Smart Home Fails: Lessons & Fixes — Full Breakdown & Transcr

[00:00] terrible decisions. 2 years ago we built our dream smart home, but what we didn't >> [music] >> greatest mistakes of our lives. So,

[00:12] here's where we went wrong, but then also how we [music] eventually turned this into a home that's optimized beyond our wildest dreams. Starting with the find the perfect wireless chargers specifically designed to look like

[00:28] Pokéballs. These were so rare I ended up paying [music] $150 to import them from Japan. So, imagine my pain when I realized no one wants to use wireless chargers. Every time someone came over and we're playing

[00:41] a game over there, ah, for goodness sake, and their battery was running out, they didn't want to banish their phone to the other side of the room just to charge it. Leading us to what we've realized is the better solution,

[00:53] power banks. Two of these new anchor bricks covers the power needs of every this magnetic base to pop them back onto when you're done. So, even your parents plugged into them all times cuz they're practically invisible from the front.

[01:11] these Belkin wall chargers are an insanely [music] useful product to have strategically dotted around the house. 67 watts of power, enough for most laptops, USB-C with the cable [music] built in, and the cable itself is

[01:26] retractable. So, no cable mess either. >> Oh, done. >> But the kitchen mistakes cost us quite a lot more. The first big change was the parties every other week. We had Cîroc bottles and a Ninja slushy maker to turn

[01:42] those into something even more fun. But the reality is we only really drink tea and coffee. So, the slushy's gone, but in its place we have figured out how to truly master the warm beverage. So, for coffee, my My was

[01:55] surprisingly don't go for a machine from Miele. I got their highest end model >> but I hated it. It was so loud, it took so long to do anything, and most of all,

[02:07] the user interface was abysmally basic for a 2026 product. Half the time you limited information. And it's only when we got fed up and changed it out for a generations behind Miele is in some ways. This thing was the same price,

[02:25] just miles more intuitive to operate, especially if it's a [music] guest using it. And then if you make tea in a pot like I do, the Luca will fix your problems. It's this incredibly simple but cool piece of

[02:38] edge, this makes it fall back on itself. So you can leave it fairly unattended on high heat and not flood your kitchen with chai. And then for any type of

[02:51] powder drink, this is the magic whisk. It means any kind of this will get it to the perfect 80° C and really frothy.

[03:03] >> [music] >> It's actually all froth. So freaking good. Oh my god. all is the appliances for coffee, teas, and powders are on that section. Then

[03:18] above that is all the regular actual coffees, teas, and powders themselves. And then if you want anything extra, this drawer opens up and that's coffees, teas, and powders. This cabinet is just pure joy to me. Now, there's a bunch of

[03:31] things in this kitchen that I do think we nailed first time. Like the toaster. Of course, it's the one and only. Like seriously, look at this slice of bread. >> [music] >> And the Beast blender is something we

[03:48] got later on, but it's been instantly amazing. It's just seriously fast, like And then when you're done, you have this instantly ready to go smoothie bottle >> And there's no drippage anywhere. Then in here, the Ninja Creami ice cream

[04:04] machine has [music] earned its place for eternity. This machine was responsible for about 50% of my weight loss transformation. And then every single simple human product we got, too. The kitchen roll holder that's also secretly

[04:16] dispensers, one for dish soap, one for hand wash, and the bin, too. All of this stuff, in the entire 2 years, haven't given us a single problem. actually bought a bunch of it as gifts for friends.

[04:32] Because nothing says I care about you more than a trash can. Like the plants. We originally bought these very nice, hard-to-kill indoor plants. Realized that we're not particularly green-thumbed when they

[04:46] still died, but then found a brand called Easy Plant, who basically made this self-watering pot, which means that instead of needing to water the soil like once a week, you actually instead just take that off and water the

[04:58] reservoir roughly once a month. And this makes sure that the plant has what it now an Easy Plant. We've added an air purifier, just because cooking can kick

[05:10] in all day. We got some acoustic panels. They just help to [music] take some of that empty room echo out, but that's also nothing compared to what we've done island. Those have now been axed in favor of the Philips [music] Hue

[05:27] Omniglow, which are pretty perfectly diffused. But, do you know, the most noticeable upgrade for me day-to-day is the organization inside of about organizers. There was a point in my life when I thought the idea of

[05:44] something like this was completely pointless. How [music] on earth is buying this whole new thing that actually eats further into your drawer I was wrong. Drawer dividers like this, drawer organizers like this, drawer

[06:00] trays like this, this stuff is absolutely essential [music] if you want your rooms to stay clean cuz they allow you to create just the right amount of space for each type of product within your drawers. So that anytime you use

[06:12] something from them, you've created a situation where the easiest thing to do place, it's like this black hole opens up where your tape, your scissors, your

[06:24] Blu Tack, [music] it all just disappears into. You'll keep buying them, you'll keep losing them unless you have good systems. I literally bought a magnetic this thing back. Plus with the right organizers, you'll also always know when

[06:38] yes, organizers can take up space, use them well and they'll actually free you realized we were running out of room for shoes, but of course then we found shoe

[06:53] organizers that let you stack each shoe on top of its other half. Now we could host a millipede if we wanted to. But now we've had my proper dad chat about drawers, it's time to swallow my pride and talk about our worst fails.

