Now that you know a bit about what the house is..

It’s time to start talking about what the house could (and hopefully will) be in the future.

There are all sorts of things we’ve talked about doing, here’s a short list of some of them (ordered by complexity, simplest first!)

• Server Space
• Enhanced Home theater
• Smart-home Conversion

Seems like a short list, doesn’t it? Oh, how I wish. Each of those items is worthy of a whole post on it’s own, and I’ll be posting about them some over the next several days. I’ll probably not talk much about the smart-home conversion right away though, as I want to focus on the things that we’re hoping to do before moving in, and the conversion won’t take place for a while (probably at *least* 6 months before it begins.)

 

Server Space

Arguably, this is the simplest of the list to talk about, since all it really means is picking a space to store my server and proxy machines, and running wire to hook them up. Where it gets complicated is understanding *why* this is such a big deal.

As all of you who are reading this know, I spend a lot of time “playing with computers.” One of the things I do, because I can, and enjoy it, is run a fairly advanced network in my home. You could probably safely call my network “Enterprise Class” since I’m running software that is often only found in medium to larger business environments. Most of this is for self-education, but some of it is simply because it’s familiar, since it’s the same sort of environment I deal with at work.

So, I have two machines, my ‘big network server’ and my firewall/proxy server that I need to find a home for. Preferably one that is dry and cool. And then I need to make sure that there is power available, followed closely by making sure that there is at least one network cable running from that space to the central wiring box with the network hub.

In Chez-Fou (my last house) this space ended up being the closet in my office, but that tended to get warmer than I like. At one point, I moved them into the garage, but that tends to fill the insides with dust a bit faster (and actually get too cold in winter).  So, I will be looking at a couple of spaces when we do the inspection (Which by the way, is scheduled for Sunday afternoon) and figuring out which will become the new server space.

Once I know where, then I just need to schedule a weekend (after closing, of course) with a second person to help with running the wire, and get the network cable run to the space. Ah, the fun of crawlspaces and fiberglass filled attics.