I went a different route for the home automation.
There are multiple brands of remote RF outlets available. I chose the Etekcity programmable 5-packs on Amazon. They're pretty cheap, usually under $30 US.
Next I tried the Hook, a 2015 Kickstarter now available on Amazon. I ordered one from the crowd funding before they were available at retail. The Hook provides the RF outlets with a web interface (computers, phones, tablets), IFTTT, and Alexa. However, mine didn't last long. It had far less range than advertised, was cheaply constructed, overall buggy, and died after 5 months.
Since then I've been using the Broadlink RM Pro (about $30-35 depending on source, mine came from eBay). It is much more reliable with better range. I've been happy with it.
There's a way to bridge Alexa with the Broadlink, but I don't care enough to bother. Using Alexa to turn things on and off was cute for a few weeks, but after that it ended up as a "party trick" to amuse guests.
Alexa didn't quite work out for us as I had hoped. These days it's mostly used as a voice activated alarm clock and timer, which is still pretty cool, but far less than expected. The music playback features are far too limiting for me and it rarely has the answers to the questions I ask.
But as things are, I'm OK not using Alexa for home automation. The scheduled events for lights and devices take care of most of our needs and pressing a button on my phone to turn something on or off is still great.