[thechat] Your dream house: what tech stuff?

[Joel D Canfield]

> So, if it were your home, what would you plan for?
> LAN? WLAN? both?
> tv/music/lights centrally controlled or ?

my favorite thinking-launching point for home design: Rex Roberts' "Your
Engineered House" (1964, updated endlessly by Charlie Wing; ISBN:
0871311100)

Lots of low-tech technical solutions to what's wrong with most homes
(kinda US-centric thinking in the book, but a lotta valid points)

When it comes to anything in the walls, put in four times what you think
you need, and leave space to double that. Honest.

Lighting is dead critical - I don't remember if it was C. M. Deasy's
"Designing Places for People" or one of the handbooks from the murrican
institute of architectural lighting, but proper lighting makes the
difference between a life of eyestrain and a natural environment.

A central music computer, with speakers in every possible room, all with
separate volume and equalizer.

DO NOT install automatic lights that turn on when you walk into a room.
Bill Gates' notes on why it drove everyone crazy in the Gates' 23
billion dollar home [hyperbole?] are interesting.

A home theatre. The real deal, with stadium seating, projector dropped
from the ceiling, massive sound.

Car wash in the garage.

So much more; I too have pondered this for our Irish cottage conversion
(Step One: buy an Irish cottage; oops, Step Zero: come up with the money
for an Irish cottage . . . )

joel