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nmballa Wakeboarder.com Freak
Joined: 14 Jan 2003 Posts: 3906 City: Milwaukee
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Posted: Jan 10, 2015 7:54 pm Post subject: |
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Okie Boarder wrote: | Concrete is something my wife and I have talked about a little bit. I hadn't mentioned it on here, but it is being considered a bit. From what I can see they are a little less expensive than natural stone, is that right? One concern is whether it would be too much concrete with floors and counter tops. |
I think it was right in the same range as natural stone if you go retail. I don't exactly recall. My friend actually did mine for me at a heavy discount. I have since been tempted to DIY a new set for another project as there really isn't that much involved. If your a DIY type you could easily do it for a fraction of the cost vs. stone.
Okie Boarder wrote: | Has anyone had experience with soapstone counters tops? |
I had looked at soap stone prior to going the concrete route. I don't recall any red flags. I just preferred concrete. _________________ jt09 wrote:
I used to get all happy when the girlie would make a colonic appointment. That meant she was going to be breaking out the "fine china" soon.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=509037985&ref=profile |
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Bambamski Wakeboarder.com Freak
Joined: 03 Apr 2003 Posts: 4405 City: Calgary
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Posted: Jan 12, 2015 1:01 pm Post subject: |
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if Soapstone is anything like Slate I'd stay away. Anything that will show scratches when you shouldn't see scratches doesn't look good. At least with the wood butcher block you expect to see them.
Dragging a plate across the slate would scratch it. There are so many better choices. The harder the better IMO when it comes to picking stone for your countertops. _________________ Don't do anything rash.....and don't do anything to get a rash... |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 12, 2015 1:46 pm Post subject: |
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I think the soapstone has the potential for scratching, from what I'm reading. _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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jjaszkow Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 2124 City: Some Airport
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Posted: Jan 16, 2015 6:10 am Post subject: |
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Okie Boarder wrote: | jjaszkow, can you go into more detail about what you had mentioned on the ohsix thread? |
We are building a rambler with an open floor plan. It will run approximately $200 per square foot primarily due to some of the finishes that we are using and added cost of things like heated floors. Much of that is going into the kitchen. Basement will be walk out and unfinished. It is on a pond and the pond side it looks like a two story. We learned our lesson the last time we built and discovered that a 3.5 stall garage is too small, so this build has a 5 stall garage.
It is relatively standard stick construction with engineered trusses. All work below grade is poured concrete.
Some of the features that we considered must have for the house:
Heated concrete floors
36" gas cooktop
Double oven
Gas fire places in main areas as well as master bedroom
Well sealed construction
Efficient HVAC (we have a combi-boiler for the floors plus GFA / heat pump for heating and cooling). What we discovered in our last house is that the GFA doesn't run very much due to the floors.
Most fixtures are oil rubbed bronze
All cabinetry and built in shelving is dark spray dyed maple
Flooring is either carpet, tile or hickory. We had bamboo in our last house and were mostly happy with it, but wanted something different this time around. |
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fish6942 Addict
Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 603
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Posted: Jan 16, 2015 10:19 am Post subject: |
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jjaszkow wrote: | Okie Boarder wrote: | jjaszkow, can you go into more detail about what you had mentioned on the ohsix thread? |
... a 5 stall garage. |
5 wide or are a couple stalls double deep? |
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jjaszkow Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 2124 City: Some Airport
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Posted: Jan 16, 2015 11:27 am Post subject: |
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fish6942, it's 4 wide at the front. 2.5 of the stalls are 26' deep and the other 1.5 are 44' deep. |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 16, 2015 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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jjaszkow wrote: | Okie Boarder wrote: | jjaszkow, can you go into more detail about what you had mentioned on the ohsix thread? |
We are building a rambler with an open floor plan. It will run approximately $200 per square foot primarily due to some of the finishes that we are using and added cost of things like heated floors. Much of that is going into the kitchen. Basement will be walk out and unfinished. It is on a pond and the pond side it looks like a two story. We learned our lesson the last time we built and discovered that a 3.5 stall garage is too small, so this build has a 5 stall garage.
