Yah sweat equity comes at a risk and a lot of builders are saying no to doing it yourself. They’ll always do it for you at a cost. If you ask nicely and you’re paying for it, you shouldn’t get much grief. HOpefully they’ll let you do it yourself. Much cheaper.
When we built our house 15 years ago, we were allowed as much sweat equity as we wanted to put into it. But, nowadays it’s not so easy. Be sure to ask and expect no for an answer and then you’ll be pleasantly surprised if they let you. Definitely push for it, though.
Not something I’d considered. I will need to look at this
I’ve been very torn on the unifi stuff. I don’t need everything it offers but alo t of it is very appealing. Such as these doorbells.
Soo tempted. We will see…
I like this!!
For power at windows sites I’m very clueless. Thoughts on what I should be looking at / asking the sparkies for?
My boss tells me “if you think it’s dumb, dumb it down from there and you’ll hit the nail on the head.” So, explain what you want to them and see what they come up with.
My initial thoughts were along the line of piece of cake…
The more I think it through its fairly stressful. Just because I hqve that feeling no matter how hard I try it’s not going to be perfect.
I’m also really hoping the collective core will be available. I’d love to see varying options it has so I can plan with its abilities in mind…
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Out of curiosity. Does the unifi stuff ever go on sale? Or should I not hold my breath and purchase full price?
You can get some items on Amazon once in a while on sale.
Use the Chrome Camelizer extension to set price alerts.
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until you know what curtains/blind/shades your having its difficult, get a 25mm (1" to you guys) conduit (commonly described as a pull tube here) installed, connected to a backbox, with a draw string in it and pull whatever cables you need when you install the window equipment.
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It will be either lutron shades or the ikea i think. Ikea is battery so none issue.
It looks like the Serena shades can be powered off a normal socket using the power adapter
I was thinking having outlets placed in the jambs of the windows. Not sure if this is a thing or if they will refuse to do it.
If you’re going RadioRA 2 then go with Sivoia QS which are battery.
I like the Ikea as I starting buying them around a year ago and they have been rock solid for me and not miss a beat. They open and closed on there own and I haven’t had to charge the battery as of yet.
you guys are lucky, i live in a 1890 period house, no Ikea blinds for us, its all wooden poles and belive it or not there are no commercially available systems for this sort of thing that i can find anywhere in the world!
Literally as i sit here typing im printing a prototype bracket to mount the rod bearings on to sit behind the pole, it took most of the day to design the damn thing in a CAD program, another 6-7 hrs for a rough print…
Home automation has become a bit of a drug…
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So I’ve come to some decisions. Thanks to everyone for their input.
Sadly the builders are reporting large delays 
The wife and I are considering another direction.
To be continued…
ah no! Building a new home is both stressful and exciting. Then, someone else ruins things. I hope that it can be worked out. Stay strong.
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As much as it sucks, with lumber prices doubled (if you had a contracted price this may be the issue) 12-18 months might be a better time to build. Other than me, most my family is in construction, so I have heard all the owes.
Plastic also just went on the ‘hard to get list’ (Texas freeze=global sortage) so plumbing PVC and electric conduit is now going up.
In my world semi-conductor storage + every single items needing semi’s + cryptocurrency (like it or not) has those pricy through the roof. Ford shut down 150 production this weekend for the first time every due to chip shortage.
2021 is not the time to build or buy just about anything 
(except a CC!!)
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OLL is not immune to shortages either. They can easily be brought to a standstill. Better get 'em quick, boys.
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