Just to test the process of extracting the wires we’ve hidden in the ceiling and in the walls, we installed an occupancy sensor in my basement office. I wasn’t really planning on installing these sensors for another year or two, but I figured I’d better test the electrician’s work (and learn the process) before the house is completed and I have to figure things out myself. This is the corner of my office where I decided to install a sensor:

The occupancy sensors, by the way, will be used to reduce our energy costs by determining which rooms are occupied and which are not, so that the home automation PC can control the airconditioning units and the lights accordingly. In this case, we installed a dual-technology sensor that I purchased in China, which combines standard infrared technology with a microwave sensor.

The first thing we had to do was to fish the wire out of the ceiling, using a metal "hook" through another hole, in this case a hole intended for a halogen lamp fixture:

Next, we drilled holes in the concrete wall and installed the mounting plate for the sensor, and we also drilled a hole for the cable in the reveal:

Then we stuck another piece of crooked metal wire through the cable hole, poked it through to the lamp hole, attached the cable to the wire, and "fished" the cable back through to its final hole.

Then we connected the wires to the occupancy sensor, mounted the sensor to its mounting plate, and snapped on the cover. The halogen lamp can now be returned to its location.

Unfortunately I won’t have time to test this particular brand of occupancy sensor for some time yet, but I’ll let you know how it goes!

As I mentioned last June, we have started constructing the Home Theater in the basement. The inner walls are up already, using standard drywall gypsum boards and a metal frame. We used Rockwool stone wool insulation in the walls to provide acoustic insulation from the outside and to minimize reverberation. I also decided to experiment a little and install a floating floor:

The idea is that the subwoofer and the couch will both sit on a "floating" platform that is separated from the rest of the room through hard rubber anti-vibration pads placed under the floor frame, on top of a slightly raised concrete floor:

Hopefully, the low-frequency sounds from the subwoofer will physically transmit through the floor and up into the couch we’d be sitting on. Mind you, we can’t really test it until everything is in place a few weeks from now. This is what the underside of the floor frame looks like:

In between the floor joists we placed more Rockwool, again to minimize acoustic reverberation. The floating floor is isolated from the walls via thick strips of neoprene rubber placed between the platform and the walls:

The rubber pads and the neoprene rubber strips will all be hidden once we’ve installed the wall-to-wall carpeting. The picture above also shows, by the way, how we "cut" the rear corners of the room by 45 degrees, per the advise of an acoustic specialist we consulted, so as to further reduce any standing acoustic waves that might form in this nearly square room. These two diagonal corners also make for good spots to hang the surround speakers on.

Even though the glass windows are ridiculously delayed, and continue to be installed only in trickles, the workers have still been able to continue working through the odd rain. The front of the house is looking much more interesting now that it has received some paint, wood cladding on the second floor, and a wood trellis over the porch:

Likewise, a rear view from the South shows just how much glass there will be in The Asia House once it’s finished. The ground floor and the second floor are almost entirely of glass in the rear, facing the valley, while the basement is partially clad in stone so as to better blend into the hillside.

And on the West side, where the sun sets, the windows are fewer and much smaller so as to keep the heat out during hot afternoons. Throughout the house, casement and awning windows have been strategically placed such as to maximize ventilation from the wind blowing down the adjoining valley.

We have made provisions for the installation of air conditioning units also in the living- and dining rooms, but we are quite sure that these areas will be cool enough without needing air conditioning. The cables and pipes have been terminated inside the walls and cemented over, for future expansion only.