I Built a Home Lab, and It Turned Into Something Much Bigger

I didn't really set out to build a home lab. At least, that's not what I would have called it when I started.

It was more like a series of little projects that kept leading to other projects. One thing would make me curious about something else, I'd start experimenting, and before long I had another service running somewhere.

Looking back at it now, I realize I've built something that has become a pretty significant part of my daily life.

And oddly enough, I think the whole thing started with a little ClockworkPi uConsole.

The uConsole Got Me Experimenting Again

I've always enjoyed messing with computers. I've been doing it for decades, and I've never really outgrown the curiosity that comes with wondering, "I wonder if I can make that work."

The ClockworkPi uConsole reignited that for me.

It was never really about needing another computer. In fact, I had no intention of ever owning one, but my best friend gave it to me for my birthday. Little did I know it was going to spark something in me that made me want to explore all its possibilities. I started using it as a little field computer, playing with Linux, RetroArch, scripts, and various little utilities I'd either find or write myself.

It became a computer I could actually take places and use for whatever I happened to be interested in at the time.

That experience reminded me how much I enjoy building things just because I can.

Not long after that, I started thinking about my home network a little differently.

Then Google Gave Me Another Reason

One of the things that pushed me further down this road was Google.

We received an email telling us that our family could no longer remain on my Google family plan.

I honestly didn't realize when I originally set it up that the people on the plan were expected to live under the same roof. It had worked for years, so I never gave it much thought. Apparently, that's changed, or at least enforcement has become more aggressive.

Whatever the reason, it got me thinking.

I've depended on Google for a lot over the years. Cloud storage, photos, email, documents, various services... it's incredibly convenient, but convenience can also turn into dependence without you really noticing.

I've never been particularly fond of being locked into proprietary software or services anyway. Throughout my life, I've usually looked for the free alternative first. That eventually led me to open source software, and I've been using things like GIMP and LibreOffice for years.

So this wasn't really a sudden "I'm leaving Big Tech!" decision.

It was more of a realization that I could take back some control over the things I actually use.

And I had a perfectly good laptop sitting around that wasn't being used.

The World's Most Convenient Home Server

The laptop originally belonged to someone else who had broken the screen and had no interest in repairing it.

For most people, a broken-screen laptop is probably headed for the recycling pile.
For me, it was basically a tiny server begging for a second life.
I didn't need the screen.

I temporarily connected an external monitor, got Linux installed, configured everything I needed, and eventually tucked the laptop away in the corner of my office. It now runs closed on a small 3D-printed stand that I made for it.

And it's actually a surprisingly good little server.

It has 8 GB of memory, Wi-Fi 6, and, most importantly, a working battery. That last part makes me laugh a little because I never intended to use it this way. I effectively have a built-in UPS.

The laptop only needs one cable connected to it. If the power flickers, the server doesn't immediately go down. It's not something I planned for, but it's a pretty nice feature for a machine that cost me essentially nothing.

For storage, I have a 5TB portable USB hard drive connected to the USB 3 port on my router. That's my NAS, and the Docker containers use that storage.

It's not exactly enterprise infrastructure.

And that's kind of the point.

I'm using hardware that would otherwise have been discarded to provide services that I actually use.

The one glaring thing missing from the setup is a proper backup solution. That's something I know I need to address, and it's on my list.

Because there's one thing I've learned while doing this:

Self-hosting doesn't mean your data is automatically safe.

If anything, once you're responsible for your own data, you become much more aware of where it actually lives.

"You Should Make an Audiobook Server"

The first real home-lab service came from a conversation with Monica.

She was telling me how much she enjoyed listening to audiobooks.

What I heard was:

"You should make an audiobook server."

So I did.

I set up Audiobookshelf with the original idea that while Monica was home, she could download whatever she wanted to listen to and take it with her.

That worked.

But then I started thinking about it.

What happens when she forgets to download something?

She's already out of the house. She wants to listen to a particular book. It's sitting on the server at home. And now she can't get to it.

That bothered me more than it probably should have.

So I installed Tailscale.

And suddenly Monica could securely connect back to our home network from wherever she was.

That solved the audiobook problem, but it also opened up a much bigger possibility.

My Home Lab Became Useful

Once Monica had Tailscale access, she wasn't limited to Audiobookshelf.

She could reach the other services I was running too.

