Within every room of the Tesauro house is Cat 5 Ethernet cable. (Photo by Jay Paul)
And on the 237th day, the builder said, “Let there be Sheetrock.” And it was so. Thirty-three weeks after pouring the foundation, workers hung the walls. No longer a den of bones and naked framing, our home — in the span of a week — went from see-through to trim-ready. Over the SIPs and two-by-fours, a slew of screw guns was trailed by a flock of finishers using tape and joint compound to smooth the gypsum panels into proper walls primed to receive the trim. Amen.
We are entering the finishing phase, and it’s almost time to order the champagne. Yet, at three months behind (give or take) and 10 percent over budget (give or take), when it comes to wine and home, we are hoping for a loooong finish on only one of these. With the body of the house essentially set, the focus is shifting to 3607’s brains. To help me sort it out, I commissioned Adam Bell, owner and senior network technician at ALB Tech.
Bell’s first directive: “Future-proof your house by running Cat 5 Ethernet cable to every single room. Going back into your walls is nowhere near as easy as wiring before the Sheetrock goes up.”
Houses used to be wired for coaxial cable in order to have a TV in every room, but the switch to Cat 5 goes far beyond ensuring access to “Game of Thrones.” During framing, we thought about every location where we’d possibly want a device and then converged all of the data wires into a central, easy-to-access spot in our mechanical closet.
Additionally, Bell designed our Wi-Fi network. “Wireless is delivered from an omnidirectional radio in concentric, overlapping circles,” he says. “The goal for complete coverage is to find locations where we’ll get full signal without too much overlap.” In a three-story interior that’s 15 feet wide and 78 feet long, Bell faced challenges. The signal has to be strong enough that a device can read it, and close enough that the same device can broadcast back to it. Bell decided to zigzag three wireless access points across the layout. The whole thing, from cable to hardware, cost under $750 and generates enough oomph for everyone to stream movies simultaneously while Mommy and Daddy Netflix and chill.
Next, we opted for a smart deadbolt lock. With my tweens and teens losing umpteen keys, keyless entry was a no-brainer. Each person selects their own four- to eight-digit code, and we can even set temporary codes for guests and domestic help. It also works with an iPhone — “Siri, unlock my door” pairs nicely with an armful of groceries. Plus, it tracks entries so that we can trust but verify a high schooler’s “Cross my heart, we got home by 10, Dad.” And installation is simple. Rob Martens, futurist and vice president of strategy and partnerships at Allegion, makers of our lock, says, “All you need is a screwdriver and your mobile phone.”
Since we’ve gone all-in on eco-conscious building materials and energy-saving HVAC, it made sense to integrate brains into our home’s respiratory system, too. Our digital thermostat allows more than armchair temperature adjustment. It communicates filter life and alerts us to routine maintenance. Beyond the extensive programmability (A/C muted during vacation, for example, but cranked back up right before we return), it also coordinates between zones to maximize energy efficiency and save precious BTU$.
Lastly, we got smart with fans and lights. I’ve described this house on a small lot as a haiku: Like those 17 syllables, each square foot must do work. With Haiku Home, fans and lights do more than just turn on or off. Haiku’s ceiling fans include technology for motion sensing, sleep modes, programmability and communication with our HVAC system. Haiku lights are another piece of the energy-savings puzzle. Our kids leave lights on all the friggin’ time, so motion-triggered lights might pay for themselves in a marking period.
There’s still music to consider — we’re sniffing out the skinny on Sonos — and in the future, we’re wired to possibly add a video doorbell or run Ethernet to an Internet-connected refrigerator and any other devices that come online in the next five to 10 years. Overall, we’re up-to-date, yet analog, too. There will be a turntable and fireplace, and, at my naturopath mother's request, we’ll have a kill switch for Internet and other electromagnetic-free radicals so that sometimes we can just sit and talk in Spotify-free sanctuary with one another. And that’s the future we’re smart enough to build toward.
About the Author
Jason Tesauro is a national award-winning booze/food/culture journalist and co-author of “The Modern Gentleman.” He and his family are building a modern house in historic Church Hill.
