interesting. 
Do you have concrete or brick walls?
If wood, what year? 
You likely have a combination of tinted windows (which is metal), combined with aluminum foil wrapping of the house (tyvek). 
One good solution is their wired unit. I was going to buy that until I saw their price. OUCH.
However, from a security POV, wired is superior, though I would still keep it on a separate nic rather than plug-in to a switch (it can be used to access your network). 

If you want, you can assign a static IP to it,but most ppl go with dynamic.  
Therefore, mac becomes the known address for doing forwarding (it is either name, ip, or mac). 

Hobby kit?
nah. It is as professional as anything out there.