Hestia Home Integration

Existing home sales showed an unexpected increase yesterday and new housing starts for February were up last Tuesday.  With low mortgage rates and buyer incentives, especially for first-time homebuyers, lots of property is trading hands.  Hestia has been walking down memory lane, thinking back to 1995 when we purchased our home.  We had an inspection, but there were still little surprises and things we didn’t know about our property until a crisis emerged.  Such as…that circle of concrete in a sunken area of the backyard - is it a decommissioned septic tank or just excess concrete from pouring the foundation that was dumped in the backyard?  Turns out it was the latter.

Fast forward to last summer - our home office and filing system was out of control and I asked a friend for whom personal organization is an avocation for help in sorting, organizing and tossing.  One thing she suggested was purchasing a large three ring binder and several expandable plastic sleeves and organizing all things related to our house in this notebook:  Appliance receipts and warranties, contact information for the contracter and subs who did our remodel in 2000, service records, locations of the natural gas and water shutoff, manuals, etc.  Much easier to flip through transparent sleeves containing documentation than pawing through the two manila folders where all of these items had previously been stuffed.  I was reminded by her idea when I saw this article in the Seattle Times on maintaining a similar notebook with the moniker “house bible.”

House bibles and home integration have a natural convergence.  Access to a house bible would be so informative to the walk-through and job estimation process.  If at all possible, we like to confer and collaborate with previous contractors who were involved at different stages of a home’s evolution.   Similarly, more and more homes will be coming on the market with existing elements of an integrated home control system.  We’re beginning to bid on more and more jobs where we’ll be bringing those elements together into a single control solution.  Here is our integrators’ wish list for what we’d like to find in a house bible and will be adding to our own notebook:

Wiring/Networking:

• A wiring diagram from the builder and eletrical contractor including wiring termination points, especially if CAT5/6 has been pulled
• Name of electrical contractor is wiring/networking has been done recently
• What kind of wiring has been used - we have a combination of Romax and knob and tube that is still in good condition
• Where are the cable drops?  FIOS?  Age of coaxial and telephony wiring?  Age affects performance.
• Does the utility offer a smart meter option?

Security

• Has security coaxial or CAT5/6 been pulled?
• Where are the camera drops?
• Is there an existing security and monitoring provider contract?
• Where is the security pane?  What’s the capacity for termination?

HVAC

• Is there a gas fireplace insert with electric ignition/switch?  Who installed the insert?
• Where are the thermostats located?  Will existing wiring work for swapping in networked thermostats?
• Are there dampers in HVAC for creating climate zones?

Irrigation

• Irrigation system installed outside?

Window coverings:

• Blinds or shades - who was the installer?
• Is there wiring in framing around windows for serial connection to controller?
• Is there power run into framing for motorized window coverings?

Entertainment:

• If speaker wire was run for music zones, wiring diagram
• Speakers installed in ceilings, walls or exterior - manufacturer?
• Is home theater room wired for 5.1 surround (the new digital standard in audio)?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 7:21 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.