Back to School Time: Chance for a Smart Home Smart Spa Day

Your own home has been, perhaps, a jungle gym for three months with the kids home. In fact, even long past presidents had trouble keeping adult kids in line at home. Apparently, our 25th president had one such lively 19-year-old daughter named Alice (who supposedly liked to smoke cigarettes on the White House roof). 

• Novelist Owen Wister: “Theodore, isn’t there anything you could do to control Alice?”
• Teddy Roosevelt: “Well, I can do one of two things. I can be President of the United States or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.”

(Keep in mind that Roosevelt was also a hearty outdoorsman, explorer, and police commissioner.)

Eventually, Alice went back to college. Teddy Roosevelt probably didn’t have a spa day at home afterward. (Bath bombs probably meant something different in those pre-WWI days).

You’re not trying to create the Panama Canal like TR, but when August drags on, your home might sound like the Charge Up San Juan Hill.

Evolve Technology can help you get just the right lighting, and crystal-clear audio for your white noise spa playlist, and with Control4 as our base automation platform, we can integrate thousands of secured apps, smart devices, and software to work on voice control. With that voice control, the best part of a spa day is in place: you don’t have to get up.

With the house quiet again, a relaxing home spa day might be what you need.

| BECAUSE: THE SCIENCE |

Some massage treatments may be covered by insurance. But medicine draws the line right there as far as insurance is concerned. Spa treatments aren’t really covered. However, calming, holistic, and preventative health care is getting more attention in medicine.

Fashion icon Donna Karan (DKNY) recently joined with alternative medicine experts to start Urban Zen and Urban Zen Integrative Therapy, UZIT. The program features spa-like practices, such as aroma therapy and restorative yoga poses.

Traditional medicine is opening up to UZIT. A pilot program at Beth Israel treated 24 cancer patients which correlated with a $500 total reduction in medication costs per person. UCLA Medical Center and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center have done UZIT training.

But the notion of encouraging overall well-being--well-being that can get a boost from home spa treatments--as an adjunct to traditional medicine is now real.

| FIRST THINGS FIRST: CREATING A SPA-LIKE ATMOSPHERE |

Your at-home spa day starts with the right setting: clean. Get one room ruthlessly clean. Amputate every item from the room that has anything to do with work.

|| DIY Spa Day at Home: Room Ready ||

• Some ventilation to allow a an essential oil diffuser
• Careful of heavy drapes if planning to use scented candles
• If the room has a high-pile carpet, set out a heavy sheet or an old area rug for any drop from a peel, a steam, or a treatment
• Consider how much sunlight you want. If you’re aiming for heavy-duty relaxation, you want some but not much.

| SECOND THINGS SECOND: MY GOODNESS, IT’S QUIET, AND I CAN PLAY MUSIC |

When you’re hammering away on a stationary bike in the home gym, a decent pair of drugstore earphones will do. When you’re going to scrub, tub, and then soak your sore muscles in bath salts for your spa day, you want symphony-hall fidelity speakers. It has to sound smooth.

Evolve Dallas installs and services Sonance speakers. Integrated directly into walls, soffits, and ceilings, they provide a tasteful blend that quickly distills your playlists down to the purest expression of sound while winning architectural acclaim.

For external audio speakers, we also install and service bespoke American-made Triad audio. Each unit is literally (literally) hand-crafted in their Oregon headquarters.

|| Spa Day Playlists ||

• White Noise Masterlist
• Nature Noise
• Illumination: Peaceful Gregorian Chants
• TMSoft - White Noise Artists with Regular Releases

| DIY SPA IDEAS FROM EXPERTS: TREATMENTS |

Ashley Moore has been featured in Washington Post. Her homesteading lifestyle integrates her extensive training in folk herbalism. This means she’s not offering a Pinterest one-off for an effective at-home facial steam treatment. Check out her calendula and red raspberry leaf recipe. (You will be taking a trip to whole foods).

Soy or soy-paraffin blend candles can give off “sticky” air. Unless you’re getting the tip-top shelf, they often have a stiff scent as well. According to an artisanal natural-soy wax candle maker, beeswax candles can clear the air. The positive ions in certain pollutants bind to negative ions released by beeswax.

You can go for the minimally-processed soy-solids candles.com/blogs/friendlyblog/soy-vs-beeswax-candlesminimally-processed soy-solids candles from this surprisingly honest company with tip-top shelf soy candles. There are also sweet-smelling, pure organic beeswax candles from a Southeast artisanal candle maker.

For a refining scrub, face masks, skincare routine, or some fun spa day add-ons, check out the Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio’s own Omni hotel's advice. They gave some expert tips out of their Mokara spas for a rejuvenating, relaxing day off.

| EVOLVE SHOWS UP |

Evolve has been cultivating the best parts of digital-age technology into a suite of smart home installs, upgrades, and even pre-builds. Let a spa day subtract some stress. Subtracting that stress is possible when it comes to home security, audio-visual, wifi, smart appliances, theater room upgrades, golf simulators, and interactive fitness designs. Call for a consultation today.