The old garage door is finally removed, and cut up. They finished digging out the concrete for foundations for the new wall where the garage door was located. That was somewhat noisy, and took most of the day. Just waiting for building inspector in the morning to check that.
They have found matching bricks, so they will arrive next week. In the mean time they can continue with the interior, insulation, plaster board, etc. I can see the room really starting to come together.
The only undecided issue right now is "sound system". Whilst this is mainly an office, there will be a TV and sofa in here (much like we have in the meeting room at work), but I had not really considered a sound system as such. My son is quite keen on one, so we need to decide on something sensible without falling in to any audiophile bullshit.
Some sort of mid-range 7.1 home cinema systems perhaps?
ReplyDeleteHave you decided if you're going to be sitting at the bench, or standing at it predominantly? Height is crucial here I've found. My workshop has a bench set at approx 1m which is good for standing (btw the trick is to mount the bench such that when you place a vice upon it, the top of the vice is at the same height as your elbow. That allows you to file/saw easily).
Our stores benches at work are set at a similar height. If you're sitting, you'll want it lower, 70-80mm roughly, or similar to desk height.
This is a good point I have not yet mentioned, but will do in more detail when the bench is installed. The worktops are all to be at around kitchen worktop height which is around 900mm so easy to work at standing. However, I have an Aeron stool which I use (and may get another) which allows one to sit comfortably at that height too, and includes a foot rest ring that moves up/down with the seat.
Delete900mm is OK for intermittent use, but in practice we found it tiring for long term (all day) use. If you're going to be stood for >1hr I'd add that extra 100mm, it makes all the difference, especially if typing.
ReplyDeleteWell, I have time to change it, and the Aeron work stool will cope. I'll discuss with builder.
DeleteAlso ensure you have enough space and/or a rest bar for your knees to get under the bench if using a stool, are you going to put in a KVM system also?
DeleteI use an Acovet system (HP branded, but Dell do one also) which runs over Cat5, and patch my sockets for Data/KVM in pairs. Allows me to just plug in the appropriate SIP and jump on the KVM while keeping the bench clear when not in use.
Cabling in conduits for ease of later upgrade/replacement? Relative of course because it could never just be that easy...
ReplyDeleteJOOI, what made you choose Cat6 over 5?
ReplyDeleteNo special reason - unlikely to ever need actual cat6 grade, but if it is in the walls it is easier that re-running cable if ever needed.
DeleteI am very happy with my Yamaha RX-V775. It's a great, reliable unit that shouldn't break the bank. Plug all your HDMI gubbins into that and you'll only need a single HDMI cable going to the TV. This one can even support two TVs so we can game or watch films in the kitchen. The former is a gimmick but the latter is very useful. The best thing about the Yamaha is it's network programmable. I've only briefly played with this feature but it offers a wealth of possibilities. A while back before I had the unit, I used to get Asterisk to turn down the volume of any music/TV playing on my desktop when a call came in and turn it back up when the call ended. Visitors thought this was amazing.
ReplyDeleteYou'll need some speakers too, of course. I'm less opinionated about that but my Wharfedale DX-1 HCP set sounds good to my ears.
The modern Yamaha also have pretty good Spotify, Airplay and DLNA support.
DeleteThe Pioneer SC LX58 is also very good - 3 HDMI out, 8 in, spotify, internet radio, more input and source options than you can shake a stick at, apps for control on the zillions of platforms, accessible via http web server, rs232 programmable and controllable, can have more than one zone... has Aptx Bluetooth support, Apple Airplay, and god only knows what else... just bought one for my office.
DeleteWill we be able to move beyond 1 Gb/s LAN technologies soon(-ish)? I realise that it's no earthly use without having all the joined up bits done together so we don't just move a bottleneck to a different point. It is nice to dream about 40 Gb/s across my LAN though so handline massive files across a LAN is no longer a complete pain. What do we do today to help make it easier to get to a reality of stunning io?
ReplyDeleteGet a decent NIC and Switch and you can have aggregated ports and enjoy much better speeds (a quad port on each device works a treat).
DeleteWill the man cave attract visitors? A good thing or a bit too enticing?
ReplyDelete