5 Things to Consider When Building a Home

You’ve made the decision to build a home, now where do you start? 

The process of building a new home is exciting and often overwhelming. You may feel pressure to perfect every inch because after all, you will be the one living in it. While planning the layout, exterior and interior design are crucial factors, the overall functionality of your Texas home is just as important. Identifying your technology needs is the first step to creating a smart home that will complement your lifestyle, rather than complicate it. Once you have outlined your needs, knowing the right questions to ask will lead you to the most efficient and automated home for you and your family. Hiring a specialist like us, to explain home automation topics to guide you through technology options will ensure you have all the answers to questions you didn’t know to ask, as well as help you achieve your smart home goals. Below are our recommendations for our most requested home technology features. 

Lighting

Creating a custom lighting scene is an essential part of improving productivity, security, and relaxation in your home. While most often, people focus on the overall design and look of their lighting scheme, we focus on the control of those lights. The ability to control your lights from your phone, a touch panel, remote, or the old-fashioned switch on the wall is the first of many automation controls in your new home. In this phase of planning, we recommend beginning in the most used areas of your home: family room, kitchen, hallways, etc… These areas of your home with the most traffic will be where you will want to have the most control on a daily basis. 

Installing control switches from Lutron or Control4 will allow you to turn the connected lights on and off and in most cases dim to the desired output. Although, many clients expand to include all the lights in their homes to be connected to one control system. We often hear how much of a relief it is to our clients that with the touch of a single button on the way out the door, they know that every light is turned off, even the kid’s closet! 

Audio

When it comes to audio asking, “How do I want my sound to look?” can help guide which products you decide to install for your sound system. There are many different options when it comes to incorporating speakers in a home and they are all dependent on the experience you’re trying to create. Similarly, to lighting control, we often begin in the rooms that you envision yourself listening to music the most in, then match the quality and design to blend seamlessly into your room. For most clients, these include the family room, kitchen, patio, and master suite. The quality and quantity of the speakers can vary drastically from background noise to high-end, two-channel audio. When deciding on the best option for you, it is always important to identify your habits which will help determine your need. Many clients even choose to combine options and install the highest quality speakers in their family room, while choosing a lower quality in a kid’s bedroom. We suggest the best way to decide what is best for your home is to experience the sound and look of all the options during a visit to our showroom. 

Visual 

When it comes to audio-visual components in your home, we often advise our clients to

try and anticipate what their needs may be in the future so that during the construction phase we are able to wire the house accordingly. While this may seem difficult to identify, deciding where T.V.’s will go is always a good starting point. We suggest you start with, “What is the main viewing area or room of my home?”  and “Where would I like a TV now, and where might I want a TV in the future?”. It is always easier to put the wire in the wall now during the construction phase, even if you don’t install the TV for years to come. Another component to consider is what you typically watch. It is common for clients to no longer use standard cable such as AT&T or DirectTV and have switched completely to streaming boxes like Apple TV. Understanding the number of sources (Apple TV’s, Cable boxes) will help determine how the system should be designed to maximize the experience. 

Shades

When designing your smart home, it’s important to remember that functionality is just as crucial as the design. Motorized blinds throughout your home, ensure privacy while also giving you full control over your custom window shades. We suggest considering how much light you want to come through, how you want your shades powered; hardwired or batteries, and how you want them to look. We recommend running the hardwire in the construction phase to ensure the best control and power experience. Wireless is also a great solution if you cannot hardwire with the main downside being that you will need to recharge or replace the batteries over time. As for the look, we work with many top brands such as Lutron Shades, Screen Innovations, and J. Geiger, who are all able to customize your shades in a variety of fabrics and styles to complement any interior design. We assist in creating the optimal design to manage the natural light, maximize your family’s security, and ensure a cohesive decor scheme. 

Control System 

A fully integrated control system will help each of these previously mentioned categories communicate with earth other, which allows the client to create automated scenes or buttons for multiple actions. A common example would be upon your arrival home every evening, your garage door would open, the hall and common area lighting would illuminate, and the alarm would deactivate. While this is just one of an infinite number of customizable options available with a control system, it can be programmed to fit you and your family's exact schedule and needs. Our most popular control system, Control4, offers every automation option and can be accessed from any device. 

At Evolve Technologies, we pride ourselves on making clients happy, whether they’re our customers or yours. Contact us today to get started on developing your smart home system. We can’t wait to hear from you!