Another "I need advice" thread

Oh, they're going to cost at that meeting, too... Prioritize your upgrade list in your head, as it will probably be spinning. Expect to want quite a bit of "extras" - and most importantly, if you've been looking at the model homes, make careful comparisons between what you're getting and what is shown in the model. Not talking about getting ripped off - quite the opposite. Went through this with my best friend's home build - there were a ton of small "options" in the model home that would have had minor upgrade charges (like a hundred bucks each). But the stupid salesdork didn't even mention them! So everyone assumed that these little things were there, until it was almost too late to add them (example - eyeball spotlight above the fireplace). Luckily he had a very good project manager that took care of him.

(which is also important advice - get to know your PM very well and be his best friend - you want him/her on your side!!!)

Builders are notoriously bad at placing speakers. Don't put "main" speakers (L/C/R) in the ceiling. If you want them in-wall, that's ok. Surrounds in the ceiling can be accpetable.

If it were my house, that fireplace would be moved over to one end of the wall or the other, so that you can position a TV next to it at the proper height. The "TV over the fireplace" business is crap. You don't want it up that high.

You can position either two or four in-ceiling speakers for surround in the family room, running all the cables to the front wall.

Not now you don't. Any models of any TV and most AV gear will be out of date and replaced with new models before you move in. Come back 30 days before move-in and ask about TVs then...

Its a robot camera system that takes pictures of everyone in the shower and uploads them to the Internet.

You'll need to find out what they mean by smart. Could be an energy management system, could just be a security panel.

A lot of patience. You'll need to do a lot of reading on media streamers / servers / clients to get stuff from your PC and do it well. Certainly can be done. Read lots of stuff in the HTPC and the Media Streamers forums here.

That hopefully is already standard for them, but very good to start there. They will probably give you some allowance as to how many cat5e drops you get in the house. You'll want more - which will be an upgrade. Make sure you have at least one per potential TV location. Two or more give you more options (see the matrix switch and HDMI-over-cat5 topics in the A/V Distribution forum), but having at least one is critical.

Think about at least pre-wiring for whole house audio (WHA), which means pulling wires for speakers in the ceilings of many rooms, and wiring for potential keypads / volume controls as well. The builder may offer some packages there, too.

Good luck! It's a fun but sometimes frustrating experience!

Jeff

Anything that says OPT is optional, and gonna cost you extra. Jautor is right, find out what they are giving you in the price they quote, and plan on spending at least 10% in extras from what you think you will do. In regards to master bathroom, we just built our house, and decided we only needed a shower in there, not a tub since we don't plan on relaxing in the tub, might be easier to soak in the other tub. Other thing is, the more angles on your roof, the higher the cost.

With regards to structured wiring, for phone internet coax, run two cat 5e and one coax (rg6). Where ever your TVs are going to be, run an extra CAT5e for your other devices you may use. You may also ask the builder if you can higher someone separate to do the structured wiring, as they maybe cheaper but who knows. In ceiling speakers can be set with different zones, run to an impedance box, then fed from your AV equipment. You can go the easy way and have volumn controls on the wall, but a remote control to your AV equipment. If anything I would suggest going to a place that specializes in AV and surround sound, as they may give you some great ideas.

Good luck with your build, it's fun, exciting, and stressful.

Oh yeah, most builders won't use quad or two pair wire for your phone anymore, most will plan to use CAT5e. If you plan to do wireless in your home, see if they can place the media panel for your structured wiring in a central location. Don't forget to run at least 2 runs of RG6 and 2 of Cat5E from where your electrical comes in to where your media panel is.

To save yourself some money, see if they can leave the bonus room empty and just studded so you can finish it after the fact, might save some money there.