[07:07] Like how we originally spent $4,000 buying an indoor fireplace for our garden. And it's not entirely our fault. There are many companies who will try to sell you bioethanol fireplaces like this for

[07:21] fireplace but with less harmful emissions and less plumbing required, which are both technically true. It just means that you're effectively dropping 4K on a tub which, as promised, was almost no hassle to first set up.

[07:37] have to manually pour in the bio-ethanol. It was such [music] a pain to light. And most importantly, the resulting flame, I mean, it was basically just a big [music] candle. Cavemen would be ashamed. Point being,

[07:51] one. Get a gas fireplace like the Loom pit That fire is like four times the size. And then the reason that we went for

[08:03] this one specifically is the extra tricks. It's got an LED strip hidden underneath, a speaker system inside, and even two unexpectedly clutch wireless chargers. My friends actually use these ones.

[08:21] But even the $4,000 fire pit blunder is small fry compared to the office. Our original vision was this Japanese Zen garden themed room incorporating as many earthy elements as possible like moss, wood, and even this giant water feature

[08:34] in the corner. But we've ended up changing literally [music] 50% of this room. Partly just because we found ways to make it even better. Partly because we just screwed up. I mean, our entire

[08:46] once. So, for each thing we're going to get, let's just get the best [music] version of that thing. And while that mindset did pay off for many things in this house, it was not the best approach for the whiteboard. In the pursuit of

[09:01] whiteboard maxing, we ended up with this Samsung Flip Pro. And after a few months came to the humbling realization that there's nothing we needed from it that a thing's just so heavy and unmaneuverable that we

[09:16] This incredible piece of hardware though, refinements here like the DeltaHub Carpio has ended up feeling like the

[09:30] final missing ingredient for the perfect mouse [music] setup. It lifts and cups your wrist to eliminate the strain that I didn't even realize was there until I started using it. I've upgraded the keyboard to the fairly new 2026 Mood

[09:42] Sonnet. This is a very extreme purchase, but the benefit comes because they can customize the look, the sound, and the feel of the keyboard to exactly what you have in your mind. Plus, if we ever have a break-in, then

[09:56] this can be my weapon. We changed our under-desk elliptical to one from Decathlon, which to my surprise has ended up more affordable, smoother, [music] and with higher resistance than any other high-end one I've tried. And

[10:08] then here, I'm currently in the process of testing what's either going to end up as one giant gimmick or literally the god of all office chairs, because this thing is motorized. So, you grab this remote and you press to control exactly

[10:21] where you want the lumbar support to be. [music] This has seat heating, seat ventilation, which is unbelievably clutch on a day like today where somehow the UK has hit 38° C. >> [screaming]

[10:36] >> And then even three different levels of massage. Oh yeah, and a footrest. But, as comfortable as this is, well, it is really, really comfortable.

[10:48] to [music] charge. But, there are three overarching permanent changes to this room. Like, for example, there's no water feature anymore. The thing was beautiful. I loved the vision,

[11:02] but living with a large water feature inside your house, even if you're down For starters, we spent $15,000 [music] getting the thing fully fitted. It

[11:14] needed a lot more parts than we originally expected, like a generator that, once set up, needed to run once per day for 3 hours, and [music] it sounded like this. Then, we were told that we needed to maintain the water

[11:28] with three different treatment plans. So, one set of things that you have to whole different set of things that you have to do once every 3 months. Fail to do any of that, even a few times, which of course we did, the water goes moldy.

[11:44] action was to fork out another thousand dollars to get the thing taken out and use the space for a fourth desk, which is such a generational L that it has kept me up at least a few nights.

[11:59] And not just because of the generator. The second major change is that every single desk has been upgraded to the Secretlab Magnus Pro, our sponsor, but previous ones, but the [music] magic is an integrated power supply inside of

[12:15] this leg. This means that with just one cable into the very bottom here, which you can barely see, it gives you power to not just your desk, but every single gives you mains power, but [music] up here. So, all your messy desktop cables,

[12:31] this tray, stay plugged in, and become like 97% invisible even as you're moving the desk up and down. And the other thing is, it's just insanely clean, both

[12:44] literally, I mean the thing's like one giant [music] wipeable coaster, but also aesthetically, because it's magnetic too, you can manage the 3% of remaining cables by just snapping these organizers down on top of them. But sadly, the cost

[12:57] of all four of those plus the entire water feature fiasco is still less than the cost of our third modification. This. We realized after a few months using the original office that it just wasn't quiet enough.

