The Socal To AZ Garage Build - Input Appreciated

Its a great question and one Ive struggled with but I dont think we are doing any of that stuff. As was stated previously, no matter what you do, it quickly becomes obsolete. In our old home, I had a closet full of AV equipment. Servers, receivers, amplifiers- every other month I had a technician come over fixing one thing or another. I must have spent 6 figures on getting all this set up. And unfortunately, something was always broken, not working, out of date, expired license or some other nonsense.

So this time I said screw that crap. Im doing some automation but not whole house. I dont need to control my lights in the office from my bedroom. I dont need my TV to pause in the family room so I can start it in the master bedroom. I dont need speakers and music controlled with a central server when all the music I want is on my iPhone.

We are going to obviously be wired in the whole house but here is the plan:

1. Ethernet everywhere- with smart TVs the way they are and my wife and I watching Youtube tv, Netflix and Hulu in the rare times we do watch tv, all Im going to do is put a smart tv anywhere I want a tv (family room and probably office) and just have it connected to the internet. Anything I want, I can stream. No TV in the bedroom. If anything we just stream something on our iPads. For the TVs on the wall- just a power outlet and an ethernet cable is all I need. Anything else is too complicated and I dont want it.
2. Bluetooth speakers in the bar, patio area- basically the party areas. Those speakers will be controlled by a small iPad that has all our music on it. Just connect to bluetooth and start playing music. this also allows guest to connect and play their own playlist. No fancy central music server
3. Bluetooth speakers in my office/recroom/garage - again- not connected to the bar patio areas- but ill have a small iPad that I can stream music from. Ill put some robust speakers here cause I can see having a DJ in the upper loft and a dance floor down below
4. We will do cameras (probably ring) throughout the property
5. Digital Light switches- probably not- I can flip a light switch if needed- if we do anything of that sort- will be minimal and simple
6. My office will have several computers- one for the racing sim, one for the golf sim (might be the same computer that runs both- not sure yet). also on my garage opposite from my office is a big blank wall- I have some left over projectors that are industrial grade from work. Im going to connect them and use that projector to project TV on the wall. this can be when friends are over and we have a football game playing or if we clear out the garage for a party- can have some background videos/music etc on the wall. Imagine hanging out in the loft upstairs and have the F1 race stream on the big wall on the opposite side. will just connect that projector to either the racing or golf sim computers and stream whatever I want on the wall.
7. The master bedroom will have electronic drapes. The rest of the bedroom, just regular drapes with a rod- my kids and guests can get there lazy asses off the bed to open and close the drapes. We will have power available if we ever sell and someone wants to do electric drapes but its just my wife and I in the house 95% of the time so no need to spend money down below.
8. We will have robust wifi throughout- lots of access points. I want to be able to sit anywhere and have a strong signal. That is something that is mandatory for me and any guests that come over.

I think thats it. As was stated, this stuff becomes obsolete way too quickly and I just dont have the patience to deal with constantly up keeping or updating it. Had way too much brain damage in our last house where we tried to automate just about everything. Just like im becoming nostalgic with my cars and avoiding all the fancy tech and electric cars when possible, I dont want to overcomplicate my AV/tech in the house.

If we do end up adding automation over the years- I dont want it all connected but separate ecosystems. This way if something fails, it doesnt screw up the whole house.

 

Exactly this!

 

It’s insane how much lower these people have over such small inconsequential things. I guess I’m hindsight our project moved along pretty well
But it was the longest 8 months waiting for one signature!! Glad it’s over.

 

I will run Ethernet everywhere in case we want to automate in the future. Who knows, slowly I may add features but the current plan is to keep things simple.

In the common areas I will have some great speakers but not the whole house. Believe it or not I got a
Small Bose portable Bluetooth speaker as a gift. My wife and I connect to it and just move it around with us. Tiny, compact simple and works great.

 

Slight modification to report. Windows have not been ordered. Any day now. So I was on the property and was sitting where my wife’s garage would be and was thinking we just put a garage where the prime view is. I had brought this up to my architect before but for a 100 reasons that are unimportant now, we didn’t have much of a choice. It’s just how the whole thing laid out. At one point I had wanted to move my whole office/show garage in this space but it just wasn’t big enough.

Not wanting to leave things alone, I called an emergent meeting with my builder and architect and we came up with a plan to add a wall of windows in the garage.

As my wife drives up, she will have a glass wall for the view. We are going to turn the front into an arts and crafts and staging area for my wife so that when she comes home with all her bags of crap, she has someplace where she can lay them and use a small counter in the front to wrap gifts etc.

This makes me feel better that we salvaged some of the view back into the design. Wife, builder and architect are all happy with the direction as am I.

above is the original rendering- below is the modified with the additional windows.


Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

What are nanna doors?

 

Got it. So basically just different types of glass sliders.

• The great room has a massive glass wall. We are planning on using a company that has glass sliders that the metal is only 3/4 of an inch thick. The door panels are 12 feet tall by 5 feet wide. Have the measure the exact span but it’s over 40feet I think. The great room and bar sliders will open fully. They are electrically operated
• Every bedroom has glass sliders
• My garage as a garage door has glass sliders
• The daily use garage has a flush garage door
• 
  

So it’s not specifically the Nanna system but the concept is the same- massive walls of glass that can be fully opened in all the main living areas.

 

I have good experience with this stuff which is why Im loathe to fully automate the whole house. Something simple like Sonos I can stomach. But anything more in terms of automation, I want to stay away from. If anything I can slowly piecemeal the system together but one thing I do not want or desire is the entire house to be on one system. If one thing goes wrong, everything falls apart.