The new house is FINALLY started......

[JohnE]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Also, if you're a christmas light guy, outlets under the soffits homerunning to a switch in your entry closet is a good thing to do

If you are a Christmas Light guy, you may want these. I'm putting them in mine. http://www.sillites.com/

[thatsmrmastercraft]

Originally Posted by JohnE

If you are a Christmas Light guy, you may want these. I'm putting them in mine. http://www.sillites.com/

Very cool lights. I still curse the lights I have.

Also, can't have too many switched outlets, indoor & outdoor for Christmas lights.

[JohnnyB]

For lightning/surge protector installation, ideally you want to use breaker 1 and breaker 2 in your main panel (tie to each leg of service). Buying a good one allows you to eliminate the surge protectors in your house. Sycom is the only one I know of that will guarentee performance even if not in the 1st two breakers.

I took a lightning strike about a month after completing my house....lightning is high risk in uncompacted soil conditions....took out most of the electronics tied to the 1st 4-5 breakers in the panel and popped all GFCIs in the house. I think it came in on bkr 5 which was the invisible fence....I have a lightning arrestor dedicated to that system now.

[JimN]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

For lightning/surge protector installation, ideally you want to use breaker 1 and breaker 2 in your main panel (tie to each leg of service). Buying a good one allows you to eliminate the surge protectors in your house. Sycom is the only one I know of that will guarentee performance even if not in the 1st two breakers.

I took a lightning strike about a month after completing my house....lightning is high risk in uncompacted soil conditions....took out most of the electronics tied to the 1st 4-5 breakers in the panel and popped all GFCIs in the house. I think it came in on bkr 5 which was the invisible fence....I have a lightning arrestor dedicated to that system now.

What does a "whole house' protector do for surges that were induced by an outside event, like lightning? Nothing at all. That means the power lines outside may not be the source, but the ones inside still need to be kept from causing problems. What about motors and pumps turning on/off? Those spikes can do a lot of damage to microprocessors.

[jkski]

156 ton of sand, 40 ton of 57 wash and 81 ton of limestone 1's and 2's and we now have a backfilled home, filled up garage and a driveway leading to the garage that can withstand the rest of what our construction throws at it! Most of the rough grading is done just some final touches to put on to insure that everything is sloped away from the foundation but with rain moving in tomorrow it probably will not be a good day to play in the dirt.

It was a long expensive day but I do believe I will sleep good tonight. The framing crew is just about done putting the front wall together with the windows and doors arriving tomorrow, plumber starting on Saturday and roofer scheduled for Monday!

Things are progressing!

[blakekrone]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Great idea on the conduit as others have said. I did that too. Spend the few $$ to pre-wire for in-wall and in-ceiling speakers. Best thing I did in the last house...put the speakers and distribution in a couple years later and used them constantly. When I built the current one, wasn't even a consideration to not do it. DIY cost is reasonable. If you are interested, PM me and I can give you the take off list of speakers, volume controls, distribution boxes, etc I used.

Run extra coax and data everywhere too.

Also, if you're a christmas light guy, outlets under the soffits homerunning to a switch in your entry closet is a good thing to do

I went with a wireless house audio system (Sonos) instead of pre-wiring speakers, if you ever sell you don't get that investment back, that's a "nice to have" but wont' gain you anything.

As for data/phone runs, if you can run smurf tubing (blue EMT) or some other conduit from each box to a utility room so you can run more cables.

I would also look at any rooms that might have wall mounted TV's installed and pre-run conduit between floor boxes and mount locations. Conduit gives you the flexibility to add cables as you go, just run a fish line for now.

[park190]

Couldn't agree more about the Sonos! We did the same when we built and never regret a thing about it.

Originally Posted by blakekrone

I went with a wireless house audio system (Sonos) instead of pre-wiring speakers, if you ever sell you don't get that investment back, that's a "nice to have" but wont' gain you anything.

As for data/phone runs, if you can run smurf tubing (blue EMT) or some other conduit from each box to a utility room so you can run more cables.

I would also look at any rooms that might have wall mounted TV's installed and pre-run conduit between floor boxes and mount locations. Conduit gives you the flexibility to add cables as you go, just run a fish line for now.

[JimN]

Originally Posted by jkski

156 ton of sand, 40 ton of 57 wash and 81 ton of limestone 1's and 2's and we now have a backfilled home, filled up garage and a driveway leading to the garage that can withstand the rest of what our construction throws at it! Most of the rough grading is done just some final touches to put on to insure that everything is sloped away from the foundation but with rain moving in tomorrow it probably will not be a good day to play in the dirt.

It was a long expensive day but I do believe I will sleep good tonight. The framing crew is just about done putting the front wall together with the windows and doors arriving tomorrow, plumber starting on Saturday and roofer scheduled for Monday!

Things are progressing!

The progress is amazing- around here, that would have taken many weeks, if even that short a time.

[zsqure]

http://www.mastercraft.com/teamtalk/...1&d=1357864931
Those stone slinger bodies are worth their weight in gold. Saves lots of time and eliminates sore backs.

[blakekrone]

Originally Posted by park190

Couldn't agree more about the Sonos! We did the same when we built and never regret a thing about it.

Yeap, I have a ton of their equipment and alpha/beta test all the new products. If you do want to go with Sonos PM me, I can get you an insane discount for a new customer, can't help existing unfortunately