SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Thirty five million dollars can buy a lot of home. And home automation. Just ask tech entrepreneur Michael Barnick, whose lavish spread near this coastal city, located about 95 miles north of Los Angles, is featured in a Wall Street Journal article.
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As the story describes, Barnick was retired when he started designing the oceanfront residence in 2005. He ended up becoming so involved with the technologies being installed throughout the property that he decided to launch a business called Quantum Integration, which installs home-automation systems.
The house was completed a few weeks ago. Designing and building the roughly 10,100-square-foot, four-bedroom contemporary took so long “our kids kind of grew up,” Barnick told WSJ, leading him and wife, Sujittra, to conclude they no longer needed such a large home. So the new house is going on the market for $35 million.
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The residence sits on 3.7 acres on a bluff above the ocean. The home’s lighting, music, televisions, heat, air-conditioning, window shades, fireplaces and door locks can be controlled remotely by tablet or smartphone. But Barnick is proudest of the home’s automated features. When he drives through the home’s gates, the lights turn on, the garage opens and the fountain starts running, for example. And when the shower starts, the towel warmer turns on.
The home also sports three built-in aquariums that can be programmed to automatically change the water and monitor water temperature and quality. “For me it’s all about the technology and doing it well, not flashy,” said Barnick, a 53-year-old former Apple executive who retired in 2000 after SonicWall, an Internet security company he co-founded, went public.
It’s likely the home is outfitted with electronic security measures as well, however, those details were not included in the article.
