High-Tech Servants' Entrance

High-End Trend?

Wouldn't it be nice to be able to let the furnace contractor in* without waiting for them to show up during their seemingly days-long "window"? Or, once they got there, if they could proceed directly to the utility room, without traipsing through your front hall (and past your messy Kitchen)?

The (very high-end) new home just being finished at the south end of Minneapolis' Lake Calhoun has that one solved: the utilities room has its own contractors' entrance. That's where the mechanicals, plus the "central nervous system" that runs this high-tech home, are located.

Like to see it (or partake of the view)?

You'd better know the owners (or perhaps, be a big sponsor of the major league sports team they own): the home isn't on the market.

*The rest of us will just have to rely on lockboxes, drop cloths, etc.