Ask HN: New Homeowner Suggestions | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: New Homeowner Suggestions

2 pointsjoshstrange3 comments

If all goes well I will be closing on a house mid-April and I was wondering what suggestions people on HN would have. I'll have about a full month and a half of overlap with my current apartment so I've got time to run wires/etc if I want.

This is pretty open-ended question, I'm interested in everything from "Take pictures of X". "Run ethernet before you move in", "Install a energy/power monitor", etc.

I plan on installing Zigbee switches in most if not all of my light switches and I use SmartThing with Alexa/Siri(homebridge) to control them.

Anyways I'd love to hear from HN's homeowners about what they would do differently or what they did that they are glad they did.

You could

* run HDMI cables from a rack in the utility room so you can feed content all over the house

* Run audio optical likewise

* Ethernet to access points at strategic points (each end of the house perhaps, or one on every floor as needed)

* Wire digital cameras over doors so you can record/monitor access when you're not at home. Include necessary IR illumination for night viewing

* Steam clean all carpets

* Inventory smoke alarms and update

* Get a home appliance whole-house warranty if the house is more than 3 years old.

If your electrical wiring is not super old and you are OK with transfer speeds between 100MBPS and 1GBPS consider powerline ethernet adaptors instead of running Ethernet cable depending on the difficulty of your runs. I have 100 MBPS internet service and I can saturate it using a powerline adaptor. I've also been able to cover my entire house with a single Unifi wifi access point plugged into a powerline adaptor by locating the access point in the center of my house on the first floor. https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-powerline-networking-...

Don't have my regrets that include:

- Not painting and reflooring the inside before moving in.

- Not digging a well for irrigation

- Not sticking with a pro to do landscape pest and weed control

- Not replacing the pool with a flower bed or trebuchet or something more useful than a pool

Reply on news.ycombinator.com