Purchased First Home! Finally!!!!

[JohnWPB]

Well I just purchased my first home! Final closing paperwork is scheduled for next Wednesday. I have been renting up till now, and that just sucks! I am looking SOOOooo forward to be able to do all the things I have wanted to do for a few years now. Such as mounting Touch screens in walls, running wire to where needed, installing microphones, driveway sensors and a ton of other stuff!

I will probably have a few questions posted in here in the coming months for sure

I just purchased a nice LONG drill bit today for punching through walls and installing Cat5 and such. I will prob have 2 days before the new carpet is installed to paint and do some things. Wireless is nice for a laptop, but trying to use Media Center or the 360 as an extender over a wireless is just not worth it, and am gonna run cat5 to each room (No fun in an existing home for sure )

The kewl part is I have been purchasing stuff over the course of the past few years, waiting for this day. I have around 30 wall switches, enough door and window sensors to cover every door and window, 2 touch screens ready to mount in the walls, a roll of Cat 5 cable, motion sensors for each and every room and so on... Where I currently am living, the only room "automated" is my bedroom, as installing all this stuff, and having to remove it in a rental is just a pain in the you know what hahah.

 

[Digger]

Well I just purchased my first home! Final closing paperwork is scheduled for next Wednesday. I have been renting up till now, and that just sucks! I am looking SOOOooo forward to be able to do all the things I have wanted to do for a few years now. Such as mounting Touch screens in walls, running wire to where needed, installing microphones, driveway sensors and a ton of other stuff!

I will probably have a few questions posted in here in the coming months for sure

I just purchased a nice LONG drill bit today for punching through walls and installing Cat5 and such. I will prob have 2 days before the new carpet is installed to paint and do some things. Wireless is nice for a laptop, but trying to use Media Center or the 360 as an extender over a wireless is just not worth it, and am gonna run cat5 to each room (No fun in an existing home for sure )

The kewl part is I have been purchasing stuff over the course of the past few years, waiting for this day. I have around 30 wall switches, enough door and window sensors to cover every door and window, 2 touch screens ready to mount in the walls, a roll of Cat 5 cable, motion sensors for each and every room and so on... Where I currently am living, the only room "automated" is my bedroom, as installing all this stuff, and having to remove it in a rental is just a pain in the you know what hahah.

Congrats............. Let the fun begin

 

[pete]

congrats on the new pad . . I'd suggest moving very quickly with your initial install/setup . . as a new homeowner you will find your 'todo' list grow, and re-grow, exponentialy . .

Pete C

 

[Squintz]

Very cool. You get one month with no house payment. As tempting as it may be Don't blow it on HA stuff. Also, fiber rods will go real nice with that long drill bit. Fiber rods work much better than fish tape.

Can't wait to see the pictures!

 

[huggy59]

Congrats John! I assume you're still in south Florida? Don't forget the masonry bits and anchors and bolts and a hammer-drill!!! most houses down there are CBS - concrete block and stucco. Lots of hard stuff to drill into/through!

 

[JohnWPB]

Congrats John! I assume you're still in south Florida? Don't forget the masonry bits and anchors and bolts and a hammer-drill!!! most houses down there are CBS - concrete block and stucco. Lots of hard stuff to drill into/through!

Yea, I have a high speed heavy duty drill, and the long bit I purchased is for cement

I'd suggest moving very quickly with your initial install/setup . . as a new homeowner you will find your 'todo' list grow, and re-grow, exponentialy . .

I can immagine! hahaha It's not really gonna be that difficult, I just have to punch like 3 walls, and one drop through the attic, as the wall the TV is on (Media Center PC) is a "Free standing divider wall" that backs up to the kitchen.

Very cool. You get one month with no house payment. As tempting as it may be Don't blow it on HA stuff. Also, fiber rods will go real nice with that long drill bit. Fiber rods work much better than fish tape.

Can't wait to see the pictures!

A month with no mortgage payment?!?!?! I would almost give a left nut to have just a mortgage payment! This has cost far more having to come up with the 10% down lol! I have a friend that has a fiber rod I borrowed for the week. I will def post some pictures down the road, as I have time to implement a couple of the touch screens in the walls ect.

I plan on putting one of the screens in the afore mentioned divider wall in the kitchen. Being the back of the Media Center PC / Hme Seer Server is on the other side of the wall, I was thinking on using a dual monitor type thing, with a maximized web browser being on the touchscreen second display, displaying the lighting control and such. I know it's not generally a good idea to mix Home Seer and the MCE on one machine, but it is more than capable. It is a dual core 3.2 Ghz P4 system with 3 gigs of memory. The gfx card has to DVI's out, one will go DVI to the TV, and the other will use the included adapter to send standard VGA to the Touch screen.

Does anyone see any inherent problems with this, or a better way to do it, other than another dedicated computer just for the touchscreen?

 

[mustangcoupe]

Conrats John, whens the party?

Remember a house is just one of those large money storage facilities..... (some people call them big bottomless pots) but I figure when ever I have some money (extra or not it doesn't care)then I put it into the house.........

 

[nsisman]

John,

I remember our first home(1972) was $25,500 with a mortgage of $17,500 that carried for $152 a month.

Never thought we'd be able to do it but managed somehow !

I remember waiting for the next pay check to save up $4 for a gallon of paint !

Enough of the old stuff !


Congratulations on your first home.... I'm sure you'll have it well automated in short order.....enjoy it !

