When a leak in a home is detected, it's essential to act quickly to prevent further damage. The author, a software engineer, decided to use their skills to create an automated system to detect leaks and send alerts to prevent costly repairs. They used a Raspberry Pi with Courier to bring notifications to life, which was the perfect use case for this technology. By building "potential-octo-lamp," they created a project that can check for leaks from a water sensor using JavaScript and TypeScript programming languages, sending results to their phone via SMS and email. The author made the project open-source, allowing others to protect their homes from water leaks with ease.