Ask Slashdot: Ideas For a Geek Remodel?

An anonymous reader writes "What would you do to 'go geek' if you had a major remodel on your hands? My wife and I are re-modeling my in-law's 3000 sq foot single-level house, and we're both very wired, tech-savvy individuals. We will both have offices, as well as TVs in the bedroom and dining room. My question to the community is: What would you do if you had 10-20,000 to spend for this kind of remodel project? What kind of hardware/firmware would you install? I'd love to have a digital 'command center' to run an LCD wall-calendar for the family, and be able to play my PS3 from anywhere in the house (ie, if everyone wants to watch Netflix while I'm in the middle of some Borderlands). What else have geeks done/planned to do? This is a test run for a much, much nicer house down the road, so don't be overly afraid of cost concerns for really great ideas. We will be taking most of the house down to studs, so don't factor demolition into costs. For culinary-minded geeks, I'd love any ideas you have to surprise my wife with cool kitchen gadgets or designs."

Comments

good luck

[vlm]

My wife and I are re-modeling my in-law's 3000 sq foot single-level house

We will be taking most of the house down to studs

Do you mean the modern american "royal we" where it means you're contracting a citizen who subcontracts to another citizen who hires illegals to do all the labor at 50% to 100% profit markup each step and you expect to do nothing more strenuous than sign a contract, or you're literally doing the old school "we" as in we're the only people doing work inside the house? This has a huge impact on planning.

we're both very wired, tech-savvy individuals

So doing the grunt work (if not all the work, depending on nanny state building codes) of the electrical work MIGHT be in your grasp, but bare stud drywall work is frankly pretty easy to half ass yet very hard to make look good / perfect.

Plumbing is hard because you need to use a $150 wrench, once, to install some weird gasket that you can't buy at a big box store. Hire that out along with drywall.

TVs in the bedroom and dining room

Yer doin it wrong, if the most interesting thing to happen in those rooms comes out of a TV speaker. If you "have to" eat in front of the tube, sit in the living room like a good couch potatoe. I used to use a TV in the bedroom WRT mid-sleep storm warning siren evaluations, but the phone seems to have taken over that duty.

What would you do if you had 10-20,000 to spend for this kind of remodel project?

Hmm bare walls and a hair over $3/sq foot. Even the cheapest home depot "basement grade tile" costs over half that, and still leaves you with bare stud walls. There has to be a dropped zero in there somewhere?

If you just meant tech, and you insist on new/top of the line only, you won't be able to do much with only $10K.

I think you're in way over your head.

What else have geeks done/planned to do?

You'll be overwhelmed if you do it all at once. The best system is built by accretion, just like a black hole. Way over a decade I started with a nice linux based fileserver... well, add a RS-232 interface and some more software and I've got some home automation, boils down to the worlds most elaborate NTP time disciplined, astronomically aware (sunrise/sunset) timer system. Then add a PCI video capture card and some more software and I've got mythtv. It turns out that cheapie whole house audio (aka just put a speaker in every room with elaborate parallel/series interconnections) is cheap and easy to install, and I've already got a fileserver full of content so buy some speakers and rolls of wire and... Repeat a zillion times adding all kinds of weird stuff and you eventually get my house. I can't imagine doing it at the same time, even worse all at the same time as ripping the house down to the studs.

"Adding tech" is best managed as a permanent process, not an isolated single huge project.

For culinary-minded geeks, I'd love any ideas you have to surprise my wife with cool kitchen gadgets or designs.

This I don't even understand, and I like to experiment with cooking. More convenient storage than a house your size "should" have. A walk in pantry is not out of line plus a closet for appliances / things. Every AC power outlet is a home run 15 amp ckt, no daisy chaining such that running the slow cooker, the lights, and the microwave at the same time trip a breaker. If you really wanted you could blow your entire remodel budget on one (exotic) industrial-grade appliance like a combi-oven. I've often wished for one of those 10 horsepower restaurant dishwashers with a 7 minute cycle time (as opposed to my 150 or so minute 1/2 hp dishwasher).

Speaking of lights most kitchens are designed by interior decorators who apparently are very good at being trendy but eat exclusively at trendy urban restaurants. Be very careful as its