339 Texas Street
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339 Texas Street
Below is a list of some of the less obvious details that may be of interest:
Lighting System
The lighting system is made by Insteon and each switch is dimable and allows for instant on or gradual rising and falling of the light. All of the light switches have the ability to "talk" to each other, thereby allowing any switch to control any light or even multiple lights. This allows for convenient "theme" lighting and for full control via a computer (Mac OSX or Windows) and it even allows for control from an iPhone or remotely through the Internet. The nature of the system integrates additional devices easily, including outlet control (for lamp lighting) and timers for full vacation automatic on/off control of the entire lighting (etc) system.
The switches have been programmed in a default setting for the open house lighting and a future owner can easily reprogram the system to suit their needs.
The left most switch to the right of the bed in the master bedroom (facing the wall) has been programmed to turn off all the lights in the house and the fireplace (thus allowing a full shutdown of all the lights at the end of the day without wandering around the house clicking light switches).
Data/system technology
Every room in the home (including bathrooms, kitchen, and even some cabinets) has been wired with multiple Cat 5e, Cat 6, and enhanced Cat 6 Ethernet wiring and with coax cable wiring. Each bedroom have has at least 6 different Ethernet lines and 6 different coax lines, all of which run back to the central data closet. The switches are all 10/100/1000 switches and the ethernet punch down board is a Hubble Cat6 patch panel.
The office/bedroom that contains the staircase to the upper level has been wired to allow connection to the large battery backup system in the data closet. The right half of each of the outlets on the south and west walls of the room is directly connected to the battery system thereby allowing, in the event of a power failure or brownout, continued power and connection of Internet connection and phone services (etc). There is a switch in the data closet to turn this feature off.
Casual access to the data-closet is through the door at the end of the hallway. For major reconfigurations, full access is afforded through the door in the closet of the northwest bedroom.
The is a conduit and complete cable and Ethernet connection from the data closet down into the garage's data box, thereby allow complete wiring of the garage itself, if desired.
Mirror Controls
The control of the mirrors in the living room and bathroom is through a simple custom circuitry connected to electrical actuators. Each system has been specifically designed for maintenance free operation and in the event of failure, schematics have been provided in each of the boxes surrounding the systems. The mirrors themselves slide on high quality steel shafts and linear bearings.
The Laundry/Pantry Closet
The hidden door weighs approximately 350 pounds unloaded, and is designed to effortless carry more than 500 pounds of additional load. It is surrounded by a steel and timber frame and rotates on an almost 10 foot long, one and a half inch steel shaft mounted in two high-tech, extreme load bearings. The door is attached by a custom steel mounting system that allows it to be fully adjusted in all directions (up, down, in, out, left, right, etc). The door itself is structurally bound by and inch and a quarter of high quality plywood, 2x4 lumber, and finally, 3/4 plywood. The surrounding bookcase is made of solid wood, plywood, and a bit of steel for further reinforcement. The closing mechanism is... magic (actually, because the door is so well balanced, it is just one half of a Blumotion draw slide closing mechanism, two of which are required to pull in each of the drawers in the rest of the house).
Sound Abatement
All internal and external walls in the unit are insulated. The floors and ceiling are also insulated. The ceiling in the lower unit is made of two layers of ceiling, the second, outermost is 5/8” sheetrock floated on z-bar to create an non-union between the floor joists and the ceiling. The insulation and floating ceiling do a great deal to mitigate sound propagation between the units.
Inside the unit, the insulated wall further control the sound. The master bedroom and the north-west bedroom are separate by closets (and their walls, insulation, and content), and the wall between the north-west bedroom and the south-west bedroom have been sound proofed with multiple layers of sheetrock, install off axis and sealed with sound-proofing caulk.
The wall between the laundry/pantry and the living are are 6” deep and have independent wall surfaces (that is, the sheetrock in the inside is connected to a separate wall than that on the outside. The floor is a poured cement floor to create mass to lessen any vibrational transmission a washer/dryer unit might create.
Misc
- The drawer slides and door hinges for the cabinets are Blum's top of the line Blumotion mechanisms.
- The cabinets are all custom made. The bare wood cabinets and the bar are made from sustainable Lyptus wood which is a very hard, very heavy Eco certified wood grown on plantations. See lyptus.com for more info.
- To the left of the fireplace is an extended depth cabinet designed for a stereo or entertainment system. It has two conduits that run to the space behind the mirror (above the fireplace). It has six sets of heavy gauge stereo wire that run to the the two connectors to the far right and left of the fireplace, to the upper left and right section of the bookcases on either side of the fireplace (the little piece of string hanging down gives access to the wires, and two wires run into the unfinished attic space above the living area to allow for custom placement of surround sound speakers.
-There is an Ethernet wire the runs to the outside wall next to the doorbell and power and an addition wire that runs to the wall in the hallway between the master bedroom door and master bath door. This wire is intended to allow for future installation of a video (etc) entry intercom system (all the additional wiring throughout the house will support room-to-room systems as well).
-The second light switch by the staged dining area control the outlet on the deck. This allows for control of any external lighting or heating system you might add to the deck.
-The atrium at the head of the stairs has its own water, lighting, and electricity. The outlet is controlled by the Insteon system and can be programed to any switch in the house.
- As were many of the custom steel parts in the house, the back splash glass was cut by a water jet, thus allowing the clean edges and extremely narrow tolerances.
-All of the sight lines in the house were designed for privacy. Even the privacy between the master bedroom and the master bath was considered.
-With only a couple of exceptions, all of the outlets in the house are 20 amp, commercial grade outlets (code only requires 15amp, residential outlets). Not only are the outlets safer and more robust, but they can also handle a much greater load without stressing the electrical system.
-In the far corner of the peninsula in the kitchen, beneath the bar next to the window is a very large, “hidden” cabinet already wired for a relatively large wine-refrigerator, or shelved for additional storage space.
- The blind in the master bedroom is a Hunter Douglas opaque, motorized blind (the remote is on the bed stand to the right of the bed). The blind in the bedroom with the stairs is also a Hunter Douglas blind, but it is instead translucent and is not motorized (and it can be raised/lowered both on the top and the bottom).
Details
Friday, October 15, 2010