It is relatively standard stick construction with engineered trusses. All work below grade is poured concrete.
Some of the features that we considered must have for the house:
Heated concrete floors
36" gas cooktop
Double oven
Gas fire places in main areas as well as master bedroom
Well sealed construction
Efficient HVAC (we have a combi-boiler for the floors plus GFA / heat pump for heating and cooling). What we discovered in our last house is that the GFA doesn't run very much due to the floors.
Most fixtures are oil rubbed bronze
All cabinetry and built in shelving is dark spray dyed maple
Flooring is either carpet, tile or hickory. We had bamboo in our last house and were mostly happy with it, but wanted something different this time around. |
So, how far above the "average" is $200/sq ft in your area?
I want a 36" gas cooktop and that is pretty much a must have. I like the idea of putting money in to tight, good construction and ideas that will help efficiency. We both want the oiled bronze for fixtures, and hardware. Sounds like some of your lessons learned may already be on our list. _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 16, 2015 8:29 pm Post subject: |
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jjaszkow wrote: | fish6942, it's 4 wide at the front. 2.5 of the stalls are 26' deep and the other 1.5 are 44' deep. |
That seems huge to me, but I know a lot of times you build a certain size and realize later that bigger would have been better. We may try to plan a 3.5 with some extra width and depth, then see if it works for the budget. One thing we are thinking is to build the garage in a way that we can get the size we think we need now and have the ability to add on later, without looking added on. _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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jjaszkow Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 2124 City: Some Airport
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Posted: Jan 17, 2015 2:19 am Post subject: |
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Okie Boarder wrote: | So, how far above the "average" is $200/sq ft in your area?
I want a 36" gas cooktop and that is pretty much a must have. I like the idea of putting money in to tight, good construction and ideas that will help efficiency. We both want the oiled bronze for fixtures, and hardware. Sounds like some of your lessons learned may already be on our list. |
The cost of construction varies greatly up here for some reason, ranging from about $125 to $250 (or higher) not including the cost of the lot. On the lower end of that spectrum most of the houses are bi-level and two stories, which drives cost down due to less earth work, roof area and concrete required.
As far as lessons learned, there are a few but overall we are actually doing a lot of the same things as we did in our previous house. Our biggest reason for moving is because we wanted to live on the pond. We are building 5 blocks away from our last house. Overall layout and construction materials and methods are all similar to what we built previously (and we are using the same builder). We did have to build quite a bit bigger this time due to minimum square footage requirements established for our development and a lot of our decisions and layout were driven by that.
A few things that we are doing differently because of what we learned:
-3.5 stall garage wasn't quite enough space (certainly worked, but was full)
-damage to bamboo floors is hard to fix, and they dent easier than expected
-jack and jill bath for the kids rooms and a separate guest "powder room"
-separate laundry room and mud room (previously our washer and dryer were in the mud room and we hated it). |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 17, 2015 5:05 am Post subject: |
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Why did you hate the mud room in the laundry room? That's one item we were considering in our design.
Our building prices out here start at around $75 and a nice house would be in the $125 range. Obviously, high end houses probably go up from there, but I've never dug into it enough to know for sure. Chances are with the simple design and finishes we're going for, we may end up around $100 or maybe a touch less. _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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jjaszkow Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 2124 City: Some Airport
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Posted: Jan 17, 2015 8:18 am Post subject: |
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Okie Boarder, we hated that design for several reasons. First, everyone seemed to put their shoes directly in front of the washer and dryer. Second was that because of the size and design of the space, sorting and keeping laundry in there was not really possible. The mud room and laundry room are next to each other in the new house, but they are distinct, separate spaces. This means that we can still dump stuff direct in to the washer after working on cars and other projects in the garage.
It's pretty easy to make simple decisions that drive your cost up significantly. For example, our HVAC and insulation decisions led to significant increases in cost, but we will recoup that over the life of the house. We have a fair amount of stone work both on the exterior and around the fireplaces. Anything related to masonry or tile work in this area is quite expensive. Kitchens and bathrooms are also a very easy way to drive the price up very quickly.
