How a Pismo Beach lawyer turned his ocean-view home into an Alexa voice-activated haven
With every passing day, attorney Scott Taylor’s Pismo Beach residence takes another step toward becoming Iron Man’s home.
What started in 2018 as a straightforward gut-and-renovate job on Taylor’s Longview Avenue home — which sits high above the city with cliffside views extending well past the Oceano Dunes — has since become an ever-expanding network of Amazon Alexa voice controllers and synchronized devices.
Taylor, a self-professed nerd and fan of Robert Downey Jr.’s take on Tony Stark/Iron Man in the Marvel Studios films, said he was inspired by the superhero’s voice-controlled, futuristic Malibu home featured in the movies while he was digging through the walls and floors of the home.
So he decided to get his home as close to the Avenger’s mansion as possible.
Using thousands of feet of concealed wiring, half a dozen Alexa devices and nearly 200 individual synchronized devices, he might be getting close.
Like Iron Man’s AI assistant JARVIS, Alexa is hooked up to almost every window, door, appliance and gadget with a WiFi chip, giving him the ability to control almost every part of his home with his voice alone.
With just the phrase “Alexa, Barn Door Protocol” — itself another reference to a lockdown command used by Iron Man in “Avengers: Endgame” — Taylor’s living room jumps into action, unrolling blinds on the ocean side of the home and cranking the shutters on other windows to closed.
It’s one of several household routines Taylor said makes his and his wife Annie Fallers’ lives easier — a commodity that will only become more valuable as the couple readies for the birth of their first child next year.
“My then-girlfriend, now wife started working out of here when we moved in together, and I noticed she never turned off the lights when she left her office for the day,” Taylor said. “Rather than making the thing, I just bought some automated light switches and took her out of the equation — problem solved. It kind of grew from there.”
The Tribune took a tour of Taylor’s home as part of a Uniquely series of stories about unusual homes in San Luis Obispo County.
The Iron Man of Pismo Beach?
Across Taylor’s home, devices from the obvious to the unexpected can be controlled with voice commands.
Saying the words “Alexa, dracarys” — this time, a reference to a word for dragonfire from “Game of Thrones” — ignites the back patio’s fire pit, while saying the right line will prompt a pre-written joke response set by Taylor.
Asking Taylor’s Alexa what it thinks of the Los Angeles Dodgers will prompt a response that Taylor preset for the device, for example.
“They are an overhyped team who could only win a title in a 60-game season where their pitchers routinely use foreign substances on balls in full violation of the rules, two asterisks on that championship,” the device will reply. “What a bunch of losers.”
Taylor said he’s considered changing the virtual assistant’s name and voice to more fully match Iron Man’s JARVIS, but hasn’t gotten around to it yet. Alexa users can change the name their device responds to, and even set customized voice responses to certain lines.
Bathroom floor temperatures, alarms, lights, smart display-enabled bathroom mirrors, TVs and even a smart fridge that can tell him when he runs out of an item all are controlled by voice, leaving only a handful of “dumb” switches across the house.
Across his home’s numerous smart devices, Taylor said he’s spent thousands of dollars and is prepared to spend more to continue updating and perfecting the home setup.
The system isn’t a completely closed loop, as Taylor still has to perform upkeep and maintenance on the small army of smart devices.
“Without fail, every single time I go out of town, something needs to be rebooted or firmware updated,” Taylor said. “It always happens when I’m gone.”
Taylor said since starting with the project, several pieces of his voice-controlled system have been redone or replaced entirely — including a secret passageway hidden behind a bookcase in his living room.
When he initially installed the hidden passage on a set of piano hinges, it was controlled by pulling on a fake volume of “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.” Now, providing Alexa with the right password will unlock a swinging bookcase in the living room using a hidden set of electromagnets.
That’s not the only hidden door in the house. Just a floor below, another bookshelf can be opened with the right password, hiding valuables such as wine, collectibles and more.
“One of the first things I wanted when I when I rebuilt this house was I wanted a secret passageway,” Taylor said. “Basically, if I could have a secret passageway from the billiard room to the conservatory, I would absolutely do that — I grew up playing ‘Clue.’ ”
A voice-controlled device for every occasion
Taylor said he’s always looking for ways to improve his home’s setup, particularly with a baby on the way.
Already, the bedrooms and nursery are set for wake-up and bedtime routines, which bring the lights up and down and sets alarms for the users.
“I will invest in convenience,” Taylor said. “Our crib should arrive in October — it’s one that has artificial intelligence in it, so that when he starts waking up, it starts bouncing itself up and down to make him go back to sleep. I will invest in extra sleep.”
The next addition? A voice-activated toaster.
“Those analog switches are a relic of the past,” Taylor said. “Everything is automated now.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
