The Delicate Art of Making a 1907 House Smarter

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

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.