Due to a sub 3% unemployment rate and a large number of construction projects, the availability and cost of trades in this area further drives up prices. |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 17, 2015 5:19 pm Post subject: |
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OK, good info. If you combined the two, what would you do to not have that feel of it not working well? _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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jjaszkow Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 2124 City: Some Airport
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Posted: Jan 17, 2015 6:48 pm Post subject: |
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Okie Boarder, short of putting the washer / dryer in a separate room? Probably make the mud room L shaped with the washer / dryer isolated from the rest of the room with a folding table and space for laundry baskets. But by then, you might as well frame in a door and make it a separate room.
One of the other issues that I didn't mention previously is that we often times had 5 or more neighbor kids coming in and out of the house through the garage. I'd rather have my laundry baskets separate from that chaos.
If you're absolutely set on combining them, it does work. It's just not something that we'd do again. |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 17, 2015 8:16 pm Post subject: |
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OK....good info. We have been thinking about making the room square with enough space that the mud room area is sort or separated, but still in the same area. Maybe we need to consider that space and those concerns. Thanks, again. _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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fish6942 Addict
Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 603
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Posted: Jan 18, 2015 9:44 am Post subject: |
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Okie Boarder wrote: | jjaszkow wrote: | fish6942, it's 4 wide at the front. 2.5 of the stalls are 26' deep and the other 1.5 are 44' deep. |
That seems huge to me, but I know a lot of times you build a certain size and realize later that bigger would have been better. We may try to plan a 3.5 with some extra width and depth, then see if it works for the budget. One thing we are thinking is to build the garage in a way that we can get the size we think we need now and have the ability to add on later, without looking added on. |
Our attached garage is about 36x32 (3 stall) and I use one corner as my work area. This works out OK only because we also have a detached 28x32 (2 stall) garage for the boat, tractor, ATVs, outdoor power equipment, etc... |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 27, 2015 2:44 pm Post subject: |
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After some discussion with the architect and starting the initial planning, we think we are going to settle in on something around 30' deep and 35' wide. We'll probably do 10-11' ceilings and 8-9' doors.
Some other thoughts that are floating around...
cedar siding (natural look) with brick or rock on bottom third.
actual reclaimed barn wood for baseboard and trim
8' tall solid wood (knotty alder, pine or similar) interior doors
walk in shower design with no door
Any thoughts or experience with any of these items? _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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jjaszkow Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 2124 City: Some Airport
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Posted: Jan 27, 2015 7:37 pm Post subject: |
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Okie Boarder, for the garage I'd do 12' ceilings and either 9' or 10' doors. This gives you a bit added utility if you want to work on vehicles on a lift, or park a boat inside with the tower up ... I know you just sold yours ... but you never know. Dimensions are good for a three stall garage.
How are you finishing the reclaimed wood trim? I have a friend with a very rustic home with similar trim and they constantly have pet hair stuck to the trim. Unless you have a good source, this also seems to be a bit overpriced for what it is.
I actually care more about the width of my interior passage doors than the height. 3'0" doors make it way easy to move furniture in and out (as well as improve handicap accessibility).
In rural areas with hard water, you will likely get some mineral build up on the glass, so that is a positive for going doorless.The no door on the shower design utilizes more square footage than a shower with a door unless you like wet floors. If you want to add a steam generator, you will need to have a door. |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 28, 2015 4:03 am Post subject: |
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Thanks. Not sure on the reclaimed wood finish or whether we'll go that way. I can see the pet hair being and issue. Good thought on door width, as well. _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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ohsix PityDaFool Who Posts This Much
Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 6837
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Posted: Jan 28, 2015 6:04 am Post subject: |
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When mixing exterior facade materials, I think it looks better to change things up a little, as far as masonry height. We mixed rock and stucco (EIFS). None of the stucco goes to the ground, but some walls are all rock whereas some are ~1/3 rock, ~2/3 stucco.
