I have a friend who just bought a brand new >$1m home in Madison Park and for every one wire he has, I have 10. Now he’s stuck cutting into walls and trying to hack in some wireless capabilities in order to make up for the underwiring. All because a developer didn’t spend the extra few thousand on good connectivity.

We just finished building a million dollar house on Mercer Island ourselves (which is why following this blog has been timely) and we put in was motion sensors, door/window opening sensors and of course alarm and that did it for us.

Personally I think this ties into a broader question and the culture in our country, i.e. majority of us are a product of all the marketing that have been fed to us since birth to the degree that we fail and have forgotten to ask when buying something the question of: what is sufficient for my current and future needs and settle with it instead of the mentality of going with: I need the top of the line, be it how much memory the iphone we get has, to what kind of car we get and so on which translates into making us resource hogs of the world. but I digress. Enjoy the new house as having gone through the experience myself, it is a pleasure to live in something where you have had full control of each design decision.

Daryn: The camera coverage is pretty good, yeah.

Wil: Yep, we’re almost done fully configuring the Myro so I’ll write up a post about it when that’s complete.

Damien: Some people choose security via firearms, some people choose it via technology, some people do both, and some do none at all. It’s all a function of what makes you feel comfortable. I may live in a nice neighborhood, but there have definitely been break-ins around here, as there are in every nice neighborhood. While the danger of getting mugged in my neighborhood is more-or-less non-existent, the danger of having my house broken into is not. To build a million dollar house and not spend the several thousand required for decent security seems like a bad decision to me. Also, keep in mind that a lot of the “security related items” like motion sensors allow you to do things like automatically turning on stair lights. In other words, security doubles as convenient automation.

Maybe your life situation demands such over the top security because the area you live in certainly does not. Or maybe you are enjoying all the gadgets that comes with this given that money may not be an issue.

What i am trying to say, it would be great to understand (if your line of work permits) what caused you to go to such lengths of security for a house in very low crime area. If someone want to break-in studies show that 99% will be discouraged by an alarm, a sign for the alarm and maybe cameras. And for the remaining 1% that really want to break into despite obstacles, they will find ways (my naive non criminal mind thinks for the glass shattering alarm, I can cut the glass and get in). Point being if someone really wants in, your should probably also have armed guards patrolling the area.

I personally find it a huge waste of money, but as I mentioned I am don’t know your situation or reasoning.

Yet

Question — what camera / DVR technology did you wind up going with? I’m looking at some things for my house and have started to look around.

I know a lot about commercial surveillance systems – but this is obviously much more small scale in my case ;)
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