Neil

 

[brotsten]

Way too much talk. Lets see pictures!

Brian

 

[JohnWPB]

Well it is official! Closed on the house yesterday afternoon.... a day early, immagine that!

I just woke up like an hour ago, as I went to sleep at like 10:00 PM last night (A first for me)! I was just exhausted mentally and physically, after not being able to sleep, worrying and all that fun stuff!

Keys in hand, I am headed over to the new place now to get to work on running Cat5. Get this, the house had an old existing intercom system, It has speakers in the ceiling for each of the main rooms! It is an old style AM/FM intercom system mounted in the wall by the kitchen, I am just gonna remove that, install the Touchscreen in that location, and use the existing run speakers for announcements ect.

 

[JeffCharger]

Well it is official! Closed on the house yesterday afternoon.... a day early, immagine that!

I just woke up like an hour ago, as I went to sleep at like 10:00 PM last night (A first for me)! I was just exhausted mentally and physically, after not being able to sleep, worrying and all that fun stuff!

Keys in hand, I am headed over to the new place now to get to work on running Cat5. Get this, the house had an old existing intercom system, It has speakers in the ceiling for each of the main rooms! It is an old style AM/FM intercom system mounted in the wall by the kitchen, I am just gonna remove that, install the Touchscreen in that location, and use the existing run speakers for announcements ect.

Congrats John. That's great news! Now the real fun begins......

 

[JohnWPB]

Well, I am posting this from the new house, BARELY! DSL is going up, then down, up, then down..... I have to watch the lights, and when I get a green light have to browse/post quick, before I loose connection again! Repair is going to come tomorrow... SUnday, go figure.... and check it out. I know there has to be some serious interference here! Filters are in place, and even unhooked the phone entirely.... Oh well

The past few days have been a nightmare, trying to prep the new place, and then going back to pack the old place, rinse and repeat hahhaah.

As for the photo's, NO CHANCE! not till this place is cleaned up a bit at least :lol:

 

[JohnWPB]

Well, its been almost 2 weeks since getting in the new place. At least the main room is set up now and functional. I have around 500 of my movies ripped to the hard drive. The dedicated Media Center / Home Seer machine is tucked away behind the entertainment center, and has a small fan blowing cool air into the confined space. Motherboard Monitor reports temperatures well within tolerance.

One thing I didn't mention, as of yet, it is a manufactured home. Not really what my dream home was to begin with, but it's a start at least. It is just shy of 2,000 Square Ft of living space. Its a 3 bedroom, with 2 of the bedrooms being huge! One is 28 x 13 and the other is 28 x 14. The 3rd bedroom is smaller at 14' x 12', which is still a decent size. It was built in 2003, and is built to the same hurricane specifications as a standard site built home. In fact this home survived hurricane Wilma a couple years ago, that took the complete roof of of a good friend of mines town house.

The floors in the Living room, Kitchen, Dining Room & Breakfast nook are all real hardwood, and not laminate. That was a major plus when I looked at it! There is even around 30 extra planks in the shed if something happens and I have to replace a plank here or there.

I found this through a friend when the foreclosure papers were started. I went to the office and spoke with them, before it was placed on the market. I purchased it for $32,000, and it is appraised in this area at around $75,000. For anything other than a manufactured home, in the Palm Beach County area, with the same square footage, would run around the $300,000 range!

One major advantage so far has been the raised floor. The crawl space underneath is ideal for running wire from room to room for Cat5 and such, and was able to run the surround sound speakers to the back of the living room like that. There was an existing CD Player / AM/FM / Intercom built into the wall in between the kitchen and the living room. Speaker wires from it, are already are ran to each room :blink: ! I am going to rip that system out, and place the touch screen in that location, as it is like 4 feet from the Media Center / Home Seer machine.

What is anyone best advice on how to run the monitor, as far as still being able to use the Media Center PC portion on the TV, and the Home Seer screens on the touch screen? Dual GFX cards, Extended desktop ect? I do not want to run into the hassles of having programs pop up on the wrong screen ect. I have never tried to run 2 totally different displays of of a single computer before, so any tips are greatly appreciated! Oh, the existing GFX card in the machine has dual DVI's out. I am running one to the TV, and the other I will use the VGA converter that came with to go from the DVI to a standard VGA cable for the touch screen.

Here is a photo of the living room and media center setup in it's current state. There is still quite a bit to do, but it's getting there! (The coffee table arrived with a huge crack in the top of it, so only the matching end tables are set up ect. I know how everyone loves photo's, so I figured I would post one to get started, and update as necessary

The photo is a compilation of 8 separate images aligned in Photoshop, and auto blended. If you havent used that feature in Photoshop CS2, it is an amazing tool!
The downside of this is it makes everything look so small! You would never know that the main sofa is 8' long, and that the TV is a 65" Rear Projection! The size of the living room is 21' x 14'.

And YES, the Ceiling fan, and other lights in the living room are the first things in the house to be automated, and are all set up. The other is a motion sensor that turns on the light above the stove, if you come down the hall in the dark towards the kitchen Gotta love the little Socket Rockets for little things like that More to be automated for sure as time goes on.

 

[electron]

That is an amazing & beautiful place, something to be very proud of!

 

[Ranger Digital]

john congrats on your new first home and congrats even more on the price you paid! you ha could end up costing more than the house! make sure you tell your insurance agent, LOL.