We looked into reclaimed wood for the timber framing parts of our house and it was $$$ plus a lot of it was warped. We used Douglas Fir and had a couple of guys go at it with wire brushes on grinders for a few days until it looked old.
My interior doors are 8' solid, but paint grade. Stain grade were ~$1,000 each vs ~$200 each for paint. We felt like we had enough stained wood with the floors and ceilings, but after staining everything in the office, we wish we had gone with more stained trim throughout the house. We also went with 3' wide doors in most places. We have a few bathroom doors that are 2'6" wide. The architect originally had them at 2'0" which is a pretty narrow door. I told him nothing narrower than 2'6" and go 3'0" wherever we can.
Keep your bathroom warm if you're not going to have a door. We had a steamer installed in our shower, which I highly recommend, so we had to close ours off. The shower is big enough that if you don't use the shower head closest to the shower door, the glass just gets condensation on it. We don't squeegee the glass. Between softened water and it being cleaned once a week, it always looks pretty good.
One other thing I would do different is pay attention to wall arrangement. I thought I did a good job of this, but there are 2 poorly planned walls in my house. Our guest bedroom shares a wall with a utility closet in the garage. That wall has a tankless water heater mounted on it with a circulating pump that runs every few minutes. The pump sounds like a phone vibrating and the headboard of the bed in the guest bedroom is against that wall. I've spent a few nights in that room (not the result of arguments - yet) and that noise is annoying. I could have put that utility room about 3 other places in the garage which would have been better. My back closet wall is also the wall which our younger sons crib is against. I usually wake up at 5:15 and my wife swears I'm waking up our 4 month old son (who wakes up about 5 times a night anyway) by pulling clothes off hangers in my closet. My closet is smaller and laid out differently than my wife's, but we could have flipped the closets on the original floor plan if we wanted to. |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 28, 2015 6:29 am Post subject: |
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Hmm, good thoughts, thanks. The reclaimed wood is a maybe with one potential contractor and it is only because we may be able to work together with him to tear down a small barn and get the wood at a more normal cost. _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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chavez Ladies Man
Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 27375 City: Roseville
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Posted: Jan 28, 2015 8:24 am Post subject: |
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ohsix, interesting thoughts on the adjoining walls. I'd say if you can't avoid those issues, then use a noise-deadening insulation (like "Rock Wool") in those walls to dampen it. Easy enough to do before the drywall goes up.
Going to stain-grade solid core doors seems like overkill to me. I mean, if you are going for that look then I guess you don't have a choice, but paint-grade solid stuff always looks (and feels) great when I see it.
We have some 36" doors in our house. I'd only recommend them if the rooms they lead to are large enough to accommodate them. Whoever put them in my house (previous owner) did not take that into account. If it wasn't a total pain in the arse, I'd switch them back to 30". _________________
Quote: | That's Mr. Gingermex to you a$$hole. |
RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006 |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 28, 2015 1:37 pm Post subject: |
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Quote: | Going to stain-grade solid core doors seems like overkill to me. I mean, if you are going for that look then I guess you don't have a choice, but paint-grade solid stuff always looks (and feels) great when I see it. |
It would be more about going for the look. Right now it is a thought and cost may become the deciding factor, but we'll see. _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 5:44 am Post subject: |
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I'm also looking to wire in the whole house with Cat5 or similar. I can see the value in this and have talked to a few people about it, in addition to the feedback on here. One contractor I'm considering said something about Cat7e. What advantages or limits are there with Cat5 vs Cat6 vs Cat7?
At this point we will probably just pre-wire and may do some whole house audio. We probably won't video share through this system, but I'm sure it will make it very easy to connect up anything network related and our TV system, whether it be satellite or "cable". _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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jjaszkow Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 2124 City: Some Airport
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 5:57 am Post subject: |
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You will need at a minimum Cat5e, however Cat 6 is now priced at a point where it makes sense to use. Cat 7 adds shielding to each of the wire pairs to eliminate crosstalk. Cat 6 supports double the transmission performance of Cat5e. Cat 7 supports triple the transmission performance of Cat 6.
