Making your whole house smart is NOT necessary. You first have to prioritize all your options and then decide whether to invest in a full-scale home automation network or in separate smart gadgets. If you want to automate your whole house, there are tons of home automation solutions you can choose from and these include appliances, climate control devices, access control, and security elements, entertainment technology, lighting controls, and energy management tools to name a few. Also, you need not buy all the smart home devices you need in one shot. To help you stay within a planned budget, you can plan your purchases in different stages. No matter how you plan to buy a home automation system or device, always make sure that you choose your devices carefully because not all devices are compatible. You need to verify that the devices or systems you want to buy actually work together.