Hi - we're doing a huge remodel (basically rebuilding our entire house) and would like to integrate some home automation options.

Our building isn't too familiar with home automation (or at least the ones he's put in are the very expensive ones). We are on a pretty tight budget for this (it's more of a "neat to have" than a "must have"0.

I've been trying to read around on this but am still a bit confused. And many of the threads I found by searching on google were older, and I imagine the technology changes pretty quickly?

The Lowe's Iris option sounds nice. And it sounds like it would work with Z-wave and Zigbee products. Are there options better than Iris I should be checking out? I saw the Mi Casa Verde option, and that looks good, too.

Also, we're going to buy a couple of skylights and would love if we could control those with a home automation system. We are looking to the solar skylight option b/c of price. Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance for helping us out. So many decisions to make and being new to all this, I get so confused!