Cat 7 might future proof you a bit more, but it is doubtful you would need that in the life of your home.
In your case, I would run one coax and two Cat6 to each TV location. This way you have some flexibility on how you deliver signals to your TV. |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 6:26 am Post subject: |
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Have y'all run other runs besides where the TV's go for security or in-room audio distribution? _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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ohsix PityDaFool Who Posts This Much
Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 6837
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 7:46 am Post subject: |
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chavez wrote: | ohsix, interesting thoughts on the adjoining walls. I'd say if you can't avoid those issues, then use a noise-deadening insulation (like "Rock Wool") in those walls to dampen it. Easy enough to do before the drywall goes up. |
We put sound insulation in most all of our interior walls. The "noisy" wall in the guest room is actually 2x6 framed with spray foam insulation. You can't hear the circulating pump except at night when it's dead quiet. I never knew there was any noise in that room until I slept in it. It never crossed my mind that a water heater would be making noise that would be audible through that wall.
I do recommend noise insulation in interior walls. At my old office, I could hear everything through the walls. When we built out our new office, we had all the interior walls sound insulated. With an office door closed, you can't hear much of anything from outside the office. That is why I did the sound insulation in my house. With bedroom doors closed, very little sound gets in or out. |
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chavez Ladies Man
Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 27375 City: Roseville
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 7:54 am Post subject: |
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Okie Boarder wrote: | Have y'all run other runs besides where the TV's go for security or in-room audio distribution? |
Network - use for wired computers, or better yet, use to string Access Points around the house for seamless transmission.
Telephone - if you are going old-school, an RJ45 port can accept an old school RJ11 telephone cord.
The cool thing you can do with some wireless access points is to run PoE (power over ethernet) and have a super clean one-wire setup. If you look up in many commercial buildings with large wireless networks you often see a device that looks like an odd-looking smoke detector. They are often wireless APs (run using PoE). PoE is also often used to power wired network security cameras.
The point is there are lots of uses for having Cat5e/6 all over the house. It's very cheap to install when you are still in sticks.
A separate thought: make sure every bedroom either has a fan installed, or is wired for it with a switch. Have a proper box pre-mounted at the center point, and use 4 conductor Romex (the 4th wire should be insulated with red). The 4th conductor is for the fan light control. Makes installing fans a breeze (ha-ha pun intended). _________________
Quote: | That's Mr. Gingermex to you a$$hole. |
RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006 |
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chavez Ladies Man
Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 27375 City: Roseville
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 7:57 am Post subject: |
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ohsix, my boss had that done in his office. He conducts a lot of meetings in there, so it made a lot of sense for client privacy. The walls have just regular R-XX and they laid it on top of the drop ceiling as well.
The only time I ever hear noise from his meetings is when we get an old fart retired construction type laughing at some joke my boss cracked. Or when those same guys sneeze. Seriously every time those kind of guys sneeze I need to re-hang all of the pictures in my office. What is up with that? _________________
Quote: | That's Mr. Gingermex to you a$$hole. |
RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006 |
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ohsix PityDaFool Who Posts This Much
Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 6837
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 8:00 am Post subject: |
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Okie Boarder wrote: | Have y'all run other runs besides where the TV's go for security or in-room audio distribution? |
We ran tons of Cat6 that we aren't currently using. In the overall cost of the house, the wire and labor to run it is negligible. The guy that did our A/V and security cameras ran all the data wiring. I told him to run it anywhere and everywhere he could imagine us using it. We ran coax and Cat6 to all 4 walls in every bedroom about 16" off the floor and about 60" off the floor in 2 places in each bedroom for wall mounted TVs. We have coax and Cat6 in our kitchen cabinets in case we want a TV on the kitchen counter. Ironically, the only thing in the house that is connected to coax is a subwoofer in our game room.