Jellyfin
Immich
File Browser Quantum
Mealie
Paperless-ngx
SearXNG
Homepage
Uptime Kuma
Linkwarden
OpenWebUI
Vaultwarden
Transmission
FreshRSS

And now, most recently, MeTube.

There's also Portainer sitting there, although Monica doesn't have access to that one.

I have to be honest, though. She's not using all of these. I'm the one using all of these. And I actually do use them. That's probably the part of this project that surprised me the most.

It would be easy to build a home lab just for the sake of building one. Install twenty containers, take a screenshot, put it on a website, and call it a day.

But these services have slowly become part of my normal routine.

I use Jellyfin to watch movies/TV and listen to music.
I use AudioBookShelf to listen to audio books and Podcasts.
I use FreshRSS for my feeds.
I use Mealie for food recipies.
I use Paperless-ngx to organize/OCR PDF documents.
I use Vaultwarden for password management.
I use Linkwarden for bookmark management.
I use SearXNG for anonymous search.
I use OpenWebUI as my own locally hosted ChatGPT.
I use File Browser Quantum to access/view/download files on my NAS.
I use ONLYOFFICE to create/edit office documents in File Browser Quantum.
I use Immich for photos.
I use Transmission for torrents.
I use Uptime Kuma to ensure all my services are running.
I use Homepage to put all my services into a neatly organized webpage to monitor and access them.

And now I use MeTube when I want to save a video.

It's no longer a collection of containers.

It's my stuff.

Then I Bought a VPS

At some point, I decided I wanted something that couldn't simply live inside my house.

I rented an inexpensive VPS and started playing around with Matrix.

The goal was simple: I wanted to be able to communicate with friends and family using my own private Matrix server rather than depending on somebody else's platform.

Of course, nothing is ever as simple as it sounds.

If I wanted people outside my home network to connect to my server, I needed to learn how to make that happen.

That led me directly into reverse proxies.

And then Caddy.

I had never really needed to understand reverse proxy configuration at this level before, so I started learning.

Once I figured out how to point domains at services and let Caddy handle the HTTPS side of things, another door opened.

Now I could create subdomains.

So naturally, I started creating subdomains.

Some things are hosted on my home network. Some are hosted on the VPS. Some are hosted with other providers.

At that point I wasn't really following a grand plan anymore.

I was just curious.

Curiosity Is Expensive in Time, But Cheap in Money

One of the things I really enjoy about this project is that most of what I've learned didn't come from sitting down and deciding, "Today I'm going to learn reverse proxies."

I learned it because I wanted something to work.

I needed Caddy because I wanted my Matrix server accessible from the Internet.

I needed Tailscale because I wanted Monica to access our home services remotely.

I needed Docker because I wanted to run these applications without turning the entire operating system into a science experiment.

I needed to understand networking because suddenly I had services running on different machines and different networks.

I needed to understand DNS because I wanted domains and subdomains to actually go where I expected them to go.

I needed to understand storage because eventually all of these services started accumulating data.

And then I added AI to the mix.

Of Course I Added AI

I have another desktop PC running a Ryzen 5 8600G with 32 GB of DDR5 memory.

That machine runs Ollama.

My home-lab laptop can connect to it and use the AI capabilities where they're available in the applications I'm running.

This opened up another entire rabbit hole.

Which model should I use?
How big of a model can I realistically run?
What performs well on this hardware?
What's the difference between the various quantizations?
Why does one model seem great at something while another completely falls apart?
How much RAM does this thing actually need?

And, perhaps most importantly:

"Why did that work yesterday?"

There has been a lot of trial and error.

Mostly error.

But that's how I've always learned this stuff.

I try something.
It doesn't work.
I figure out why.
I try something else.
Eventually it works.

And then I immediately start wondering what else I can do with it.

Somewhere Along the Way, I Installed Fedora

While all of this was happening, I made another change that I should have done a few years ago.

My primary laptop had been running Windows exclusively.
I decided to dual boot it and install Fedora 44 with KDE.
I have been absolutely overjoyed with that decision.

It isn't that I suddenly hate Windows. I don't.

Windows is still incredibly useful, especially in the enterprise, and considering the amount of my career I've spent supporting Windows computers, I don't see that changing anytime soon.

But I don't have to use it for everything.

And that distinction is important.

