Well, I think It is exactly the right time to see how technology is starting to build those kind of houses. It's easy to build a system to control your home electronics today, and it's also easy and possible to build software to control all those devices using your smartphone! I made a small example of how you can switch on/off a lamp using a mobile device, and it was easy to make with:
Arduino UNO
Arduino Ethernet Shield
120v relay
https://github.com/dvera123/bulb-project
