New high-tech "smart house" can think for you

• For a cool $6.9 million, you can buy the Back Bay's first ``smart house,'' a modern-day Marlborough Street mansion that will do the thinking for you at home while you slave at the office.
• In an increasingly competitive market, local builder New Boston Ventures is embracing high-tech home gizmos to gain an edge as a flood of multimillion-dollar condos and homes hits the market in Boston's pricier neighborhoods.
• Hardwood floors and stainless-steel appliances are old news, New Boston principal David Goldman said.
• Still, New Boston, which has done extensive, upscale condo development, is hedging its bets.
• The firm is also laying plans to divide the big Back Bay spread into two oversized ``smart'' townhouses should a single buyer not surface with nearly $7 million to spend.
• ``The technology that we saw in the Jetsons is finally becoming a reality,'' said Goldman.
• The house combines the latest in Internet connections -- both wire-based and wireless -- with a souped-up home security system with a range of remote control possibilities.
• Too busy to check on whether the kids have come home from school?
• Your new smart house will e-mail you when your kids walk through the door.
• Scared the heat will shut down while you are off on that winter getaway weekend?
• Your friendly smart house will e-mail -- or call you on the phone -- if there is a problem, Goldman said.
• Or how about that nightmare rush hour when you find yourself stuck in traffic with dinner guests on the way?
• The smart house technology is created by Home Automation Inc., which layered several new features atop a highly advanced home security system.
• A core group of smart house features comes with the house -- others have to be added on to the basic network, at a likely cost of several hundred to a few thousand dollars extra.