I Wish I'd Thought of That Sooner!

Did you ever build a home only to regret you didn’t think of a few worthwhile features you could have easily added?  For example, when building a home, it is ALWAYS to your advantage to consult with a custom home A/V installer before the house plans are finalized.  That’s because companies like ours can help you envision amenities you didn’t know were available to you...and didn't realize you'd want later!  For practically the cost of the extra wire, you can avoid the future labor costs of having someone crawling in your attic with fish tape feeding wire between studs and ceiling joists.

We ran across a forum topic that invited ideas of small but easily overlooked additions to new homes.  You might be GLAD you read some of these excerpts before building your next home.  Here are a few of our favorite posts:

• Plugs in kitchen pantry for charging, or for items that may end up living there
• Full size broom cupboard in pantry or laundry room to hide all the cleaning items away from sight.

  [caption id="attachment_557" align="alignright" width="196"] Solar Tube in Closets or Dressing Areas
  

• Solar tubes in areas that don’t get natural sunlight
• Prewire security system
• Run wire and prepare roof for future solar
• Central Vac with vac pans
• I would run conduit under your driveway just in case you need to run wiring or plumbing in the future.
• My contractor friend said one thing he learned to do was run a 2" pvc pipe from basement straight up to attic, for any future wiring to second floor.
• Pre-wire speakers indoor/outdoor
• Garden outlets/power, water line
• Double conduits from attic to basement
• Dryer vent lint box
• Hepa filtration for allergy sufferers
• Heated towel racks
• Motion sensor pre-wire for selected exterior lights
• Soundproofing where needed (we did laundry room/bedroom wall)
• Identify area for low voltage can/rack (alarm brain, network server, modems, routers, etc). Helps to have this stuff accessible.
• And don't let your plumber caulk the bottom of your toilet to the tile to hide potential leaks. Sigh.
• I'd also suggest several 4-plug outlets instead of all 2-pluggers. (By the time you have a bedside lamp on each side of a bed, plus a plug-in clock or two, plus a plug-in base for your cordless phone....it all adds up to lots of outlets.)
• We are putting an exhaust fan in the laundry room for our indoor cat's litterbox.
• A light switch at the head of your bed so you can turn out the light once you are in bed.

If you'd like to browse through the entire forum topic, click here. Two things we'd like to add here.  One is to consider LED lighting.  Far more efficient than traditional lighting and are dimmable (whereas the little swirly fluorescents are not).  Plus they draw so little power, your electrician doesn't have to use the beefier, standard size circuits.  The added expense of LEDs become added to your construction cost and savings in your utilities are immediate.  We can show you why this might be a great choice for you. The second thing is to pre-wire for all potential audio and video components--even those you may never expect to use.  We do post construction installations all the time for people who wish they'd have thought to install the wiring in advance. Why not keep your own little list of amenities that will make life all the simpler for you?  When its time to build, your thinking-in-advance will make your home just a little happier.

by Bryan Naquin.  Follow Bryan on Twitter @ACIexperts.  And you can always contact him at 225.906.2589 or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Bryan Naquin is president of Acadian Home Theater and Automation based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  CEPro Magazine has ranked Acadian in the top 100 consumer electronic companies in the U.S. for the third year in a row.