1646 N Oakley · Preliminary Budget Recommendation

The approach

One house out of two flats,
wired before the walls close.

You do not have to be technical to live with this home. We design it, install it, program it, and show you how it works, and you have one number to call if anything is ever off.

The building is a gut renovation, a two-flat becoming a single home, with the coach house on the same system. We plan the whole property once so the basement, both floors, the coach house, and the exterior run the same way, rather than arriving later as separate add-ons.

Nearly all of this lives inside the walls, which makes timing the real constraint. The rough-in has to land before drywall. r:home is an authorized Lutron dealer. We design, program, install, and service everything we build, with one point of contact and an Essentials+ Membership that looks after the system through your first year.

What it delivers

One way to run the first-floor lights, on Lutron keypads and the Lutron app.

Music in six zones, from the basement to the second floor.

A professional network and strong WiFi across the house and the coach house.

Cameras and a video intercom at the entries, on one app.

A basement media room with surround sound.

Every cable, enclosure, and power feed set before drywall.

How you'll live with it

The way you already run things.

First-floor lighting runs on Lutron: tap a keypad on the wall, or use the Lutron app on your phone. Music runs on Sonos. Cameras and the door intercom run in the UniFi app. Three apps you already know, and keypads on the wall for the things you touch every day.

Lutron keypads Lutron app Sonos app UniFi Protect

Run from Lutron, Sonos & UniFiIncluded with those systems

Lutron keypad

What we're proposing

The systems, room to room.

Each system below reflects the current equipment list for the house, the coach house, and the exterior.

17Sunnata dimmers

11Wall keypads

6Sonos zones

5WiFi access points

4Security cameras

2Entry intercoms

Counts from the current equipment list, confirmed at the coordination meeting. Lighting counts cover the first floor.

The investment

What it costs.

A preliminary budget for the scope in this proposal, intentionally held to a tight range.

Preliminary range · pre-tax $82,000 to $92,000

These figures reflect the current equipment list, which totals about $82,800. Sales tax of roughly $5,100 applies to equipment and is additional, putting the current list at about $87,900 all in. The range leaves room for the counts that firm up at the electrician coordination meeting, chiefly lighting.

Where the budget goes, by system

Pre-tax. All figures exclude freight and applicable sales tax. Tax applies to equipment only, not to labor.

Lighting, first floor. Lighting control in this budget covers the first floor only. The second floor, basement, and coach house are not included, and RadioRA 3 extends to them later without replacing what goes in now. Lighting also shows the widest band, so we confirm keypad and dimmer counts and locations room by room at the coordination meeting after framing, then tighten the number.

Speakers. The audio plan combines concealed (invisible) speakers in the main living spaces with premium in-ceiling speakers elsewhere, across six amplified zones, plus a separate surround zone in the basement media room. Plaster and finish work for the concealed speakers is by others.

Not included. Television panels are provided by others. r:home provides the mounts, mounting heights, backing, box locations, and wiring so they go in cleanly. Motorized window treatments are not in this number; their low-voltage rough-in is. Decorative and architectural light fixtures, high-voltage electrical, and line-voltage fixture wiring are provided by the electrician and others. See scope below.

Still open

Two things to settle early.

Rough-in only

The window treatments

This budget carries the low-voltage rough-in for motorized shades, wire and power routed to the window and drapery motor locations. It does not carry the treatments themselves. Motors and fabric run six to ten weeks, so the earlier the selections land, the more comfortably they fit ahead of drywall.

Quoted separately once the treatments are selected.

A wall-mounted television in a finished room

Owner furnished

The television panels

Three display locations are wired, backed, and mounted in this budget, one recessed and two on tilt or fixed mounts, with the Sonos soundbars and cabling that go with them. The panels themselves come from you, along with the two Apple TVs already on the equipment list.

Mounts, wiring, and labor are included. The screens are not.

Scope

What we provide, and what comes from others.

Provided by r:home

All equipment listed in this recommendation.
Rough-in of the whole property before drywall: basement, both floors, coach house, and exterior.
Mounting, wiring, termination, programming, and commissioning.
Mounting heights, backing, and box locations for the displays, coordinated with Formed Space.
Conduit paths flagged on plan wherever runs pass through masonry, concrete, or exterior walls.
A site walk to mark preferred routes before the other trades lock in theirs.
On-site handoff and orientation, and Essentials+ Membership for year one.

Provided by others, or confirmed on inspection

Decorative and architectural light fixtures, and their high-voltage wiring, by the electrician.
The television panels, and the two Apple TVs, owner furnished.
Motorized window treatments. This budget carries their low-voltage rough-in only.
Exterior speakers. Their direct-burial cabling is roughed in, the speakers are not in this budget.
Plaster and finish work for the invisible speakers.
Structural blocking, conduit sleeves through masonry, and electrical boxes, by the general contractor.
Lighting control beyond the first floor. The second floor, basement, and coach house are not in this budget.
Final lighting load and keypad counts, confirmed with the electrician after framing.

The next step.

Timeline. Formed Space is tracking drywall for mid-October. We ask for three to four weeks of notice ahead of our rough-in, and motorized shades run six to ten weeks, so settling scope now keeps both comfortably inside that date.

Design retainer

5% of the budget's low end

$4,100, credited to your project

A design retainer takes this preliminary budget into a signed contract and detailed design, coordinated around your schedule.

What it produces

A full design and a fixed proposal

We produce a complete low-voltage design drawn over your floor plans, with every device and equipment location set room by room. That becomes a fixed, signable proposal with final pricing, and the drawings go to HLA and Formed Space so every trade works from one plan.

From there we move into scheduling and installation.

One house out of two flats,wired before the walls close.