Building a new house and shop

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The other thing I did and almost forgot to mention, is that I terminated all of the Cat 5e cable runs throughout the house with keystone jacks and plates. Before the floors were poured, we ran Cat 5e from the utility/mechanical room to four locations spread throughout the house, in "smurf tube" conduit under the floors. If I was doing it now, I'd use Cat 6, but the Cat 5e will have to do since you can't pull it out of the smurf tube now (I tried).

We will need a mesh WiFi network for sure, between the length of the house (150') and all the concrete walls that signal won't go through. So, I'm learning about these. Fortunately, I have a much younger local friend who is the IT director for a civil engineering firm that can help me also. What I've figured out so far, is that I can use the Cat 5e cable to hard-wire all the mesh nodes back to the main router, so the backhaul data can run over that and leave all of the radio (WiFi) bandwidth for broadcasting/downloading/streaming. I'm pretty excited about this; we should end up with much better/faster internet than we've ever had before. Starlink (our ISP) has recently come out with a 3rd generation antenna and router that is a significant upgrade to what we are using now, so that will help also.

The last puzzle piece to the media and technology setup in the house is the cell phone signal. We also have 75-ohm coax cable run all over the house. Originally, this was going to be for both Dish Network satellite tv, and for cell phone boosters. Now, we don't need Dish Network (thank you Starlink), and most of the modern better cell phone boosters use 50-ohm coax. I can still install an older legacy 75-ohm booster system if I have to, but I'm hoping that with our upgraded WiFi mesh network, maybe we can just use WiFi calling instead. Does anyone have any experience with this, i.e., does it work reliably?
 
Nice!

I use WiFi calling in spots with zero coverage and it has a slight lag, (possibly due to the satellite internet) other than that I’m very happy with it.
 
We have a much smaller house, but we do live a bit remote....weak cell coverage. We do however have cable internet. I have a mesh wifi network throughout and rely heavily on wifi calling. Works fantastic as long as the cable internet doesn't go down. I don't know how the satellite "lag" may play in however.
 
Ol Yeller said:
I use WiFi calling in spots with zero coverage and it has a slight lag, (possibly due to the satellite internet) other than that I’m very happy with it.
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zgfiredude said:
We have a much smaller house, but we do live a bit remote....weak cell coverage. We do however have cable internet. I have a mesh wifi network throughout and rely heavily on wifi calling. Works fantastic as long as the cable internet doesn't go down. I don't know how the satellite "lag" may play in however.
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Thanks guys, that is helpful.

Starlink satellites are low-orbit and the latency is pretty minimal, average 60 ms (measured by a third party), advertised as 20 - 100 ms, and Starlink says their goal is to get it to less than 20 ms.

Edited to add: I actually tested my own latency with the MSDOS "ping" command, and I'm getting 26 ms latency right now with my 2nd gen. setup.
 
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@1911. I know it’s NJ and the most freakin’ populated state. Verizon shows coverage maps every day with coverage that wipes the competition, YET my rural spot has piss poor cell service. So much so that after complaining for a year, the tech guys recommended we could cancel out contract for service as this was a weak zone in the system. I have used Wi-Fi calling for 7-8 years now very effectively. There is something about the 911 service but I believe it’s resolved …at least I HOPE it is!

Ran 2 Cat 8 lines and RG-6 through the house for the new room. Trying to future proof things ….i don’t think that’s possible though. Fiber optic here now but when will that tech change?
 
knuckle47 said:
Trying to future proof things ….i don’t think that’s possible though.
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It probably is possible for people our age. :)

I mean, what I have right now is plenty fast/good enough for my work, and for streaming tv shows and movies. If it ends up being good enough for wi-fi calling, then that will probably do me for the rest of my life - I don't see my real need for internet or phone use increasing for the remainder of my life. In fact it will almost certainly begin to decrease some day in the not too distant future.

But yeah, when my kids end up selling this house after my wife and I die, some future buyer is going to cuss when they figure out they're stuck with prehistoric Cat 5e cable with only 1 Mbps speed, and there's no way to install anything better. Maybe by then some new technology will exist to beam signals through reinforced concrete.

I get your point though - what's considered high tech today is quite a bit different than what was common just 6 years ago when we made (now irreversible) decisions what to put in our house.
 
1911 said:
It probably is possible for people our age. :)

I mean, what I have right now is plenty fast/good enough for my work, and for streaming tv shows and movies. If it ends up being good enough for wi-fi calling, then that will probably do me for the rest of my life - I don't see my real need for internet or phone use increasing for the remainder of my life. In fact it will almost certainly begin to decrease some day in the not too distant future.

But yeah, when my kids end up selling this house after my wife and I die, some future buyer is going to cuss when they figure out they're stuck with prehistoric Cat 5e cable with only 1 Mbps speed, and there's no way to install anything better. Maybe by then some new technology will exist to beam signals through reinforced concrete.

I get your point though - what's considered high tech today is quite a bit different than what was common just 6 years ago when we made (now irreversible) decisions what to put in our house.
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Unless I'm mistaken (often happens) Cat 5e is good for 1 Gbps. We have a large house and have a Unifi system with 4 Access Points running off Cat 5e. That works really well for us but we don't have to deal with Concrete internal walls. Having said that, the house is brick and stone (over wood framing) and there's good Wi-Fi signal for about 100 yds all around the house.

What we don't have is a good internet solution. We are currently using a Verizon box that utilizes their cell towers. It's Okay during the off hours but often gets severely throttled during the day. Probably need to go with the Starlink system. Only concern is mounting the antenna on the house and getting the wire connected to the house cabling.
 
