SOME HIGH TECH STUFF PLUS PORCH REVEAL NEW HOUSE UPDATE

At the end of this post, a surprise outdoor picture! 

We were at the farm, well, there and a mall and back to the farm, ALL day Saturday.  The low voltage install guys were there doing all the stuff the tech side of things.  They had come out a few months ago, before drywall, and put in all the wiring for alarm, wi-fi, internet, some exterior cameras, and the in-ceiling speakers.

We stayed for a while to answer questions about various things and options and then we went to a mall to roam around while they did their thing (no place to sit, 2nd Man said we should bring some lawn chairs, ha).  We ended up leaving after dark.

The back porch had two ceiling speaker connections, and they put those in for us.  They are connected to a sound system in the a bedroom, and we can push music from our phones, playlists, podcasts, stereo, whatever.  It's SO awesome to have music outside.  I can be watering the fruit trees and hear music.  We only put speakers in the living room and the porch.  If we need music in the bedrooms or bathroom, we will use an Alexa device.  The living room speakers will eventually be used mainly for the surround sound of the TV.  We'll have two in the ceiling behind where we will sit and a sound bar under the TV.

See the other little box on the wall?  That is an outdoor wi-fi access point (WAP).  We have one on the back porch, one on the front of the house and three inside the house.  It allows the signal to reach everywhere without slowing down so 2nd Man can work from home (and me when needed) wherever we are in the house.  It also makes sure the signal is strong no matter where you are (sometimes a house can have dead zones or drop zones where you don't get a good signal and then if multiple people are using it at the same time it's slow).  The outdoor ones have a theoretical range of a quarter mile.  This means I can have internet access outside in the barn or shed, I can have wireless trail cams that connect to our network, a weather station (DEFINITELY getting that at some point soon), anything that might be gardening related, etc.  It should be fun to figure out.  We are sort of future proofing things as tech changes.  

The most important thing we need is internet access.  Can't work from home without that and rural choices are very limited.  There is no real fiber optic out there and the closest thing they have to it, WE would have to pay to run the fiber optic line a quarter mile down the driveway to the house.  HUGELY expensive (several thousand $$) and, we're guessing, fraught with problems (underground issues).  The cable company out there is painfully slow so that was not an option.  We opted for Starlink.  We checked on Nextdoor for the farm and everyone said it was the only choice for stable, fast internet and they raved about it.

Here is the antenna on the back of the house after they installed it.  Looks big but it is not at all (I zoomed in for the picture, ha).  We have run speed tests and WOW, it's crazy fast.   We have 1gig from ATT in town and this was coming in almost as fast as that.  We are very happy about that.  I took my laptop and stood at the island in the kitchen and had super fast internet.  In fact, started this blog post from out there, ha.  If we're going to be remote and rural, we need reliable internet, rain or shine.

And now, something cool for all you non tech-types bored by the first part of this post.  We'll reveal a bit more of the house and save the big finish reveal for, well, when it's finished!

But here you go, for your patience in getting this far...

...the front porch has been painted and is finished!  We are SO pleased with the way it came out.  It looks even better than what we imagined in our minds.  The white railing and columns just pop.  A friend of ours said "it looks like AI!", ha.

There are SO going to be some hanging plants here.  And rocking chairs.  And a bench.  And a small table.  And a rug.  And whatever else inspires us, ha.

Hope you like it as much as we do!

FYI, for those asking, closing is coming...