I've always gravitated toward free software. When I was younger, I was usually looking for the free alternative to whatever somebody else was paying for. Eventually I discovered open source software, and I've been using it ever since.

That makes using Linux as my daily OS a lot less painful than it might otherwise be.

I already know GIMP.
I already know LibreOffice.
I'm very familiar using the command line.

I'm already comfortable with the idea that software doesn't have to come from one giant company and doesn't necessarily have to be tied to a subscription.

And today, so much of what we actually do on a computer happens inside a web browser anyway.

That's where my home lab really makes this point obvious.

It doesn't matter whether I'm sitting at my Windows desktop, my Fedora laptop, my uConsole, or another computer entirely.

If the application has a web interface, I can use it.

The operating system becomes less important.

The services become more important.

This Is More Than a Technology Project

The funny thing is that I originally thought I was building a server.

What I've really been building is a little bit of independence.

I'm not trying to eliminate every service from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, or anybody else.

That's not realistic, and I don't think it needs to be the goal.

But I can choose where I want to have control.

My photos don't have to exist exclusively in somebody else's cloud.
My media doesn't have to come from somebody else's streaming service.
My documents don't have to live exclusively in somebody else's ecosystem.
My RSS feeds don't have to depend on somebody else's reader.
My search doesn't have to go through Google.
My conversations don't have to happen on somebody else's social network.
My passwords don't have to be managed by a company whose business model I don't fully control.

And my services don't all have to disappear if a company changes its policies.

That doesn't mean I've completely escaped Big Tech.

I'm not going to pretend I have.

But I have options now.

And having options is valuable.

It Has Started Affecting Everything Else

The home lab has also had an unexpected side effect.

It's making me want to get other parts of my digital life organized.

That's something I've struggled with for years.

Files scattered around.
Photos in different places.
Bookmarks I can never find again.
Documents I know I have somewhere.
Things saved in one service because it was convenient at the time.

The more I build, the more I find myself asking:

"Why am I doing this this way?"

Sometimes the answer is that the existing solution is perfectly fine.

Other times, I realize I can build something better for myself.

And even when I don't build anything, I've at least thought about the problem.

That's probably been one of the biggest benefits of this whole project.

It's gotten me thinking about organization instead of simply accepting digital chaos as normal.

And Now I'm Building Websites Again

All of this has also pulled me back toward something I hadn't been doing much of lately: creating things.

I've started working on MotoLinux again.
I'm revamping the website.
I'm writing blog posts.
I'm trying to get back into making YouTube videos.
I've been building little projects that I actually want to document.
I've built a website for my brother's automotive repair business.
I've even found myself creating little websites and subdomains simply because I can.

That probably sounds silly.

But I enjoy it.

I used to tell myself that I needed to have a good reason before starting a project.

Now I'm starting to think that curiosity is reason enough.

One New Thing Every Day

I've made a personal goal for myself:

Accomplish something new every day.

It doesn't have to be huge.
Maybe I learn something.
Maybe I fix something.
Maybe I write something.
Maybe I build something.
Maybe I finally figure out why something I've been fighting with for three days isn't working.

Some days it's a major project.
Some days it's a tiny improvement that nobody else would ever notice.

It still counts.

This home lab has been almost perfectly suited to that goal because there is always something else to learn.

There is always another container.
Another service.
Another configuration file.
Another problem.
Another idea.

And occasionally, something actually works on the first try.

Those days are nice.

I Don't Really Know Where This Is Going

That's probably the best part.

When I started with that broken laptop, I had no idea I'd eventually be running all of this.

I certainly didn't expect an audiobook server to lead to Tailscale, Tailscale to lead to broader remote access, a VPS to lead to Matrix, Matrix to lead to Caddy, Caddy to lead to subdomains, and all of that to eventually pull me back into blogging, Linux, website development, and YouTube.

It's become a collection of things that I find useful, things that I want to learn, and things that I simply want to see if I can make work.

And I think that's what I like most about it.

There's no business plan.
There's no product roadmap.
There's no subscription service I need to sell.

It's just a guy in a corner of his office, running Docker containers on a laptop with a broken screen, using a 3D-printed stand, a hard drive hanging off a router, a second PC running local AI, and a whole lot of curiosity.

It's probably not the most impressive home lab in the world.

But it's mine and I use it every day.

For me, that's a much better measure of success.

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