The quotations continue to come in from the various contractors. I continue to be worried about the cost for wiring the house. The idea was that we would have the wiring put in now, then I would install the various home automation systems over time. However, some of the quotations have the cost of the wiring (including electrical) at almost 10% of the total cost. I’m quite sure they are overestimating the job just to be sure they’re covered on cost. I guess I have also not made it easy for them to quote. The initial wiring design I provided them was very comprehensive. I’m looking for better solutions.
One solution, of course, is to replace some of the wiring with a wireless system. The Local Area Network (LAN) can go wireless, but it’s also a question of security and bandwidth. The sensors can definitely go wireless. The phones, the audio/video, the cable TV network, none of that will go wireless, of course. I guess they could, but it’s not worth it for reasons of cost, bandwidth and signal quality. The Home Control System (HCS) can go wireless, but I’m still not comfortable with the issues on range and interference. I would hate to have parts of the HCS not working because I scrimped on a few meters of cable.
Another option is that we get smarter with our cabling. Belden Cable has some great new residential cables that might help us minimize the wiring we have to do. For example, they have composite cables (pictured above) that combine two UTP cables and two coax cables in a single bundle. Then they have bundles that combine audio cables and control interconnect signals in one, or coax and multi-conductor cabling for surveillance and CCTV applications. I will set up a meeting with the local rep and get some pricing.
Not that this will come as a surprise, but shopping around does help. After we had spent a day checking out various alternative sources for some of the construction materials last March, my spreadsheet shows that we’ve already brought the cost down by almost $15k. Another 17 days of shopping, and the house should come out free! (I wish…)
We’re also shopping around for contractors. John has asked three contractors to quote, and we’re asking two contractors to also quote independently. Let’s see who comes out less expensive; we should know in a week or so. But we’re also concerned about quality. We will want to strike a balance. Today we visited a house under construction by a contractor near our site. We didn’t like the design - the owner’s architect has made some strange decisions - but the contractors seem to be doing a pretty good job in implementing it, so they stay on the list for now.
Our discussion with this particular contractor reaffirmed my opinion that we do not want to hire a contractor that also handles the architectural design. They prefer to handle any project “turn-key”, meaning they will do both the design and the construction, because it is faster. But they also agreed that there is better check-and-balance if we have a separate architect that, in addition to designing the house, oversees their work. I also worry that without that third-party check-and-balance, the contractor might on occasion try to cut a corner and save cost. And looking at the house they are building, I’m glad that we hired somebody like John to design ours!
Today I realized that I had not posted any pictures of the intended construction site yet. This pic shows the construction site from a distance, across the bridge to the south. The red arrow marks the site. The building complex barely visible at the end of the road is a newly completed sports center.
I also went a step further and added a page to the blog, where a recent pic of the construction site will be posted regularly (once construction has started, probably by mid May 2007).
I just added up the approximate total of lighting fixtures in the house, according to the latest set of drawings I’ve received. It is proposed that there be 188 (that’s one hundred and eighty eight) lighting fixtures in the house! This includes 54 pinlights, 67 downlights and 30 interior steplights. Now, I do understand that these lights make for extremely pretty rooms, just look at the lighting in this room (from John’s website):
I also understand that not all lights have to be on all the time, and that many of them contain low-wattage bulbs. But 188 lights is a lot of lights, and many of them do “need” halogen bulbs. I recall my recent experience switching from incandescent to fluorescent bulbs in just two rooms of my house, and cutting the monthly electricity bill by 20%. I wonder if we can go a step further, and replace decorative halogen lights with LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights? Ideally I’d like the LED bulbs to simply plug into ordinary light fixtures, so that I get the same flexibility in aesthetics.
Generally, it seems to me as if the LED light bulb products available on the market are not quite there yet. They seem to be too dim, have too narrow an angle, or have too “cold” a color. However, a few companies, such as SunSparkle and SunBrite have some interesting-looking products and I’ll have to try to get some samples.
John, our architect, called me today to give me a new cost estimate. Now we’re down in a more comfortable range, but there’s still so much that’s not included. On top of that phone call, I received an email from his associate listing all the items that we are expected to source ourselves:
1. Supply & Installation of Roofing Material
2. Supply & Installation of all exterior glass doors and windows and screens
3. Vehicular and pedestrian gate
4. Mailbox, doorbell & house number (installation by contractor)
5. Floor and wall finishes (tiles and engineered wood flooring) – installation by contractor
6. Stone cladding (installation by contractor)
7. Locksets & door special hardwares (installation and hinges by contractor)
8. Shower enclosures
9. Bathroom fixtures & accessories (installation by contractor)
10. Kitchen system, countertop, sink and accessories
11. All closets and cabinets (lavatory cabinet with countertop by contractor)
12. Heaters, appliances, lighting fixtures, ceiling fans
13. AV equipment and wirings
14. Home security & alarm system, aircon units, lpg gas tanks, fire protection system
15. Generator set
16. Pest/ termite control system
17. Furniture/ furnishing, window treatment, PABX system/WiFi
18. Special interior finishes and details not reflected on plans and specs
She ends her email with “The above are generally the items that are excluded from the contractor’s scope of work and may vary depending on agreement with appointed contractor. It is advisable to outline budget provisions for the above and other possible owner supplied items the soonest possible to avoid overshoot of target budget.” Right…
