Houses (was Re: [TriLUG] Re: FUD alert!)

[John Franklin]

On Fri, Apr 19, 2002 at 12:14:44AM -0400, Tanner Lovelace wrote:
> On Thu, 2002-04-18 at 23:43, James Manning wrote:
> > Ok, that's scary.  We have 20 days (til May 8th, when the 30 day mark
> > hits from our contract date of April 8th) for picking out all our options
> > (before the $300 change order fee kicks in).  6 months to build, and to
> > be a geek I picked out 10/24 as our closing date (excellent power of 2,
> > and in LotR I think it's the day that Frodo comes back to consciousness
> > after being healed by Elrond)
> 
> $300 change order fee!  Wow!.  We only have a $100 change order fee
> for ours.  Just out of curiosity, where are you building and what
> company is it?  We're having Centex build our home and are building
> in the Grandale Place subdivision (of Grandale Rd near Southpoint).

You may want to ask them if you can put in your own network wiring.

When I had mine built out here in Apex the builder was kind enough to
let me install conduit for the wire.  Here's how it worked: After the
builder finished framing but before they did the firestop I came out
during the weekend and nailed in boxes all over the house.  To the boxes
I attached a 3/4" PVC pipe which extended into the attic or the
basement.  Two 2" PVC trunks run from the basement to the attic, and all
the builder installed phone and cable lines went under the stairs in the
basement.  Any services I want to run I run from there.  Roughly forty
boxes, blank face plates and piping for them cost me $200 or so from
Home Depot.  YMMV.  (s/basement/crawl/ if you don't have a basement.)

This lets me run whatever wire I need as I need it.  Phone, ethernet,
cable, speaker.  If I want to go all-optical in a couple of years, it'll
be easy to run that, too.  If I rearrange my office, I'll rewire the
plugs to match.  Speaker wire goes bad, I'll run new line.  If I put a
TV in my room, I'll add a drop from the satellite box.

If you do this, a couple of things to note: think about all the places
you might want to have information services, *all* information services.
Think about where the wireless AP would work best.  Speakers work well
up high, most other services (phone, cable, ethernet) down around the
plug level.  There are places you'll obviously want to put boxes: living
room, bedrooms, office.  There are also some less obvious ones.  I added
one in the garage, two in the kitchen, one on the plant shelf, and one
in the hall bath.  (Yes, the bathroom.)  I should have put some in the
smaller bedroom closets.  Sometimes it's easier to put the TV in there.
I would have put one behind the fridge if there was a good spot.  Who's
to say we won't have smart appliances in sixty years?

Some builders will let you do this.  Some will not.  Some call it "sweat
equity."

Remember: Boxes are cheap.  PVC piping is cheap.  Nails are cheap.
Putting them in after the fact is not.  It's not just a house, it's your
very own home, custom built to your whims.  It's the embodiment of the
American Dream.  And it's a personal geek project the likes of which you
may never get another chance at.  

So go crazy.

jf
-- 
John Franklin
franklin at elfie.org
ICBM: N37 12'54", W80 27'14" Z+2100'