Dallas Area Fall Staycations and Smart Home Security Systems by Evolve

Who on earth wants to stay at home for a vacation after the last year? Well, even if you're not monitoring the news, you can see that travel is dicey right now. “Staycation” is more than a made-up word. It can be a helpful "soft reset".

It's also a chance to see and support local businesses, parks, and attractions after the global glut of Netflixing and Amazoning from home.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

If you've only heard one punk-rock song in your life, it's probably the deceptively happy ditty by The Clash called "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" (You may remember it from season 1 of Stranger Things or from every DJ'd wedding you've ever been to).

The song title is instructive of the staycation dilemma. A staycation sounds one-off and a vacation sounds like work. No one disputes the peace of mind of a full detachment of everything behind the front door. But a full vacation, right now? There's a lot to control when going on vacation during normal times.

And with a staycation, smart children will know what's up. Yet it's still a solid option with a lot less hassle.

Susan Whitbourne has been a psychology professor at UMass Amherst for 37 years and she sums up the smart consideration of staycations:

"[W]ith all the agonies of travel that we all go through -- especially business travelers who want nothing other than time to spend, real quality time, with their families -- it's just a great way to make the most of an especially short amount of time." (Pomerance, Rachel U.S. News Digital Weekly. 6/7/2013, Vol. 5 Issue 23, p20-20.)

 

Close to Home

The price point for a staycation is one major selling point. If you have a vacation-sized budget for your staycation, you can upgrade everything. But as to the specifics of staycations, keep these in mind.

Staycation Tips

• PLAN. Get the kids in on it. A staycation is a much easier sell if they get options with the sale. No one gets stuck deciding what to do if there's a plan. Buy the fun, expensive board games they sell at Barnes & Noble. Invest in an Xbox Kinect or Nintendo Switch for full-body aerobic and sports family gaming. You can even get a used Wii at GameStop or other gaming/music resale stores.
• SHUT DOWN. Drop work, even for just Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Carve out a designated 30 or 60 minutes per day for work or solo-screen time. If you're on call--besides emergency work--check the phone, email, or messages only at the top of the hour.
• DE-CHORING. As much as possible, get the laundry, dishes, trash, and so on done. Buy paper plates and plastic silverware so there are no dishes. Go out to eat at least once.

Have Fun, Will Travel

What to do on a staycation if you leave the house? Dallas (by itself) is the ninth-largest city in the US and Texas holds five spots in the top twenty.

Texas Cities

• 4: Houston
• 7: San Antone'
• (9: Dallas)
• 10: Austin
• 12: Fort Worth
• (Bonus. El Paso is 22)
• (https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities)

Destinations

• Anything outdoors and nearby right now in the area is cardigan and sweater weather. (If you want to take a tour, Neiman Marcus is HQ'ed in Dallas and they do offer tours).
• Dallas Fort Worth sportswriter (and Associated Press' highly-ranked editor) Matt Wixon was able to take his sons for a run-around on the field at a minor-league ballpark for his staycation. All he had to do was phone ahead and inquire. (Pomerance; USNWR)
• Call DFW companies and tourism boards for deals on family packages.
• If you get in a jam, or you've moved to Texas recently, or you somehow don't know of stuff to do in Texas, ask your neighbors. Or ask anyone, anywhere in the state, we'll tell you. Happily. For free. (Or just say the word "barbecue" out loud.)

Staycation Security

You'll want to leave home for at least some of the 'cation.

Evolve Technologies is an HTA (Home Theater Association) certified home automation and professional installation company. Smart home security and alarm systems are only part of what we do.

If you're a planner-ahead and love a world-class, cinema-quality home theater experience, you can break the box office on opening weekend for your staycation with our setups. That will very much get the kids "on board."

Field and Streaming

Good smart home devices will score points with a home theater. We install and service award-winning, movie-studio brands like Screen Innovations, Segura, and others. But presentation needs a data system to deliver crisp, ultra-HD visual and sound.

Package Wireless Access Points are MIMO meaning there are two, sometimes three, distinct points of data transmission and receipt. Not cable-ports, but actual independent, back-and-forth data points.

