most smart sprinklers are really smart controllers that need an in-ground system already in place,” says Brit Sastrawidjaya of Blueprint Earth, an ecological landscape designer based in Oregon, who confirmed the utility of the OtO for a new garden. “A smart hose timer just runs one setting wherever you set the sprinkler down. OtO lets you set different zones from one spot, and that matters, because every part of a garden waters differently while it's establishing.”
The app is fairly simple to use; programming the watering area had a slight learning curve and required some adjustment and experimentation to find what worked best, but as the yard has grown it’s been intuitive to further dial in the system and continue adjusting parameters. OtO allows you to set a watering schedule, turn the sprinkler on and off remotely, and set the depth of water you’d like to achieve.
We’ve supplemented OtO with hand watering, especially on hot days, but for the most part, OtO is handling our watering needs beautifully so far. Best of all, the OtO’s built-in solar panel is great—we’ve left it unplugged all summer after a single full charge to get things started.
A Fancy Faucet System
Courtesy of Kohler
Kohler
Aquifier 4-in-1 Beverage System
The infamous kitchen remodel: slayer of finances, bane of relationships, the final frontier of home project Valhalla. Our kitchen is the only part of the house that’s been even slightly updated in the last hundred years, and it’s awful: We’re talking full demo territory, new cabinets, new everything.
There’s miles to go on this kitchen project, which is a double-your-pleasure, double-your-expenses-style situation due to the fact that an awkwardly placed bathroom lurks in the back corner of our current kitchen layout. Thus far we’ve started with the Aquifier 4-in-1 faucet system, which comes with filtered, hot, and sparkling water options. It’s simple and intuitive to use, with an easy install—it even comes with a refillable C02 cartridge.
The finishes are beautiful and timeless, and a tall faucet is especially conducive if your spouse or partner loves and collects various sizes and styles of water bottles—we’ve been using this every day for this exact purpose, and the sparkling water attachment is already saving me money on restocking La Croix. This may be the easiest thing I do on this kitchen remodel project, which, I fear, is going to be a long road ahead.
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Jordan Michelman is a journalist, author, editor, and publisher. His work has appeared in Bon Appétit, The New York Times Magazine, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Taste, Eater, Punch, Portland Monthly magazine, The Fence, Noble Rot, and more. He is a cofounder at the international coffee publication Sprudge and winner ... Read More
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