WarDamnEagle said:
Unless I'm mistaken (often happens) Cat 5e is good for 1 Gbps.
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I'm sure you're right; I just have my decimal point in the wrong place. Thanks for the correction.
 
1911 said:
Been working for a few hours every day on the house; bought all the ceiling fans on Black Friday sale so I've been installing those:

View attachment 3791334

I mounted the first of two water heaters; waiting on Rinnai-brand (to keep the warranty happy) service/clean-out valves, they have been out of stock.

View attachment 3791336

I installed a Speed Queen gas dryer (converted it to propane) in the master closet, so I finally turned on the propane to the house and bled the air out of the lines. Dryer works great and all is well with the lines, valves, and connections. Even though I'm very confident in my ability to make tight, safe, and leak-free propane connections and they all pressure-tested perfectly, it makes me think about what could possibly go wrong when I opened the valves. I went around one more time and checked every connection and fitting, this time with a combustible gas detector, just to make sure, but it's all good.

View attachment 3791351

I tried a new (but expensive) way to hook up the dryer vent, the MagVent. It's a clever way to connect the vent with a strong circular magnet. Seems to have worked well, but they're $100 each. Supposed to make it way easier to disconnect and reconnect when cleaning lint out of the vent.

View attachment 3791353

The mrs. has been painting more walls and base boards.

The counter top guy was supposed to come this week for final measurements, but now wants to wait until after the new year; we're disappointed but it's not that big of a deal after having been working on the house for this long.
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I didn't even know those magnetic dryer vents were a thing! Ordered!

Are you going with a Speed Queen Washer too? The more I look into that brand, it seems like this is a long term purchase that is worth the premium.
 
BadReligion said:
I didn't even know those magnetic dryer vents were a thing! Ordered!

Are you going with a Speed Queen Washer too? The more I look into that brand, it seems like this is a long term purchase that is worth the premium.
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Yes, we already have a Speed Queen washer in the barndominium that we will move over to the house, and a Speed Queen electric dryer that will go in the second laundry in the big house, leaving us to buy one more Speed Queen washer for the second laundry. So yeah, my conclusion is that the Speed Queens are worth it.
 
Still working every day in the house. Completely finished the first water heater, got the pipes insulated, it's working well.

My initial foray into finish carpentry: window sills and aprons. Not too difficult, learned some good tricks on YouTube University. The hardest part was cutting the round inside bull nose corners.

window sills MB.jpg


window sill office.jpg


Happy enough with the way they turned out. Cut and put the first coat of paint on the last one (nine-footer in the kitchen) this morning.

Merry Christmas to anyone reading Mud this evening! We're off to spend Christmas Eve with some close friends not far away; all of our kids and grandkids are either out of town or working, so Christmas Day I'll probably be working in the house again, at least to finish that last window sill.
 
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@1911 beautiful photos… I can no longer walk in this kind of weather…I NEVER had a problem with the cold and when we lived in Vermont, it was no big deal. For any number of reasons it has been in the 20’s in the daytime here and it bites at me. Wind is gusting to 40mph. I am sitting under a blanket like an old man

IMG_4735.jpeg
 
knuckle47 said:
@1911 beautiful photos… I can no longer walk in this kind of weather…I NEVER had a problem with the cold and when we lived in Vermont, it was no big deal. For any number of reasons it has been in the 20’s in the daytime here and it bites at me. Wind is gusting to 40mph. I am sitting under a blanket like an old man

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Thanks.

It's a luxury indeed to be in nature right outside our door, and to return indoors whenever we wish, with no drive or other delay. And to see no other people or neighbors the entire time, if we don't wish to. I worry that some of these feelings may border on selfish assholery, or that I may be headed that direction - but the older we get, the more we appreciate and enjoy our solitude. We are grateful for what we have.
 
1911 said:
Thanks.

It's a luxury indeed to be in nature right outside our door, and to return indoors whenever we wish, with no drive or other delay. And to see no other people or neighbors the entire time, if we don't wish to. I worry that some of these feelings may border on selfish assholery, or that I may be headed that direction - but the older we get, the more we appreciate and enjoy our solitude. We are grateful for what we have.
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Having said that, wife and I were thinking of visiting, perhaps with some rice and curry in tow😁!
 
Work on the house progresses; flooring is finished all the way down the back hallway and started in the family room. baseboards in those areas. Got six more interior doors hung and trimmed out. I'll post photos after the nail holes are filled and the doors caulked and painted.

All of my network stuff for the house was delivered, so I'm in the process of installing that now; a gateway/router, PoE switch, and hardwired (ethernet) WiFi access points.

router and switch.jpg


One of the access points:

U6 mesh.jpg


A couple more photos from the snow storm a week ago:

The view from my office window:

office view winter.jpg


The roof of the house. You can see the Starlink antenna I put up two weeks ago; it's not connected or pointing yet.

roof in winter.jpg
 
1911 said:
Work on the house progresses; flooring is finished all the way down the back hallway and started in the family room. baseboards in those areas. Got six more interior doors hung and trimmed out. I'll post photos after the nail holes are filled and the doors caulked and painted.

All of my network stuff for the house was delivered, so I'm in the process of installing that now; a gateway/router, PoE switch, and hardwired (ethernet) WiFi access points.

View attachment 3818775

One of the access points:

View attachment 3818776

A couple more photos from the snow storm a week ago:

The view from my office window:

View attachment 3818779

The roof of the house. You can see the Starlink antenna I put up two weeks ago; it's not connected or pointing yet.

View attachment 3818782
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Ubiquiti?

That stuff is addictive! I keep looking at adding things/changing out things to increase the speed or functionality of our network.

Good stuff though!

And nice work.
 
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