[13:12] We have concrete floors all over the house, which are really bad for echo. that there's a kitchen on the other side, and potentially in a few months, a crying baby, too. So, we started to play around with acoustic paneling. We tested

[13:27] some of the more plug-and-play options like this. These things, [music] they don't cut enough noise out. Plus, they stick out a lot visually. So, eventually we decided that the only way we were going to get the result was to fully

[13:39] commit. We got a company called Resonics to measure out and fit two layers of absorption across every spare wall here. It's gotten to the point now where even can hear because we're shooting this clip on the phone, then all you need to

[13:53] do is to take like I want to say 12 steps into the office over here, and as it is literally like stepping into a library. Ow.

[14:07] So quiet. And I think the panels actually look incredible, too. If anything, they're adding to the earthy elements [music] vibe. And we did pretty much the same thing to our entryway. This room was atrocious to film in

[14:19] before. It was just so echoey. Plus also, any conversation you'd have down >> you'd hear it at the top of the house. And so, this acoustic treatment has been an extremely expensive, but at the very least conclusive way to fix that. The

[14:32] gym has been mostly perfect. Zero regrets splurging on the Technogym machines. They do just feel like a cut above any other gym I've gone to since >> boxing wall thing that we had originally. It was one of those classic

[14:46] products that look great on TikTok that, let's be honest, you're just not going to use as part of any realistic workout. So, [music] we replaced it with its bigger brother. This is the Bout Smart Punching Bag. And

[14:59] before any kind of tech, this was just a great punching bag. Thankfully, it has the tech, too. That was weak. It has all sorts of tech, like it can track your punch speed and

[15:14] your punch power. It can show you how much you've damaged different parts of the bag like a boss in a video game. There's even these entire workout routines where this dude shows you what to do and the closer you get to him, the

[15:27] higher your going to score. Now, if you haven't already realized at this point, entire weekends looking at tiny little pain points and then figuring out how to iron them out. Like, for example, we realized that when guests come over,

[15:42] while they can get fine control over things like the AC, blinds, and lights using these Control4 tablets that we have in the hallways, the ideal is to give them that full control from within the rooms. And that while you can buy

[15:54] expensive than just using some of the iPhones that we already had around. [music] So, because we're in the Japan room, it's a nice pink iPhone and on it, you can see we've gone to the extent of [music] actually writing out

[16:09] instructions for the three different apps they should be using to set [music] exactly where they want the blinds to be or the temperature of the room. And this is also a full working remote for the Samsung Frame TV on the wall. So far,

[16:22] our guests love it. >> Nice sleeping now. We are literally in here every evening. The second and third screens that drop

[16:35] happy to say they are not. The only thing we've really had to improve is the long day, it's pretty easy to eat a bag of whatever you've kept right next to

[16:49] you. Or five. So, the snacks and the drinks have gotten quite a lot healthier over time. But also, we realized, since this has become our default place for relaxation, that it's the perfect place

[17:02] to have access to some wellness gear. Like, we've absolutely fallen in love with these फेस masks. They make your skin clearer using red and blue light. These scalp massagers from Breo give you tingles all across your body in like the

[17:14] best way possible. And then I've also found it really to keep a Hypervolt massage gun in this section cuz turns out when I play football, I keep done rehabilitating, everything just goes back into its charging place or

[17:30] base. [music] Ah, [sighs] I just love systems. But the single greatest L of our entire house project has to be studio B.

[17:42] Like the sofas. I spent $22,000 buying what I thought was the perfect furniture for this room. It was angular and futuristic and even had LEDs baked inside. So I had this idea that we could theme even the color of our sofas to the

[17:55] gotten. That furniture was designed for the outdoors, so it was about as [music] comfy as a plank. The LEDs were so dim compared to the room that you couldn't cables trailing all over the place. So [music] we couldn't move anything

[18:12] around, which is kind of like the whiteboard all over again. We realized only way we can actually make different types of sets for different kinds of videos, which is why now we've gotten everything we can mounted onto wheels.

[18:28] Yeah, even this giant TV. I originally surrounded the room with these 7-ft futuristic. And it did. It's just we didn't factor in that it would make it

[18:40] almost impossible then to film any kind of shot without getting someone's also we had blinds like this across this entire window area to stop the light

[18:53] coming in. That was actually a poor solution too because every time the get in or out of the building without pulling them all the way back up again. So I'm pretty chuffed with my idea to sub those all out for giant acoustic

[19:08] panels that just stick onto the windows themselves. They do the same thing as because they're completely stuck on, when the door opens, [music] As you can see, going straight from getting our first home to trying to make

[19:25] every single buying decision in a matter of weeks, we made a lot of mistakes. And time as you can when you're making the big [music] purchases. Two, don't confuse the best version of something with the right version. And then three,

[19:41] get lots of drawer organizers. You can't have too many of them. Buy more drawers if you have to.