In my last column, we had some fun talking about how smart technology is beginning to transform our homes, creeping into our basic energy systems and every other nook and cranny of our homes. This is a trend that will surely continue, as developers, engineers, builders and home goods suppliers endeavor to one-up one another. This week we’re looking at some of the goodies here today and those arriving tomorrow. The litany is staggering.
If you’ve got the money and want something spectacular in your home, an army of providers is at the ready. When it comes to swimming pools, I found some amazing additions: swimming pools with fire pits in the middle, swimming pools with entry slides emerging from the second story of the home and even a basement pool with a glass ceiling at ground level.
The bathroom, which has been undergoing modifications for decades, with surface treatments getting more and more glamorous, now includes soaking tubs with built in TVs and waterfalls, and now very popular, the wet room with multiple showers cascading from every wall and ceiling. Getting clean is only the beginning.
When it comes to our favorite room, the kitchen, wonders are awaiting. There’s the oven that refrigerates as well as cooks. Your dinner keeps cold all day until your cell phone says go and abracadabra, it turns into an oven. By the time you get home, your meal is ready. There’s also a refrigerator that keeps tabs on ingredients you are running short on. Monitoring is great but that’s not the end of it. That smarty fridge would take action, notifying the grocery store to replace those missing staples. This wonder should reach stores in the latter part of the 2020s.
Will houses of the future be larger? They will definitely be smarter, but probably smaller, better designed and more efficient than the rambling spaces of our recent decades. Technology will be applied to designing the homes of the future as virtual modeling becomes the industry standard. This will bring potential home hunters to their computers to create models, which will then be passed on to fabricators and assemblers. You won’t need to be a sophisticated architect or engineer to design a customized house of the future. This customization will also have applications to remodeling of existing homes.
Coming to your neighborhood in the near future: key-less entry. Facial recognition technology is ramping up to make you never have to look for your keys ever again. These recognition sensors imbedded in the walls of your house may someday identify you as you step into your bathroom, say good morning, give you the weather forecast and even remind you to take your blood pressure pill. Intruders beware; the wall is calling 911.
Some of these features are cost effective and will actually make the house of the future more energy efficient and reduce costs. Others, like two story closets, wine cellars entered through trap doors in the kitchen floor, and indoor-outdoor hot tubs, are simply indulgences only the 1 percent can ever contemplate. For the rest of us, they are frivolities for folks who have money to burn, and needless extravagances. We’re happy to have a warm, safe place to call home.
