Electrical - Nearly Complete

I went out on site this morning to meet the sparkies. I wanted to make sure that they don't run electrical cabling where I marked and wanted to see if they could move one TV  point which they said was no problem. We also had a chat about the location of where the electrical Sub-board is going and location for C-Bus board, they had no problem with any of this.

I also had a chat to the SS today about running a "few" data cables and home theatre wiring which he had no problems with! Woohoo.

When we visited after work 95% of the electrical was completed. They didn't install power points where I didn't want them! (Good!). The rear laundry door has bee installed and garage side door has been installed.

I also picked up all the AV and speaker cables tonight so we are good to go for the weekend to install as the sparkies look like they will be finished tomorrow.

Entrance Wall Holes Left to Right: FTTH, C-Bus Board Location, Sub-Board

Lots of 240v Home run cabling for C-Bus

Master Bed Room Electrical Done

Ensuite Cabling

Kitchen

Living Room

Games looking into Living

Bed4/Games

Bathroom

Alfresco Pier Cabling. Note how the Gas/Water are on different sites.

New Laundry Door!!

Garage Entry Door (will have to change to solid later)

Electrical - Rough In Started

The electricians had been on site today, we were expecting them to come tomorrow. They ran in the conduit for the fibre to the home, and also ran a few network points. I thought I better mark a few spots where I don't want them to run power cabling etc and hope they read/follow them.


I was also surprised to see the plaster had been delivered. Right in the middle of the room. The fixing carpenter hasn't been back yet so I thought it was a bit early. Hopefully it doesn't get damaged.

I also picked up all the C-Bus, Data Cable, Catenary Wire, Clips, Brackets, Etc for the house. It completely filled up my car.

Network Cabling and Conduit ready for Fiber to the Home

Garage Side of FTTH

Bathroom Shower Base Installed

Ensuite Shower Base Installed

Cornice

Plaster delivered, bit early??

Roof Completed - Frame Issues Fixed

We had some good progress today!

The roof has been finished with all the capping done and it looks awesome. The carpenter has been and fixed up all the issues from the Frame Inspection report, I'm really happy about this as this has been dragging on for ages. The door frames for the garage, laundry and front door were installed but the sidelight on the front door has completed cracked, I assume from when the carpenter installed the frame he twisted the frame to much, but not to worried about this as it can be fixed at any time.

I also received a call about upgrading our heating unit to support AC add on after handover, I'll probably give this a miss as we will be replacing the entire heating/cooling system with a Actron ESP Ultima system. I'll have a think about this tonight as the Actron system is nearly $20k!.

I also had a look and a think about how I'm going to do my theatre cabinet, specifically what type of cabinet I'm going to use and how its going to be mounted. Also thinking if the network cabling should go into the theatre rack or a seperate dedicated comms rack. For the theater rack I'll probably use a Middle Atlantic Slim 5 rack, as its made for installing into walls. For those of you interested google this one there are heaps of example setups.

Plumbing in the alfresco. The gas is one side of the pier and the hot/cold water points are on the other side. It ended up this way as I was told they couldn't fit these all on one side at contract, but they can easily be moved, I will probably move them as I don't like where they are. I'll ask the SS if he has any issues with me moving them.

I've also been thinking that I want to add an Intercom but I need to understand what one so I can add the cabling.

 Summary:

* All Frame Issues Fixed
* Front, Garage and Laundry Door Frames Installed
* Roof Finished with all Capping Done
* Front Door Window Smashed
* Can I move pluming in Alfresco?
* Large Metal Lintels delivered
* Received call about upgrading heating unit to support add on A/C
* Planning completed for Data, C-Bus, Home Theatre Cabling cabling lengths estimated and orders placed.
* Noggins, time to add these for towel rails, toilet holders, TVs etc. Need to think about which side and how high they need to be mounted.
* Theatre Cabinet, can I get the Middle Atlantic rack in AU?
* Intercom wiring requirements?

Front with capping done

Master Bed, Ens, Bed2, Ldry, Bath

Ens, Bed2, Laundry, Bath, Bed3

Ens, Ldry, Bath, Bed2, Bed3, Bed 4, Games

Bed4, Games, Alfresco, Study, Lounge, Garage

Alfresco / Lounge / Garage Side

Garage / Portico

Our Smashed Side Light

Example of look I'm going for with Theater Rack

Another Example: Thou mine will be twice as tall.

