Homelabs that don’t become a second job.
Build quiet, low-power home servers that work reliably — Jellyfin, mini PCs, simple networking, and backups you can actually restore. No enterprise cosplay. Just sane defaults.
Latest journal
View all →Homelab Journal #1: Starting small on purpose
Week one of building my own SmallGrid homelab — decisions, trade-offs, and what I deliberately didn’t do.
Latest guides
View all →Which OS for a Home Server? Proxmox vs Bare Metal vs NAS Distros
A practical comparison of Proxmox, plain Linux, and NAS-focused distros for small, low-power homelabs.
Mini PCs Under £200: Picking a Tiny Box That Can Actually Homelab
How to choose a used or budget mini PC that can run Jellyfin, Docker, and a small homelab without murdering your power bill.
Remote Jellyfin Without Port Forwarding: Tailscale + SmallGrid Setup
Use Tailscale to reach your Jellyfin server from anywhere without opening ports or wrestling with DDNS.
How Much Power Is My Homelab Using? (And What It Costs)
Measure and estimate power usage for your home server, and turn watts into monthly cost in real money.
First Things to Self-Host: A Sane Starter Stack
A practical starter stack for a small homelab: services that are worth running yourself and won’t eat your time.
Safe Experiments: Snapshots and Test Environments for Your Homelab
Use snapshots, test VMs, and simple clones so you can tinker without nuking your working setup.
Efficiency first
Mini PCs, iGPU transcoding, and “good enough” choices that keep wattage and noise down.
Maintainable
Setups you can support when you’re busy, tired, or both. Fewer moving parts, fewer surprises.
Tailscale over port-forwarding
Remote access that isn’t “open ports and pray”. Private networking that just works.