I'm in the midst of fixing up an old run-down beach cottage that we recently bought. The single most important thing from my perspective is lots of conduit. We loaded smurf tube in the walls (after we ripped down the rotten sheet rock). We figured that would give us flexibility to add low voltage wire later for adding surround sound, home automation systems, whatever. We also left pull boxes in strategic locations for adding electric service in unexpected locations later.
By the way, our plan is to skip POTS at this house and stick to IP connectivity. We're going to use the Visonics (http://www.visonic.com/)alarm system for basic home automation (and security). We'll back that up with standard X-10 style stuff.
Of course, in the end we'll probably do everything wireless anyway.
What we really wanted was cool Abbot and Costello features like swinging bookcases, secret rooms and the like. But that's stuff is surprisingly expensive to create.
We are also looking seriously at geothermal heating and a/c. In our case it would be an open loop system which requires two wells.
When I first got a wireless card for my laptop I ran out into my backyard to see what networks I could pick up. Right at the top of the list of available networks was "Kill_the_White_Man". As I moved closer to my African-American neighbor's house it got stronger.
He's a nice guy, so the next day when I ran into him I asked if he had wireless. He flinched and said "No". That afternoon the network had been renamed something innocous.
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I'm in the midst of fixing up an old run-down beach cottage that we recently bought. The single most important thing from my perspective is lots of conduit. We loaded smurf tube in the walls (after we ripped down the rotten sheet rock). We figured that would give us flexibility to add low voltage wire later for adding surround sound, home automation systems, whatever. We also left pull boxes in strategic locations for adding electric service in unexpected locations later.
By the way, our plan is to skip POTS at this house and stick to IP connectivity. We're going to use the Visonics (http://www.visonic.com/)alarm system for basic home automation (and security). We'll back that up with standard X-10 style stuff.
Of course, in the end we'll probably do everything wireless anyway.
What we really wanted was cool Abbot and Costello features like swinging bookcases, secret rooms and the like. But that's stuff is surprisingly expensive to create.
We are also looking seriously at geothermal heating and a/c. In our case it would be an open loop system which requires two wells.
When I first got a wireless card for my laptop I ran out into my backyard to see what networks I could pick up. Right at the top of the list of available networks was "Kill_the_White_Man". As I moved closer to my African-American neighbor's house it got stronger.
He's a nice guy, so the next day when I ran into him I asked if he had wireless. He flinched and said "No". That afternoon the network had been renamed something innocous.
My network is called "Kill_the_Who!?"