Step Three: Guardian

We are anxiously awaiting for actual construction to begin, until then we're just super excited with nothing tangible to make it feel real! While we wait we have to set up meetings with the following people:

1. Guardian
• Wiring for phone, data, speakers, security, and cable
2. Rite Rug
• Flooring
3. Sales Rep
1. Finalize structural changes
2. Pick exterior colors/materials
3. Choose cabinets & countertops

The first meeting we had was with Brian from Guardian. I should preface this post by explaining a little more about my husband and myself. 

I consider myself to be computer savvy with probably a little more computer knowledge than your average professional due to several years of engineering classes in college. I have forgotten a lot of the advanced knowledge I had, but I still feel pretty competent in the computer world. As far as movies, they're great, but if you ask me if I've seen something, my answer is usually "I've seen parts of it". So needless to say, this wasn't the appointment I was most excited about. 

My husband on the other hand works in IT and in my opinion is a computer genius with the patience of a saint. He is the first one to have a cool gadget, he loves movies, and he listens to that ridiculous computer music that just sounds like random noise to me. He is passionate about everything in the Guardian repertoire and was pretty pumped about this meeting. 

Now on to the meeting. We met Brian at the sales office/model home after work one day. Brian was great to work with, wasn't pushy about upgrades or forcing us to get things that didn't interest us. He took time to explain things we (mostly I) didn't understand and was willing to be creative if we wanted something outside of the normal package. 

Brian started out with a print out of our floor plan and a brief explanation of how phone, cable, & internet wiring used to run versus how it is done now. We don't use a home phone, so we changed the phone wiring to data points. Brian had us pick out which rooms needed cable and data points in the house and gave us pricing for the extra connections. We had four connections included and ended up adding a few more to accommodate my techtastic husband's computers and the media room. 

Next, Brian reviewed our security options and gave us information on pricing and options based on our needs.

Finally, Brian talked about music wiring with speakers and then wiring/speakers for noises (technical term) that come out of the tv or media room. 

We made most of our choices on site, but had to think about a few things and email the final result to Brian later. Brian then submitted the information to our sales rep and we signed a change order for the additional costs incurred based on our Guardian choices.

Overall, it was a pleasant experience. It seemed to be a fairly simple meeting from my view point, although that might be because I have no idea what the difference is between the speakers on my old boombox and a state of the art sound system.

In the end, we decided to add data and cable points on each level, pre-wiring for speakers in the media room and basement rec room, pre-wiring for outdoor speakers, wiring for a TV over the fireplace and a few in-wall/ceiling speakers where we wanted things to be discrete. We weren't crazy about the pricing, so we tried to only opt for stuff that had to be done behind the drywall.

My husband's goal

Next Step: Finalize Exterior & Structural Choices.