I lost my software development job in October 2025. While I was on unemployment, my son’s school started giving him more homework that needed to be done on a computer.

The problem was that the same computer was also being used to watch endless dumb YouTube videos. So I decided to build a firewall to block porn, ads, weapons-related sites, distracting content, etc., and make the computer mostly useful for homework.

Somehow, that small project turned into a full home lab.

My setup now:

* Dedicated 1U OPNsense server running Zenarmor
* Main 2U server with an AMD EPYC CPU
* 96 GB RAM
* RTX A2000 12 GB
* 10GB LAN
* 500 GB NVMe SSD
* 2× 6 TB HDD
* 2 TB SATA SSD
* 1 TB SATA SSD

I’m using it for:

* Local LLMs
* Jellyfin
* TrueNAS
* Immich
* Backups
* VPN
* A few small backend projects

I’m really happy with how it turned out. I have about 10 years of software development experience, but after months of trying, I still couldn’t find another software job.

So I got my CDL and I’m starting a new chapter working as a truck driver. The nice part is that I can securely access my home server remotely while I’m on the road.

Definitely not where I expected to be a year ago, but I’m pretty happy with what I built and where I’m going next.

Lost my software job, got my CDL, and built a homelab