About The Complicated Home

The Complicated Home is an independent publication about technology for complicated homes: big floor plans, detached garages and ADUs, thick walls, coax instead of Ethernet, yards and pools and gates.

What we are

Most smart-home content assumes a 2,000 sq ft house on one floor and reviews gadgets in isolation. We start from the opposite end: the plan. What architecture does your house need? What can you backhaul, and how? What do you buy in what order? A good plan with mid-range gear beats great gear with no plan, every time.

What we’re not

• Not a personal blog. There’s no “I” here and no persona. This is a research publication, not a diary.
• No fake authors. You’ll find no author headshots, no invented biographies, no “our team tested 47 routers.” If a page doesn’t say we tested something, we didn’t.
• Not reviews-first. We compare products where the comparison serves a planning decision (which bridge for a 150 ft link, which shutoff valve for an empty-nest second home), not to crown winners.

How we work

Every guide is built from published specifications, standards documentation, manufacturer materials, and long-running community and installer knowledge. Our editorial methodology spells out exactly what that means — including the explicit statement that we do not do hands-on product testing, and that manufacturer claims are always labeled as manufacturer claims.

How we make money (or plan to)

Plainly: we intend to earn affiliate commissions on some product links, and we’re transparent about the current state of every program in our affiliate disclosure. Today, most product links on this site are plain placeholders that earn us nothing. Recommendations are made first; monetization follows — never the reverse.

Contact

For corrections, questions, or to point out something we got wrong: corrections are welcome and acted on. (Contact details to be added when the site’s email is set up.)