MrH goes full Jetson House

[MrH42]

Didn't realize we had a housing subforum. I posted this in my garage thread, but I figured I'll put stuff here if people are interested.

Under contract on this house:



We're doing a lot of boring stuff: paint, carpet, some new furniture, all new door hardware, etc. The real fun stuff; now that I know I'm going into a house I'll be at for awhile, I can go all out with the smart home stuff. Here are the rough plans by room. It'll probably take me a year to get this all done, but I'll provide updates as I go if anyone is interested in it.

Living Room
- LG OLED of some type. Still need to decide if we go 65" or 77". Wall mount just above the media center furniture we bought recently
- Samsung Q950A or Q950T, or something cheaper - I don't have surround speaker wires in place in this room, so fancy sound bar will probably do.
- Apple TV 4k

Theater
- BenQ X1300i projector
- Possible stadium style, 2 tier theater seats
- Yamaha TSR-700 + Klipsch Dolby Atmos reference speakers
- All game consoles hooked up to this + Apple TV 4k
- Projector screen, somewhere between 120-150". Need to play around with the space and lay things out.
- All my Philips Hue recessed lights are going in for movie scene mode
- Smart blinds are some point to block out the windows

Gym - reusing everything else I've got
- old 43" TCL
- old Apple TV
- old Yamaha RX-A780 receiver
- Onkyo surround speakers

Whole home audio:
- Monoprice 6x6 matrix amp and controller
- Belkin soundform airplay 2 boxes

I think I'll have 4 or 5 in ceiling zones + homepod speakers in the bedroom & garage + soundbar in living room + receiver in theater + receiver in gym, all will be airplay 2 capable. Should be an awesome setup.

Smart Home
- Logitech Circle View exterior cameras
- Logitech Circle door bell (once they fix the issues)
- Nest thermostats and carbon monoxide and fire alarms + starling hub to connect to homekit
- Probably wire the old ADT style security system in with one of these retrofit boxes from Ring or Simplisafe
- Homebridge to connect the non-native Homekit stuff
- Lutron Caseta switches throughout
- Lutron Aurora for Hue bulb stuff
- A water detector for the sump pump area
- Garage opener retrofit on all 3 doors

[Irish]

Didn't realize we had a housing subforum. I posted this in my garage thread, but I figured I'll put stuff here if people are interested.

Under contract on this house:



We're doing a lot of boring stuff: paint, carpet, some new furniture, all new door hardware, etc. The real fun stuff; now that I know I'm going into a house I'll be at for awhile, I can go all out with the smart home stuff. Here are the rough plans by room. It'll probably take me a year to get this all done, but I'll provide updates as I go if anyone is interested in it.

Living Room
- LG OLED of some type. Still need to decide if we go 65" or 77". Wall mount just above the media center furniture we bought recently
- Samsung Q950A or Q950T, or something cheaper - I don't have surround speaker wires in place in this room, so fancy sound bar will probably do.
- Apple TV 4k

Theater
- BenQ X1300i projector
- Possible stadium style, 2 tier theater seats
- Yamaha TSR-700 + Klipsch Dolby Atmos reference speakers
- All game consoles hooked up to this + Apple TV 4k
- Projector screen, somewhere between 120-150". Need to play around with the space and lay things out.
- All my Philips Hue recessed lights are going in for movie scene mode
- Smart blinds are some point to block out the windows

Gym - reusing everything else I've got
- old 43" TCL
- old Apple TV
- old Yamaha RX-A780 receiver
- Onkyo surround speakers

Whole home audio:
- Monoprice 6x6 matrix amp and controller
- Belkin soundform airplay 2 boxes

I think I'll have 4 or 5 in ceiling zones + homepod speakers in the bedroom & garage + soundbar in living room + receiver in theater + receiver in gym, all will be airplay 2 capable. Should be an awesome setup.

Smart Home
- Logitech Circle View exterior cameras
- Logitech Circle door bell (once they fix the issues)
- Nest thermostats and carbon monoxide and fire alarms + starling hub to connect to homekit
- Probably wire the old ADT style security system in with one of these retrofit boxes from Ring or Simplisafe
- Homebridge to connect the non-native Homekit stuff
- Lutron Caseta switches throughout
- Lutron Aurora for Hue bulb stuff
- A water detector for the sump pump area
- Garage opener retrofit on all 3 doors

Shes a beaut! All the best!

