- Wired Network: One of the standard features of Charis Homes is phone lines to almost every room. Since we no longer have a landline we've changed that from standard phone lines to CAT6 ethernet cable. This means hard-wired Gigabit speeds in most rooms. All these cables will come together in 2 main switches (supporting power-over-ethernet) in the basement.
- Wireless Network: We're using a 3-pack of Wireless Access Points, one on each floor connected through the before mentioned ethernet using the same cable for power as well (power-over-ethernet). This will give a generous wireless coverage throughout the house on every floor.
- Internet: Not sure yet if we'll stay with TimeWarnerCable or if we'll switch to AT&T U-Verse. In any case the signal will be routed to a hardware firewall before being distributed to the two switches.
- TV signal: More than likely we'll retain DirecTV. My wife is an avid Football fan from Minnesota so that kind of settles that part. We'll use their Whole-House DVR function (wired) and their Nomad device for wireless signal distribution. Using the Nomad allowed us to save some money on not cabling the 2nd floor.
- Digital Storage: With our digital camera being one of the heaviest used devices in our household we have to make sure we got some good storage and retrieval for those digital photo albums. We'll be using a Home Server approach with Network-accessible storage. Add some (non-cloud) backup goodies due to the shear amount of pictures we take to keep the FUBARs away.
- Home Automation: See first line... 'money is an object'... so, integrated home automation is out.
- Alarm system: Yup... that definitely IS in the budget... ;-)
Showing posts with label wiring. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wiring. Show all posts
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Electronics overview
As mentioned in the 'since money is an object' post here is an overview of the dream house electronics vision. Here we go.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Build - Day 47 - August 29, 2011
First of all, happy 49th monthaversary to my lovely wife... Love you!. So, that marital duty performed; on with the show...
Today is one of those very 'sexy' building days when they are running wires, cables and PVC pipe. Not a lot of photographic progress and when they are done it almost looks more messy than when they started. Yet, it's all part of the process to make our dream house actually function the way we designed it.
The one item that did show progress was the arrival and installation of the jetted tub in our master bath. We know, a jetted tub is not the 'greenest' product on the planet but we will not use too often so we'll let that one slide.
Over the last few days they also prepped the porches and the garage for the concrete later in the week. The plan is to put those in on Thursday. We also found out last Friday that our nice sliders, which we intended for wheelchair access, aren't even close to 36". Uh oh.
Since we are trying to incorporate as much universal design on the first floor as we can afford, being able to have a wheelchair accessible entrance is pretty important. Our parents are baby boomers, plus if one of us gets in an accident and ends up in a wheelchair at least we know we don't have to demo our house just to get in. The plan was to use the back-deck into the in-law suite as that accessible entry but as we discovered that the sliders closed the door on that idea, so we're adjusting our front entrance from a single step to a slight slope. More like this:
One setback we discovered today has to do with the top part of our in-law suite shower. The first time, it arrived damaged. This one was fortunately dent and scatch free. Slight issue: it's not the same color as the rest of the shower... oops! ;-) Ah well, we have some time before we move in so plenty of time to get that fixed. Sure glad we didn't use that supplier for our kitchen cabinets though...
And here are those 'sexy' pictures...
Today is one of those very 'sexy' building days when they are running wires, cables and PVC pipe. Not a lot of photographic progress and when they are done it almost looks more messy than when they started. Yet, it's all part of the process to make our dream house actually function the way we designed it.
The one item that did show progress was the arrival and installation of the jetted tub in our master bath. We know, a jetted tub is not the 'greenest' product on the planet but we will not use too often so we'll let that one slide.
Over the last few days they also prepped the porches and the garage for the concrete later in the week. The plan is to put those in on Thursday. We also found out last Friday that our nice sliders, which we intended for wheelchair access, aren't even close to 36". Uh oh.
Since we are trying to incorporate as much universal design on the first floor as we can afford, being able to have a wheelchair accessible entrance is pretty important. Our parents are baby boomers, plus if one of us gets in an accident and ends up in a wheelchair at least we know we don't have to demo our house just to get in. The plan was to use the back-deck into the in-law suite as that accessible entry but as we discovered that the sliders closed the door on that idea, so we're adjusting our front entrance from a single step to a slight slope. More like this:
One setback we discovered today has to do with the top part of our in-law suite shower. The first time, it arrived damaged. This one was fortunately dent and scatch free. Slight issue: it's not the same color as the rest of the shower... oops! ;-) Ah well, we have some time before we move in so plenty of time to get that fixed. Sure glad we didn't use that supplier for our kitchen cabinets though...
And here are those 'sexy' pictures...
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| The manoblock; each faucet in the house has its own connection. Guess you can guess the meaning of the colors... |
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| The wires are just hanging out... |
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| One of the must-have items; Central Vac. |
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| Master Bath 'command central' |
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| Our tub is in. Opted for the 5ft so we can have wider surronds. Safer for the vertigo-challenged among us. |
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| A 'sexy' picture to end it for tonight... |
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