My husband and I recently made the move to our first home. There's been a ridiculous amount of complications along the way but our space is worth the fight. It's unusual in the fact that it's a 1917 Russian Church with a wide open floor plan (as seen here) and it's almost completely void of wiring or tech in any way shape or form! So since we'll be starting from scratch, we're curious how you would fill in this blank "If I could start all over with my home tech I would ____!"
When it comes to outlets, we're almost entirely out of luck with only a few on the property, so some electrical work will need to be done to kick things off, but if you could have built your space to hold or showcase anything, what would it be?
We've already been struggling on the issue of where the TV will go (we have 8-30' windows) and where the record player should live to give the best sound. We've been toying with the idea of leaving a built in space for a projector (toilets and sinks must be purchased first!) and adding extra insulation behind appliances and other noise makers. What do you wish you could have done before you moved into your space? Is there anything that bugs you now that we should look at changing in our space?
We've always been the "make whatever you have work" type people instead of the "design in what you want" types! Ok, let us have it in the comments below!
(Image: Flickr member billjacobus1 licensed for use by Creative Commons)
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Comments (7)
it is quite high tech and expensive tough to maintain .
Cho Yung Tea
do you have floor plan?
Not quite yet jamilkb, we're doing more demo over the next few weeks to bring some walls down and we'll be a little more set in our ways after that.
For the techie these would rank up there:
1. Have Cat6 wires run through the house and a port available in each room. Wireless is great but wired networking for stationary computers still reigns supreme.
2. Install electrical outlets that have a USB ports in them also. I have a few of these and it's awesome not needing the adapter.
3. Dedicate a closet as a central "media hub". Base all of your modems, cable boxes, media servers, home theater equipment, etc... out of this closet.(preferably climate controlled) That way you can easily have all of your media available in each room that has a television, with the help of an "extender" (xBox) or cheapy computer.
Agree with ominoustoad.
1. Install speakers on the wall with brackets or recessed into the wall so your room doesn't have any AV hardware visible or...
2. you might consider running the speaker wire under the floor so you don't have cords visible on the floor.
3. You might also want to replace your fan with another that doesn't drop so low
4. Or if you don't need the fan, install potlights instead.
I agree with ominoustoad and bunster and want to reiterate... if I had to choose one thing I wish my house had, it would be proper wiring. Cat 6 to all rooms as well as grounded outlets
1. While your doing that... maybe make all outlets X10 or Insteon.
2. Whole house audio. The ability to play music in any room would be amazing. I'm for sure going to have this in my next house.
3. Why stop there... whole house video too. Use something like LinuxMCE to have audio or video wherever you want it... unfortunately, that software isn't userfriendly to set up yet.
Agreed again and again. CAT6 in every room and Insteon outlets and switches. Media closet is great idea but intimidating for some as tote control, etc. Insteon even has programmable thermostats and garage door openers. An entire house system should only run about $2000 and can be controlled with an old Mac Mini.