[Tar]

Sick house... It has a lot of great features and nice to have a ravine lot! Congrats man.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I can't recommend an ALR theater screen more if you have windows in the theater room. Not cheap, but the picture quality is fantastic EVEN if there's lights on. I hung a power roll down screen in my living room thats all windows behind the screen, it's incredible how decent it looks in what might be the worst environment for a projector possible. I hung a blackout shade on some bigger windows and while not perfectly dark, the screen is very viewable.

[ChrisoftheNorth]

Oh, and nest smoke alarms are game changers with the nightlight feature. Nobody talks about it, but it's the best thing about them. Makes a rarely used box on the ceiling something you utilize constantly.

Costco sells a multipack that's the best deal I could find. I have 6 through the house.

[CaleDeRoo]

Go 77" on the OLED. My TV is 75" and I'm sure my living room is much smaller. It feels laughably big for a day or two, then you think to yourself "boy I'm glad I didn't get the smaller one this is perfect"

[MrH42]

Oh man, that's a lot of smartness going into this

Nice place.

Highly recommend Yamaha soundbars, if you decide on going that route.

They're Airplay 2 compatible it looks like too They're on the list to look into, thanks!

I can't recommend an ALR theater screen more if you have windows in the theater room. Not cheap, but the picture quality is fantastic EVEN if there's lights on. I hung a power roll down screen in my living room thats all windows behind the screen, it's incredible how decent it looks in what might be the worst environment for a projector possible. I hung a blackout shade on some bigger windows and while not perfectly dark, the screen is very viewable.

I'm definitely doing some type of screen, and then some smart shades to all the windows so we can black it out for movie watching. There's a huge range of screens and reviews though, so it's going to take some research.

Current owner is projecting on the wall. That's some hood rat shit.

Oh, and nest smoke alarms are game changers with the nightlight feature. Nobody talks about it, but it's the best thing about them. Makes a rarely used box on the ceiling something you utilize constantly.

Costco sells a multipack that's the best deal I could find. I have 6 through the house.

I'm still trying to figure out Thermostat and alarms. I've had a nest for years and been happy with it, but it doesn't connect natively to Apple's Homekit. So I've been running a Starling Bridge to get the two to talk. I'm probably going to continue that and get Nests for thermostat and alarms, but need to double check that there isn't a better option that has native homekit support. Ecobee thermostats do, but I think they're ugly.

Go 77" on the OLED. My TV is 75" and I'm sure my living room is much smaller. It feels laughably big for a day or two, then you think to yourself "boy I'm glad I didn't get the smaller one this is perfect"

I have a 70" now. The price difference between the 77" and 65" though...

[MrH42]

I closed yesterday and met the sellers.

All the speakers in the ceiling throughout the house apparently work great. I was going to do a 6 channel amp/matrix controller, with 6 airplay zones. They just wired them all to one receiver, and controlled each room with the built in volume knobs. A much cheaper option for sure, but then you're only able to play one set of music/podcast in the house at a time, and every time you cast it, it will play in every room unless they're turned down or off.

I'll probably try to this to start, and then eventually expand it with multiple zones.

Oh, and the entire house has ethernet wired everywhere

[Desertbreh]

Oh, and nest smoke alarms are game changers with the nightlight feature. Nobody talks about it, but it's the best thing about them. Makes a rarely used box on the ceiling something you utilize constantly.

Costco sells a multipack that's the best deal I could find. I have 6 through the house.

[max225]

Oh, and nest smoke alarms are game changers with the nightlight feature. Nobody talks about it, but it's the best thing about them. Makes a rarely used box on the ceiling something you utilize constantly.

Costco sells a multipack that's the best deal I could find. I have 6 through the house.

Are they hardwired? All of my smoke alarms are not ...

[Desertbreh]

Oh, and nest smoke alarms are game changers with the nightlight feature. Nobody talks about it, but it's the best thing about them. Makes a rarely used box on the ceiling something you utilize constantly.

Costco sells a multipack that's the best deal I could find. I have 6 through the house.

Are they hardwired? All of my smoke alarms are not ...

They sell both kinds

[max225]

Are they hardwired? All of my smoke alarms are not ...

They sell both kinds

Well I’m assuming a night light is short lived without constant power …

[ChrisoftheNorth]

They sell both kinds

Well I’m assuming a night light is short lived without constant power …

I had battery ones at the last house and they went 2 years without needing the batteries changed.
We sold the house with the original batteries in them working great.

