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Ask Slashdot: Ideas For a Geek Remodel?

Posted by samzenpus on from the don't-forget-the-robot dept.

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."

13 of 372 comments (clear)

  1. This is the in-law's house right? by suso · · Score: 5, Funny

    Invest in a good voice recognition system and write some regexes that will detect your name in various contexts and alert you if they are leaving their house to come over to yours.

    1. Re:This is the in-law's house right? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Remember Rule 1 in remodels:

      A poorly planned remodel costs three times as much as originally budgeted.
      A well planned remodel only costs twice as much.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    2. Re:This is the in-law's house right? by hardie · · Score: 5, Informative

      One more--if you're doing the work yourself, it will take anywhere from 2 to 10 times as long as a real contractor would take. This is why their pay grade is higher than yours (in contracting...). The quick estimate is to take the contractor's wage (say $60/hour) versus your "skilled" labor at $10: it will take you six times as long.

      Next, add in the effects of only working on weekends (if so), and not being in shape for a full day of serious hustle contractor labor...it takes even longer.

      I am a dedicated do-it-myselfer. I don't mean to discourage, but go into this with eyes open.

      Steve

    3. Re:This is the in-law's house right? by geoskd · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As a former builder I can tell you, we don't do that. Telling someone it will take longer is a great way to lose a bid... and thus never get a chance to even start the job. The "Scotty Principle" works only if you have a nice safe government paycheck.

      I have to second that. Home owners never believe contractors who tell them a realistic (much less padded) estimate for how long a project will take. For some reason most homeowners think you can Drywall, Spackle and sand 2000 Square feet in a day...

      I just finished a 2000 square foot renovation project. Complete teardown (to the frame, and in some instances even that had to go). The project took two of us working on it part time: 5 years to complete. The original budget for the project was $75,000. Final expenses ended up around $180,000. We definitely went overkill. Individual thermostat control for each room, Radiant floor heating, and Silent Valance cooling. Whole house Gbit Ether, CATV / phone to every room. Satellite hookup on the roof (even though we don't use it, the box is there and properly wired). 15 New skylights with motorized remote controls. Heat Pump heat and cool with Natural Gas backup. I skipped the Geothermal, but I highly recommend it for the long run. I can still switch the heat pump for a geothermal unit, and will probably do so when the heat pump eventually dies.

      Additional items that are definitely worth the money, but don't have any geek shininess to them: Spray foam insulation. If you have the walls open anyway, put in spray foam. at 7.5 inches thick (exterior wall), the stuff has an R value of around 50, and unlike all other forms of insulation, it wont degrade over time. I have several rooms in my house that you can heat with a candle. My total heating bill is less than the cost of running the household appliances, even in the dead of winter.

      You'll also want to make sure you have 500 AMP mains. This will ensure you have adequate power for everything in the future. Along with this, run at least two separate strings of 20 Amp outlets to every room. You never appreciate how much power modern equipment can draw until you try to run your mini-fridge, microwave, and 1000 watt stereo, only to discover that all the outlets in the house share a single 15 amp breaker... I have 2 20 amp circuits for every room. I can run most of a normal persons household on the power handling ability of half my living room, but I'm pretty sure My house is ready to handle tomorrows do-hickeys. I would also recommend getting some LED accent lighting for common areas like kitchens and baths. This stuff can be very dim, but provide enough light to act as a night light. Very cool to have instead of turning on bright lights to go the bathroom in the middle of the night and waking up the whole house.

      -=Geoskd

      --
      I wish I had a good sig, but all the good ones are copyrighted
  2. Dude. One word... by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Funny

    Star Trek living-room.

    --
    If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
  3. Unrealistic budget by Aranykai · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a general contractor, assuming you are doing things(paint, flooring, maybe light fixtures and blinds) to the entire 3000 sq ft, your budget that remains purely for tech is going to be approximately zero. Its doubtful that budget would even allow for much of a kitchen/bath update depending on what part of the country you are in.

    --
    If sharing a song makes you a pirate, what do I have to share to be a ninja?
    1. Re:Unrealistic budget by IdolizingStewie · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I have to think that given that budget, what he means is this is what we have left over for tech upgrades. At least I hope that's what he means.

  4. An unusual idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I know that you said this in the abstract, but I'd really avoid having a TV in the dining room if I were you. Not to sound too much like a 1950's stereotype, dining is a social occasion, and dining together is a good time to talk. Have a TV in your office/den and if you're having a lazy lunch etc, take the food there, but try to have a clear space to have dinner together and you'll find it really encourages conversations.

  5. Re:How about a novel idea... by malakai · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    Am I the only one scratching my head on this? Are they doing this for his in-laws? Why would they both have offices at her parents house? Is it their house now? Why call it her parents? Did they not pay for it?

    Put a digital clock in each room, call it a day, and invest the money in a high yield bond, until you can afford your own home.

    --
    -Malakai
    A Dragon Lives in my Garage
  6. TV in the dining room? by Guano_Jim · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's a matter of personal taste, of course, but I'd keep the TV out of the dining room and spend the money on something else. You need a place to get away from information overload.

    We've declared our dining room to be a screen-free zone-- no TV's, laptops, iPads, smartphones, whatever. It's the one room in the house where we sit, eat, and converse as a family.

    I find the half hour or so when people aren't checking Facebook, tweeting, playing minecraft, checking their calendar, etc to be pretty refreshing. It's amazing what you can find out when you ask a kid how their day was.

    --
    3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
  7. Kitchen advice. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Layout and work flow are key to a great kitchen. Fridges that have cat5 and lcd screens are essentially toys. Spend your money on quality cookware and utensils that are commercial grade.
    Think about little things like;
    how do I cool stuff down efficiently,
    what is the best convection equipment that I can afford.
    Where do I rinse vegetables?
    Is there filtered water and how well can I clean oversized pots. A pot sink is a better alternative to a double shallow!
    Get a small commercial salamander oven that can top brown ...not a cheap toaster oven.

    Don't spend your money on toys!

    Above all set it up so that more than one person can work in the kitchen at a time without having to worry too much about stabbing each other! Your wife will love you for that much more that all the geek toys you can stuff into a kitchen now a days.

    Sure put a sit down bar away from the prep area where you can have a laptop or whatever and put sound in the kitchen but by and large all this is secondary to a well thought out design and quality equipment!

    I am a cook and know what really matters in food preparation.

  8. Re:Kitchen by Fear+the+Clam · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Also a proper venting range hood. It's amazing how few houses have this simple thing anymore.

  9. Re:Ethernet! by Razgorov+Prikazka · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And to add to this, redundant tubes. So if one day you decide to switch to glassfiber, extra speakers, or something, you don't have to break up all the wall's again, just run them through those tubes.
    Or alternatively you could have all the tubes, valves and wiring neatly side by side running in plain sight at the ceiling, color-coded, and labelled , just like a sub-marine. Then have a "command centre" with the whole system, flowrates, temperature's, power-usage per socket a and other measurements at your finger-tips.
    http://image.yaymicro.com/rz_1210x1210/0/499/inside-a-submarine-4993d2.jpg
    Or maybe not if you go for cosy :-)

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