tanstaff1;
It seems most of your questions were answered by our knowledgable membership! :lol: , but let me answer some specifics from your above post.
I used Cat 5e runs to all wall plates for my network AND phone lines. I then terminated all Cat 5e runs to punch down RJ-45 sockets like the one shown
HERE. The module on the left is the RJ-45 punch down blocks. The center module it where the telephone demarcation terminates into. This center module then has RJ-45 sockets which break up the telephone lines so a socket has line1, line2, or lines 1&2 supplied for that jack. You then simply patch what telephone line combination you want to go to an RJ-45 punch down socket.
In cases where you want to run a network, you would patch a switch or hub output to the RJ-45 punch down socket.
As you can see this is nice because you have the ability to use any wall plate for phone or network.
As far as running the cat5e and coax to both sides of a room, this house will be my buddy's family for the rest of their life! You never know how you will use rooms in the future as far as furniture layout and like JLehnert stated, I also hate running a cord along the baseboard, especially in a custom home.
You also will never know future automation needs, thus all the multipair cable. Voice announcements, voice commands, temp monitoring, motion sensors, glass breaks, keypads, sound system control needs, etc... are all future possibilities.
My buddy's home automation system is far from being specified! The only thing we will initially install will be an Elk M1, mainly for security. This is because his budget does not allow for any of the fancy stuff initially (as you can imagine trying to build a custom home. Plus all the contractors estimates are coming in higher than initially thought). Therefore it was very important to "guess" at what technology he would want in the future.
Quad shield is mainly needed to prevent your local "over the air" broadcasts of tv stations from bleeding into the cabling (creating a ghost effect on your picture). Think about it, if a commercial cable TV industry uses this (and it is about $15 more per roll) it must be needed as they surely would not waste the money on it and use the cheaper stuff if they could get away with it.
As far as the garage doors needs, refer to my latest posted How-To and you will see why the need for all the wiring.
The air filter doors will have a magnetic contact to the home automation system will know when they have been opened. Then the home automation system will "remind" the homeowner when it is time to change the filters automatically! (and repeat the process once it sees that the filter door has been opened to change the filters).
All the wiring for multipair was 22 gauge. It was Belden type wiring. Don't know any more details other than that (but could get them from him if needed).
Good idea about running Cat5e in addition to the two pair wiring for keypad locations for future touch screen needs. Also, if money was not object I would get a Russound Cav6.6 whole house audio system and make sure to wire for it (cat5e and multipair speaker wiring. I would install at least two in ceiling speakers for each room AND of course your surround sound system in your entertainment area. It would of course be personal preference if you wanted to have local control of the surround system (from your entertainment cabinet), or have all of this equipment wired in your closet with the russound. Do a search on Russound Cav6.6 and you will see a wealth of information. It isn't cheap but it is THE system to get for whole house audio (wish I had one).
I'm running a separate voice announcement system using the Elk Echo speakers (automated outlet has them for cheap). This is because he will not have a whole house sound system in place at first and I can easily (and cheaply) get voice announcements around the home via the Elk M1 Gold.