Guardian Meeting - 01/29/2015

So finally came the Guardian meeting. Guardian is a security company that does all the low voltage wiring for the house. Think about cable, phone, and surround sound, security etc. Thanks to a lot of blogs that I read I pretty much knew what to expect and it was pretty much on the spot from what I have read.

We went with the feeling that we are not going to add any extras and just pick up what comes standard with the house. And after talking to Jeff, who seemed knowledgeable, we realized that we are getting sufficient cable/ phone outlets with the house, thanks to finished basement and study, which add a cable and phone jack each. Guardian now offers standard CAT5 cables, which can be used for either Data or Phone. So that was good.

We just decided on their placement around the house. We have one cable and data setup each in Study, Living room, basement and Masters bedroom. For the rest, we are good with using wifi. I am really glad the address has Verizon FIOS. We have the service for last 4 years or so and are pretty satisfied with Internet speed and all.

Next, he gave us a demonstration about the surround sound speakers, which was really impressive. S and I decided we wanted to have them install the surround sound system in the living room for us.  They provide Klipsch speakers, which were decent when we heard him play at the model house. I asked him if he can prewire the surround sound and he said they could do that for us. But we decided to add the surround sound to living room anyway.

Next he discussed central vacuum, which we were not interested in, so we did not get into the details of it.

Then came the security system part. The advantage of going with their security system is when they install it with the house, its prewired and more reliable. We really liked the security setup but cannot commit ourselves to a steep $45  a month for next three years. We could clearly see Jeff getting disappointed with our decision not to get the security.

at the end we decided on getting a flat screen prewire in the living room and in ceiling set-up for five speakers.

later in the day, we decided to make a trip to Best Buy to check out the surround sound speakers and we were literally blown away by what we could get in the same money that we are putting the on ceiling speakers. OK maybe a couple hundred dollars more. but we called him again to let him know that we wont be adding the speakers through Guardian but getting them to prewire for the surround sound. This is what we really like at Best Buy.