Roof!

We got a roof today!!! Finally.

It's looking great, we are really happy with the colour so far.

The bad; we found that the tilers had dropped a roof tile against the inside of the stacking door, the same door that has the 20cm chip on the outside. I spoke to the SS before getting out to side today about the 20cm chip and they said that this is easily fixed by just replacing the outside facia of the frame. It's actually just screwed on for the fly screen doors. But after having a look at the damamge on the inside of the frame this is not as easily replaceable. So now I have to call the SS back to discuss this with him. It'll have to be removed and sent back to be repainted as its power coated not painted.

Front Facade

Front / East Side (Ens Bath Ldry Bath2/3)

East Side (Ens Bath Ldry Bath2/3)

Ens, Ldry, Bed2, Bed3, Bed4, Games

Bed4, Games, Alfresco

Bed4, Games, Alfresco, Study, Garage

Alfresco, Lounge, Garage

Garage

Big Scratch where tilers dropped a tile agsint the stacking sliding door.

More Chipped Paint and rubber seal.

Chipped Paint, Thanks Tilers

Cbus - Data Points - Home Theater - AV Distribution

So After talking to my sparky again he has suggested now is the best time to get in the networking cables, especially based on the amount of work it will require later with chasing cables in works even with noggins drilled. So I spent the weekend planning out everything as I expect electricals to finish this Thursday and need to be ready to run all this in. As such I have planned my first draft with the following items:

• Data Point Locations (88 points and nearly 2000 meters of cable!!)
• C-Bus Light Switch locations (305 meters of cable)
• C-Bus Sensor Locations
• Future C-Bus Switched GPO outlets
• Security Camera Locations
• Home Theatre Cabling:  Speakers, HDMI, Component, Projector, etc. 

I had also previously planned our C-Bus controlled dimmable lighting, C-Bus controlled switched lighting and the C-Bus controlled GPO points.

See all the various electrical diagrams below:

Data Point Locations

Data Point Locations including Cable Runs

C-Bus Switch and Sensor Locations

C-Bus Switch and Sensor Locations & Cable Runs

Home Theatre Cabling (excl speakers)

C-Bus Controlled - Dimmable Lighting

C-Bus Controlled - Switched (Relay) Lighting

C-Bus Controlled - General Power Outlets

Smart Home Stratergy - Data Cabling.

Data Cabling

I've decided after being convinced by my sparky that now is the best time to install the network cabling  at per-plaster rather than us crawling around in the roof post handover. This is a bit of change to my plans as I'm someone who researches every choice to death, plans and diagrams out everything that I need before I start anything but I guesstimate that I only have about 1 week before the plaster goes on.


I had planned from the very start that I will build a dedicated theater room and have a separate AV rack that houses all the equipment so that I can centrally distributed AV around the house utilising cat6 cabling. The rack was to be built outside of the theater room, this rack will also be next to or comprise of the cat6 patch panels in order to easily distribute the AV to anywhere in the house. I will use 2 data points per possible TV screen location to distribute HDMI + 1 data for network cable TVs. Rooms that have a physical obstical like robes, door ways or open walk ways will have extra points added on the other side of the room to allow the room to be moved around. E.g. Bedrooms have 2 on each wall. 1 Data + 1 IP Phone add some data points for IP security cameras and the numbers quickly add up!

So now I need to quickly plan how many points are required, how much cable is needed?, how I'm going to support the amount of data points expected? (more than 40!). Where and what product do I use flush mount smart serve boxes?, do I install a mini rack?, or use a full height rack that my AV equipment is going in?. Have I finished deciding what AV rack I'm going to use? Can I import the rack as its not sold in Australia? Should I also do my home theater wiring at the same time? Probably.

Using Visio and my floor plan, I will now plan out my C-Bus, Data, AV, and Security Data Points to answer all these questions and come up with a Bill Of Materials to order next week.

Roof - Not Yet..

After the scaffolding had been installed yesterday I expected that the roof would have been installed. It wasn't and it was probably a good thing as it was expected to rain again in the afternoon and last thing I wanted was the mortar bed for the roof capping to get damaged. Oh well I guess they will do it next week.