Decisions, decisions, decisions! Never have we had so much choice in new home options. When we think of "dudding out" a new home, our thoughts naturally turn to carpets, cabinets, and countertops. We may even think of how many more cable TV outlets and telephone jacks we'll need. But the new wave of home wiring upgrades offered through builders now goes much further than an extra telephone for the teenager. Builders offer technologies to their buyers during the construction of their homes our parents might have considered 'space age' in their day.

'"Networking" your new home may be one of the most important 'behind the walls' upgrades in which to invest", says Larry Moore, owner of Astrosonics, a Sacramento-based firm offering installations from prewiring to entire electronic systems. What systems, you may ask? Firms such as his can expand your basic wiring to deliver entertainment and communications, with multi-room television programming and whole-house stereo. They'll equip you to watch your children by closed circuit monitors and enable you to see who's at your front door. They can link computer terminals within your home and even let you access your entire system from your place of employment.

Just think. It's 4 p.m.. You're at the office and the kids are home from school (big sister is in charge), and you'd like to check on everyone. So you pull up your home's web site and click onto the option activating the camera outside your family room sliding door. On your screen, you see your two younger ones having a major water fight in the pool, but your breathe a sigh of relief just the same. You then click on the family room camera to find the teenager on the phone, totally oblivious to the noise outside. (So, what else is new?).

Now it's 7 p.m. Dinner's over with, and your youngest wants to watch a movie you just rented yesterday before it's his bedtime. But the VCR is in the family room and you don't want to watch it with him. You'd rather sit in your family room with your feet up, grab a good book, and listen to music (are you dreaming or what?). No problem! Your networked wiring system can transfer the VCR transmission to any of your other television sets anywhere your house!

The possibilities seem almost endless and a little "James Bondian." These new systems can take antenna or cables signals and pass them through your commercial grade amplifier to enhance the picture. They can take the signal from any of your audio or video equipment and create a new "station" on your FM dial. By tuning in to that station, you will hear high performance stereo sound throughout the home. This is a great feature when you're watching a movie and want home theater-like stereo in all the viewing locations. And, with a remote-controlled system, you get total control over your network, letting you pause, rewind, or stop the action on a video tape, laserdisc or DVD disc from the TV you're sitting in front of.

Sounds like a truck load of sophisticated equipment, doesn't it? "Believe it or not, once your have the home set up for an integrated system of structured wiring, you'll only need one VCR, cable box, or satellite receiver to entertain up to five TV's. It eliminates the need for duplicate equipment, complex hook-ups and wiring with an entirely "in-wall" system," notes Moore, who says most builders are lined up to offer their buyers all the technology they can handle in their new homes.

What should you to watch out for in a purchase of this type? Be sure your builder uses experts for this type of wiring. The normal electrical sub-contractor is usually not familiar with the structured wiring nuances needed for this type of installation. (The possibilities of cross-wiring makes me think of one of those zany 60's movies where everything goes haywire in the house at the same time!) The cost of one these systems, and especially the pre-wire for it, may be less expensive than you'd think, when you consider how many electronic devices you may save on in the long run.

And the future, as they say, is here.

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Published: April 30, 1999

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A veteran of the real estate and homebuilding industries since 1986, Dena Kouremetis first joined Realty Times as a new homes writer in 1998. Since then, she has authored four books, written consumer columns on new homes issues for websites and newspapers all across the country, contributed to builder trade magazines, appeared as a guest expert on several radio shows and even created a ten-chapter podcast for LendingTree.com’s homebuilder website, iNest.com, now available on iTunes, entitled Uncharted Waters; Navigating the Purchase of a New Production Home. Kouremetis recently joined her local Folsom, CA Coldwell Banker office as a broker associate while continuing to write for the real estate industry. For the past three years, she has been training real estate agents for both the resale and new homes industries, putting her experience, research expertise and gift of expression to work to help others entering the business.