If the scenario described above is too rich for your blood, there’s a level of sophistication that’s just right for your pocketbook.

"Home automation is not a cookie cutter concept," said Jim Bark, president of HiTech Homes in Cedarburg. "It’s customized to every homeowner’s needs. And since everybody’s needs are different, you have to see the value in what you want.

Bark pointed out that there are tremendous differences in what homeowners can spend on home entertainment. A home theater, also known as a media room, can start out at $10,000 and top out at well over $100,000.

"I had one client with a $750,000 house," Bark noted, "who sank an
additional $250,000 into his media room."

The key to home automation is what the experts call structured wiring. Simply put, this a wire run from a distribution panel in the basement to everything in the house you want to control: cable TV, telephones, lighting and computers in multiple rooms.

Structured wiring is typically installed in new construction. "We call this future-proofing," said Tom Martin, president of the Freeman Group, a Cedarburg home builder and realty company. "Each residence is wired for up to four telephone lines, up to two video feeds and a computer network.

"The system can grow with the individual homeowner," he continued. "You don’t have to rip walls apart or run wires through the attic or the outside of the house because the wiring harness is already built into the house. This can save hundreds to thousands of dollars over having to retrofit later.

"We suggest you wire for most of the options you’ll want in the future," Martin added, "because it’s fairly cost-effective to pull up an extra wire when the walls are open. You don’t have to install everything right up front."

Here are a few of the most frequently requested options in today’s high tech homes:

"People are requesting a telephone in just about every room in the house," said Bark. "We were one of the first companies to integrate business-type phone systems into homes so the family could have an intercom system.

"The phones have microphones and speakers built into them, " he
continued, "so you can call individual rooms or page a family member. The extensions are labeled. So if you want to call Johnny’s bedroom, for instance, you just press his extension button and talk hands-free."

Networking allows a family’s home computers to share various devices and hard drives. "We think the future," Bark said, "is going to be where a home is set up for two, three or more computers. In addition, they will have an RF gateway that enables a person to take a laptop computer into just about any location in the house and be able to work on the internet or retrieve and send e-mail without having to plug the computer in."

Automation installers don’t do high voltage work but rather control all forms of lighting. Homeowners can use keypads to provide a pathway of light from the garage to whatever part of the house they want to enter. A lighting control system also enables the homeowner to create various "scenes" with light. If you’re having a party, for example, you simply push the "party" button on your keypad and the lights dim to the level you want in the room or rooms you’re using.

"Some of our more sophisticated systems," Bark said, "have a brain built into the computer that memorizes the last week or two of the homeowners’ lighting habits. If you go away on a trip, the lighting system mimics what you’ve done before so it always looks as if someone is home."

"If we look ten years down the line," said Martin, "appliances will have a higher level of built-in intelligence. The refrigerator, for example, may have a bar code scanner in it that builds a database of items and prints out a shopping list.

"The home will have a lot more ability to regulate itself. Furnaces will come on whenever they need to and automatic dampers will make the environment more comfortable."

"It used to be that we had to push home automation." said Bark. "But in the higher end homes now, automation is no longer an amenity. It’s a requirement."