Trying to automate a home can take patience and an eye for detail.

Jacob Atalla, vice president of sustainability initiatives at KB Home, views the “scenes” he can use inside Apple’s Home app to control the various smart home devices inside a model home in the company’s Promenade development on Communications Hill in San Jose. The company is now offering packages of smart home features that are designed to work with Apple iPhones and iPads for houses in that neighborhood and in a development in Fremont.