Our rep was amazing. One of the first things he told us when we sat down with him is, he's paid salary and not commission. And what that means to us is his job was to help us make the best decision centered around our wants/needs and not to sell us a bunch of needless items. Good thing he was there to save us from ourselves otherwise it would have been another mortgage... Okay maybe not that bad! :-)
Now to the decisions... First and foremost Guardian is about security. The option we went with was the option that included the two way communication and the wireless access. The benefit to this option is we can arm our system from our smart phones or the keypad. While this seems needless think of the pluses.
1. No remote needed to arm/disarm your system just before entering the house.
2. You can instantly check the status of your system regardless where you are. How many times have you been away from the house and could recall if you set the alarm... I know I have
3. Anytime the system's status changes you can be alerted. For those with kids it'll help you know when they are home as well.
Our rep also walked us through sight lines in our houses and what would work best. Job well done and after spending good money on the build, the last thing you want to skimp on is the security.
The wiring for cable, data, and HDTV took the majority of the time. It's really important to understand what is necessary in each room. Initially we decided we wanted cable and HDTV connections in each bedroom, family room, and bonus room. But after seeing the cost, we had to critically think about our needs. From there we decided on what was important and needed and made the necessary adjustments. Our rep once again helped us with this and told us some ways to maximize our selections.
Our last decisions were on surround sound and whole home audio. While whole home audio was a nifty thing the more we thought about it, the more we realized it wasn't necessary. So of all the extra speaker options, we did decide to run the speaker outside of the house in the back for sound outside.
Finally came the prewired surround sound. Our initial thought was to go with audio in the family room, bonus room, and owners suite. We took out the last one and kept the first two. We currently have a sound bar that is better than the TV speakers so we decided we would use that in the owner's suite.
After making changes to our original selection and dropping off $1200 we felt better about the final cost. We now know we will be secure in our new house, and set to enjoy entertainment both inside and outside of the house.
Up next... Change order deadline.
DJ
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