Qwest phone service…Day 1

Our friends at Qwest came by this morning and connected the “L” Shaped House to their phone network. The first photo below shows the Radio Shack wall mount phone I put in the garage later this afternoon. We have a single phone line and plan to use Qwest’s (20 Mbps…DSL) “Heavy Duty” internet service.

The next photo shows the (slightly amused) Qwest guy working to install our new Network Interface Device (box) on the back wall of the garage. He was not exactly prepared to be photographed while installing a new service…but was a really good sport about it!

 

Home Automation…Day 3

The Sure-Lock-Homes guys finished up the home automation rough-in this morning. They will be back after the sheet rock is hung to finish their work on the A/V system and install the security devices. The first two photos show the A/V connections to the wall above the piano in the music room from the lower cabinet in the living room. We are running two co-axial cables, an HDMI cable, and two cat-5 wires. The TV will mount to the blocking added in the wall and will be powered from the electrical outlet already installed. The 2” orange conduit is currently empty to allow for most any contingency imaginable. The conduit runs out the bottom of the cabinet to the ceiling above the center channel surround sound speaker in the basement.

The photo below shows all of the home automation cabling as it exits the utility room ceiling. The left hand bundle is network and phone wire. The center bundle is co-axial cable for the cable TV system. The right hand bundle is security system and home control wiring. All of the wires will eventually terminate in the cabinets we will mount to the basement wall.

The sketch below shows most of the components included in the networking and in-house audio systems and gives a general idea of  how they will be placed in the 19” rack. It is likely that we will install some of the video and phone distribution components on a panel placed in the 19” rack as well. I think the home automation systems in the “L” Shaped House will be very nicely organized and accessible using this system.

Home Automation…The Plan

The home automation system in the “L” Shaped House will be laid out as shown in the sketches below. All of the structured wiring is terminated in basement utility room. There will be a 4’ x 8’ plywood panel attached to the basement wall with a 19” rack mount for the computer network and in-house audio systems. The cable TV, phone, and security systems will terminate into boxes attached to the same plywood panel. The central vacuum system will attach to the adjacent wall opposite the furnace. The first sketch shows the basement with the home theatre and surround sound speakers.

The second sketch shows the first floor layout. We plan to have one television mounted on the music room wall above the piano and a second in an open cabinet above the kitchen desk. A cable box, DVD player, and game system will be housed in a base cabinet on the end wall of the living room. The in-house stereo system is controlled using wall panels in the living room and kitchen. A music player (i-pod or Zune) can be connected to the system using a dock on the kitchen desk. Cable TV signals will be distributed throughout the house from the automation panel in the basement. The main security panel is inside the breezeway entrance. There are three central vacuum hose connections on the first floor and one KickSweep inlet in the kitchen.

The third sketch shows the second floor layout. Each bedroom gets an A/V panel that includes co-axial and network cables mounted in the wall opposite the beds. The book nook has six network connections, a hard wired phone jack, and the second security panel. Three central vacuum hose connections round out the automation systems on the second floor.

The last sketch shows the bonus room and Garage layouts. Each has a central vacuum inlet connection and network wiring. The garage also includes a hard wire phone connection and provides the entrance point for the phone and cable systems.

Home Automation…Day 2

We’ve engaged SLH Home Systems to install a security system, and central vacuum in the “L” Shaped House. They are also installing the home networking and audio/visual wiring. Don Hains and I met to talk about home automation way back in January. After more than six months of thought we are still not exactly sure how much automation we are going to add to the “L” Shaped House and decided to try to “future proof” the house by installing a combination of structured wiring and conduit race ways. The photo on the right below shows the telephone and cable television wiring as it enters the garage adjacent the main electrical panel. There are six co-axial feeds for cable (two for terrestrial cable and four digital satellite feeds) and the Qwest phone line running up the right hand side of the garage window.

The first photo below shows the main bundle of structured wiring heading down the back wall of the kitchen toward the basement utility room where the main phone, networking, and security systems will be terminated. The second photo shows the basement family room ceiling with three of the speaker mounts for the home theatre surround sound system installed. Two of the orange 2” conduit race ways are also visible in this shot.

The conduit is being installed to provide an easy way to add wiring between the utility room, basement home theatre, and first floor audio/visual systems in the music room. The sketch below shows the conduit layout in the basement. There is an additional 2” conduit running between the stereo cabinet in the living room and the wall mounted television above the piano in the first floor music room.

There is a stereo system installed on the first floor with speakers in the ceiling on both the living room and kitchen/dining room sides of the house. The stereo receiver (AM/FM radio etc.) will be housed in the networking rack on the utility room wall in the basement. Controls for the system will be mounted in the kitchen and living room. A music player dock in the kitchen desk will allow an i-pod or Zune to be used as the source. The sketch below shows the wall behind the desk area with all of the home systems identified. Many of the first floor walls are going to be very “busy”!