Admittedly light switch automation is nice but not that useful. Wireless switches are probably cheaper than running cables tho.

I’ve recently posted items about my smart home. Point of DIY it doesn’t need to suck, cost a lot or hold you captive.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45999721

A lot of walls were open after a kitchen fire. Electrician was redoing a lot of knob and tube and other older wiring. I had previously had a limited amount of DIY wireless switching (originally X10 but then a couple of voice-controlled switches) but basically everything was being redone anyway. And I basically just now have some dimmers and a simple programmable thermostat I haven't even programmed.

The parent point was that it's silly not to have a smart house (whatever that means exactly) and I disagree. It may make sense to do selectively rather than get an electrician in unless you have some other reason to do so.

As for threshold probably all the safety stuff: power metering, water leak sensors, smoke alarm monitoring. Then all the energy related stuff - heating, hot water controls - if you are on TOU pays itself in months. Then it's smart entry - probably one thing that you can actually experience and it's the best.

Basically don't have any of that stuff except a keypad door which I don't really use.