What and Where

By TG Publishing Team, published on October 18, 2005
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: , , ,

2. What and Where

The first thing you need to do is to make a list of activities vs. locations. I did mine in a spreadsheet, but paper and pencil will work just fine. Figure 1 is a simplified floorplan for the upper level of my two-level home, which you'll need to make sense of its corresponding list in Table 1.

Figure 1: Upper Level Room layout

My list has columns for Primary and Secondary activities, which can also be thought of as the "must haves" and "would be nices". The general approach used was that Primary Activities had to be supported via "traditional" wired distribution, but alternative technologies (wireless, power line, etc.) were ok to use for Secondary Activities. The "greyed out" areas are those that didn't need to be included in the plan.

Upper Level
Location Primary
Activities
Secondary
Activities
Living Room - Satellite TV w/ DVR
- Large screen TV
- Music

- Web
- Phone
Living Room closet Alternative location for
Living Rm. gear
Kitchen - Comm. center
(phone, messages)
- Small TV
- Web
Breakfast - Small TV - Web
- Phone
Dining - None - Phone
Master Bedroom - Small TV - Phone
Table 1: Upper Level Activity vs. Location List

Figure 2 and Table 2 show the floorplan and list for the lower level. The home is built on a hillside lot, so the Laundry, Utility, Storage and Crawl(space) areas are below grade, with the rest of the rooms on the lower level having daylight access.

Figure 2: Lower Level Room layout
Lower Level
Location Primary
Activities
Secondary
Activities
Office - Web
- Business phone and fax
- Home phone
- Small TV
Studio - Satellite TV w/ DVR
- Large screen TV
- Music
- Phone
Guest - Small TV - Phone
Laundry - Small TV - Phone
Utility Central wiring panel  
Storage None  
Table 2: Lower Level Activity vs. Location List
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