[max225]

Well I’m assuming a night light is short lived without constant power …

I had battery ones at the last house and they went 2 years without needing the batteries changed.
We sold the house with the original batteries in them working great.

will check out

[ChrisoftheNorth]

I had battery ones at the last house and they went 2 years without needing the batteries changed.
We sold the house with the original batteries in them working great.

will check out

I was amazed too. The lights aren't bright, but when your eyes are adjusted to the dark, they shine the perfect amount to see where you're going.

Our current house has them hardwired with battery backup. Had a power outage last night, no lights work, but the smoke detector night lights did. Amazingly helpful.

[Huckleberry]

Needs more pedestal height:

[MrH42]

Well, it's started. We're mostly moved in. Tons of boxes still to unpack, but it's livable.

- All the theater area lights are now Hue downlights.
- Added some switches for them
- Ordered a new overhead light for the office
- Two nest thermometers ordered
- All new bulbs and housings for the rest of the house


Probably the only thing of interest:

- Bought a smart garage module because I read great reviews about it. Instruction were kind of lacking, but I figured it out. For $35, you can link your garage door to HomeKit or whatever your home automation weapon of choice. It's slick. When I tell the house I'm going to bed, it'll close any open garage doors. I can also drive the S2000 without a garage door opener. Just swipe down on my phone and click it. If you have CarPlay going, it will actually suggest it on the home screen as you approach your house. really slick.

[KYGTIGuy]

Can vouch for the LG OLED. Once you go pure black, you'll never go back.

Somehow I survived years not knowing I needed it though.

[MrH42]

I forgot I made this thread. It was mostly about tech stuff for the house, but basically since we moved in:

- All the stair balusters and hand rails got ripped out and replaced. Used to be large wood balusters painted white. Now they're thin, more modern iron that's black.
- Wood floors all got refinished. Sanded down from that orange/yellow 90's and stained a more neutral medium brown color.
- Carpet is getting replaced in the next month or two
- Costco sectional for the basement
- Had to buy a new refrigerator, washer & dryer, and dishwasher

- Living room ended up with a 75" mini-led TV (TCL 75r646) + Sonos sound bar
- Theater got a 135" screen + BenQ X3000i projector. It can do 4k @ 60 hz, 1080p @ 240 hz, and only 16 ms response time
- Sound has been a huge pain in the ass. Bought a big amp to drive the whole home audio, but haven't done anything with it yet.
- Have all the theater stuff mounted on an AV rack in the basement
- Still working on wiring it all to this spot. I think I just have 2 more runs of 4 speaker wire leads left to solder and wrap up
- Bought controllers, massive HDMI cable, USB extension, IR repeater that I need to run to connect PC in my office to theater
- I now have Arcade1up cabinets lining the back wall of the theater area: Marvel vs Capcom 2, NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, and Golden Tee. It's the best.


I've started running out of steam and desire to spend money the last few months. Need to make a final push to wrap up some of this stuff in the next few weeks.

[wap]

In4pics

[MrH42]

Finally got the PC hooked up to the media center. I was right, definitely had to run a huge USB extension to get the Xbox controller adapter in the theater room. Only getting 1080p @ 60hz currently. Looks like the HDMI cable from the projector to the AV rack is only HDMI 1.slow. Of course, a 15 foot hdmi 2 cable is like $20. But 20 ft is $105 So tired of dumping money into this. I just want it to be finished.

[Desertbreh]

Finally got the PC hooked up to the media center. I was right, definitely had to run a huge USB extension to get the Xbox controller adapter in the theater room. Only getting 1080p @ 60hz currently. Looks like the HDMI cable from the projector to the AV rack is only HDMI 1.slow. Of course, a 15 foot hdmi 2 cable is like $20. But 20 ft is $105 So tired of dumping money into this. I just want it to be finished.

I have a need for detachable head HDMI cable so I can run the cable through conduit in the wall to the soundbar. Detachable head is in wall rated 25 foot or longer only, 80 bucks+. I only need an 8 foot cable which are free.com.

[D Griff]

Dang man, pretty impressive project. It’s funny, I have access to all this stuff for like pennies through work but just don’t really care to run wire through the house so haven’t bothered. I need to install my Control4 stuff, all sitting in boxes. Just so much effort lolz.

[D Griff]

How do you like the BenQ? We distribute those and we have large venue options for my business but no one seems to want them. Seems like a nice product.