We are building a new house and now is the time to make plans for concealed cabling, etc.
I'd love to hear some ideas: If you were (are?) building, what would you plan for in terms of home automation, media, networking, general geekery?
I have mixed feelings about home automation. The geek in me would love to understand lights/heating/blinds controlled from a smart phone, but any time I think about it it just seems impractical, especially with kids - but I'm happy to be convinced?
However I do have an interest in automated path lighting at night, in the hallway and outside; weather station and automated watering; security; power monitoring (we're hoping to include solar panels).
There are some obvious things, like running a cat6 to each room. I'm going to need a "server closet" somewhere aren't I, for router, NAS, modem etc? But what else? What would you include, given the opportunity?