About House of Small Fixes
I’m Ethan Whitaker. For fifteen years I installed and repaired home networks, cameras, smart locks, and basic security systems in ordinary houses across the Midwest. Most of those homes looked a lot like the one I live in now—a practical single-family house in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I share life with my wife and our six-year-old daughter.
I started House of Small Fixes because I kept seeing the same pattern. People bought technology that promised to make life easier, then ended up with weak Wi-Fi, confusing apps, dead batteries, unexpected subscriptions, and a growing sense that their house was working against them. The equipment itself was rarely the whole problem. The bigger issue was that almost no one had explained, in plain language, what actually matters in a real family home and what can safely be ignored.
This site is my answer to that gap.
What This Site Is For
House of Small Fixes exists to help ordinary homeowners and renters make one dependable improvement at a time. I focus on the things that show up in everyday life:
Reliable Wi-Fi that reaches the rooms you actually use
Locks and doorbells the whole family can operate without drama
Cameras and sensors that answer real questions without creating constant noise
Simple devices that earn their place instead of adding new chores
Family technology habits that reduce stress rather than create it
I write from the perspective of someone who has crawled through attics, traced cables behind drywall, and sat at kitchen tables explaining the same problems over and over. My recommendations come from what survives real use—school mornings, forgotten passwords, low batteries, and the occasional power outage—not from lab tests or marketing claims.
How I Approach Every Recommendation
I start with the simplest reliable solution. I am honest about installation difficulty, ongoing costs, privacy trade-offs, and maintenance. I will not push expensive equipment when a cheaper option will do the job. I will not use fear to sell security products. And I will never pretend that every household needs the same ecosystem or the most advanced setup.
My goal is straightforward: explain what matters, skip what does not, and help you make decisions that still make sense six months later.
Life Outside the Blog
When I am not writing or helping families sort out their networks, I spend weekends fixing up our older house, assembling furniture, and keeping a running list of small household problems that could be solved with a repair instead of a new purchase. I label cables. I keep a notebook of every device, warranty date, and “what fixed it last time” note. These habits are not glamorous, but they keep our own technology quiet and predictable—the same standard I want for yours.
The Promise Behind the Name
“Small fixes” is deliberate. Most homes do not need a complete smart-home overhaul. They need better coverage in the back bedroom, a lock that does not lock the family out, a camera that records packages without flooding the phone with alerts, and a few clear rules everyone can follow. Those are the kinds of changes that actually make a house easier to live in.
If you are looking for the latest unboxing video or a ranking of every product on the market, this is probably not the place. If you want practical, field-tested guidance from someone who has installed and repaired these systems in ordinary American homes, you are in the right spot.
Let’s make your home work for you, not the other way around.
— Ethan Whitaker
Fort Wayne, Indiana