I'd also recommend additional access points for wireless internet in your house. We have 3 and they're ~10" plates on the ceiling that have a faint green light when they're working. If the connection is lost, the lights supposedly turn red, but it hasn't happened yet. This way the whole house has good wireless signal. I prefer wired connections wherever feasible, but wireless is good for ipads and such. |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 8:19 am Post subject: |
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Quote: | A separate thought: make sure every bedroom either has a fan installed, or is wired for it with a switch. Have a proper box pre-mounted at the center point, and use 4 conductor Romex (the 4th wire should be insulated with red). The 4th conductor is for the fan light control. Makes installing fans a breeze (ha-ha pun intended). |
Agreed. This is on our list and we did that in our previous house, as well. _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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Okie Boarder Ladies Man
Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 8:22 am Post subject: |
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ohsix, good to know. Sounds like this one contractor we're talking to (who is probably going to be our first choice) likes doing some nice touches and is in to the techie stuff. We're going to look at a couple places he has done up similar to your house, including his own home. I've already told our architect to add a closet somewhere so we can have everything wired up and decide how we want to use it when the time comes. _________________ If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? |
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ohsix PityDaFool Who Posts This Much
Joined: 12 Jan 2003 Posts: 6837
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 8:59 am Post subject: |
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Okie Boarder wrote: | Quote: | A separate thought: make sure every bedroom either has a fan installed, or is wired for it with a switch. Have a proper box pre-mounted at the center point, and use 4 conductor Romex (the 4th wire should be insulated with red). The 4th conductor is for the fan light control. Makes installing fans a breeze (ha-ha pun intended). |
Agreed. This is on our list and we did that in our previous house, as well. |
That's good advice. I had our electrician put our fan controls in the light switch. I'll try to take a picture of our fan switches. I like to control everything (fan speed, light, on/off) from the wall instead of pulling chains. Not all of our fans are capable of being connected to this type of switch though. In hindsight, I wish they were. |
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chavez Ladies Man
Joined: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 27375 City: Roseville
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 9:25 am Post subject: |
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ohsix wrote: | Okie Boarder wrote: | Quote: | A separate thought: make sure every bedroom either has a fan installed, or is wired for it with a switch. Have a proper box pre-mounted at the center point, and use 4 conductor Romex (the 4th wire should be insulated with red). The 4th conductor is for the fan light control. Makes installing fans a breeze (ha-ha pun intended). |
Agreed. This is on our list and we did that in our previous house, as well. |
That's good advice. I had our electrician put our fan controls in the light switch. I'll try to take a picture of our fan switches. I like to control everything (fan speed, light, on/off) from the wall instead of pulling chains. Not all of our fans are capable of being connected to this type of switch though. In hindsight, I wish they were. |
We have one fan that isn't controlled via switch. Well, it is sort of - you can cut power via a switch. That fan came with a remote control and won't operate without it. I would prefer the switch be on the wall, but we love the fan so we just deal with it. _________________
Quote: | That's Mr. Gingermex to you a$$hole. |
RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006 |
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jjaszkow Wakeboarder.Commie
Joined: 25 Jul 2006 Posts: 2124 City: Some Airport
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 6:03 pm Post subject: |
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Our access points are hidden in the closets, so most have a single Cat6 near the ceiling installed in them. This way, the AP's are hidden but we still get good coverage.
My exterior outlets are also all switched by two switches in the main entry closet. This way, during holiday season, the lights can be controlled via these smart switches rather than hanging timers around the house. Additionally, each corner of the house has a receptacle in the soffit to make for easy light wiring. |
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brew Wakeboarder.com Freak
Joined: 09 Aug 2005 Posts: 2778 City: Jackson
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Posted: Jan 29, 2015 7:07 pm Post subject: |
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On the mudroom discussion, we ended up with a pretty good solution on our house. The door coming in from the garage has an L shaped hallway that comes around to a side door where I park. We recessed a large built in into it that has 6 hooks across for jackets, a flat area to sit on to put shoes on, and then storage above and below. It cuts into the laundry room space some, but we used that short wall to put the controller for the alarm system. |
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