The "throughput" is calibrated for the technology-hungry twenty-first century home. This means they've been clocked at high speeds as opposed to "bandwidth", meaning the highest potential speed for data transfer.

And of course, speed and proven ability are essential for data when it comes to home security.

 

Give You a Peace of My Mind: Home Security System

A lot goes into home security. The good news is all houses have parts already built-in.

Built-In Security in Every Home

• lights
• curtains
• doors
• locks (see below for more on that)

In order to protect the home, especially a nice one, professional installation, and cutting-edge equipment are a one-two punch. Paired with 24 7 monitoring, it's a TKO before the round starts.

Evolve uses Control4 security solutions. Control4 founders originated some of the earliest smart-home networks and devices in the late 90s. They continue their uncompromising quality and innovation as a US-based company.

We customize the monitoring and alarm system settings, but also the access. With Control4's recent update of their operating system, thousands of new security, home-assistant, and other apps can be integrated into your digital portal. Evolve technology, with our customer commitment and knowledgeable team, can configure that access as you need it.

Access and Control Options for Control4 Interface and Switches

• wall-mount, 10-inch HD touchscreen display (with a favorites page)
• direct to smartphone or tablet
• flush and wall-mount switches

Key Features in Control4 Camera System

• easily concealed interior/exterior-rated security cameras with 2 mega-pixel video standard
• 4MP option
• enhanced IR for better-quality imaging at night
• newest models feature PoE: power-over-ethernet; wired-quality video with one cable
• up to 7 days of video storage in the cloud

Lock and Key

Rex might not be allowed at that upgraded hotel. (AAA does have a spot for you to check: https://www.aaa.com/pettravel/). For the dog walker, for deliveries, and for yourself when you're at home, smart lock protection is available. Lock and unlock the front door from your phone (such as by the indoor pool in that upgraded hotel.)

Evolve services and provide installation of smart locks, including Control4. Equipment options include a numeric keypad, pedestal drive-up keypad for swinging gates, non-keyed smart activated cylinder locks, and smart-operable keyed cylinder locks.

These have numerous classic and modern trim plus finish features to accent the front door. They go great with a smart doorbells.

Chime In: Ring and Other Industry Leading Smart Doorbells

Chime works directly with Control4 home automation. Evolve also installs Ring. These provide not just activity-sensitive video surveillance, but two-way audio.

A night-vision enablable video camera features 150 up to 180-degree vision field. Outdoor-rated and not much bigger than a classic doorbell, this is an ideal home smart device, staycation or not.

App Options, Options for Smart Doorbells

• wall-mount screen
• tablet
• smartphone

 

Lighting, Window, and Other Evolve Solutions

Evolve's brands, services, and installs are featured in many of Dallas Fort Worth's premium homes. Choosing home utility, automation, and smart device titans is a bedrock company principle. We've chosen industry leaders like Lutron lighting and BeSpoke architectural, hand-crafted-in-the-US speakers by Triad.

As the winter sets in, we get a lot of game room packages, including virtual golf AR set-ups. Virtual golf, now there's a staycation. Security, entertainment, and even smart window treatments Evolve offer our customers a lot with a lot of options.

Both old and new-built, we even visit on-site for pre-builds. We work with you to set up your smart home. Using CAD and low-voltage contracting, we're happy to help with security solutions for your home, but also a lot more.

Evolve and the Smarthome 10-Spot

Technology is great but most of us draw the line when we have to make an actual voice-and-ear phone call.

• Automated smart home: awesome.
• Automated phone-answering: just ... no.

Evolve's new rapid response (link) can get you a human reply from one of our experts as quickly as ten minutes.

On-the-Spot Company

Evolve is on the spot nights and weekends for major troubleshooting. Call us at the phone number (972) 200-7087.

Staycation: All Systems Go; All Family Members Stop

Relaxation is not automatic. We know this now more than ever. But a home can be automatic. Evolve is a home security company, but we're experts in every step of entertainment and appliance systems.

Technology can drive a better quality of life when it works for you. Sometimes it is as simple as ticking off the boxes of home stuff.

The house is taken care of, there's less on your mind. Stay or go, enjoy it.

Call today for a consultation.