Ten minutes up the road, and we know the houses.
Chappaqua is the closest thing we have to a home town after Armonk itself. The showroom is ten minutes down Route 120, which is why a Chappaqua service call usually happens the same week.
The houses here run from 1920s colonials near the station and the Quaker meeting house to 1960s and 70s builds in the hills off Whippoorwill and Seven Bridges, with a steady run of new construction and gut renovations in between. Each asks something different of us. The older houses are a wiring problem first, because plaster and the long distances between rooms defeat the equipment the cable company left. The newer ones are a planning problem, because the walls are open once and what goes in while they are decides what the house can do for the next twenty years.
A lot of Chappaqua work starts in a family room or a finished lower level that has to be several things at once: a place to watch a film properly on Friday, a playroom on Saturday morning, and somewhere the older children disappear to in between. We size the screen to where people sit, put the speakers where the room needs them rather than where the wall allows, and put all of it on one remote so nobody has to be taught.
Kitchens and screened porches come next, usually. Music in a few rooms and a keypad in place of the six switches by the back door are the two things people most often say they should have done years earlier.
Because we are close, we also do a good deal of looking after systems other people installed. If the house came with a system and nobody left the instructions, we can usually make sense of it, and we will say plainly what is worth keeping and what is not.
Chappaqua
Have a house in Chappaqua? Tell us about it.
We will come out and look. If you want a sense of budget before that, the calculator gives a planning range from what you are considering.
An easier first step
Come and sit in the seating before you decide anything.
The showroom is at 5 N Greenwich Rd in Armonk, with CinemaTech seating on the floor. Ten minutes in the chairs, handling the finishes, settles more than a swatch card will, and it costs nothing.
Common questions
Questions we get from Chappaqua homeowners.
- How quickly can someone come out to Chappaqua?
- Usually within the week, and often sooner, because the showroom is ten minutes away. We are not routing a van from another county. If you carry a service plan, we are watching the system before you call.
- Our house is older. Can you do this without tearing it apart?
- In most rooms, yes. Wireless lighting control needs no new wire in the room at all, and speaker and network cable can generally be fished through closets and the attic. We walk the house first and tell you honestly which rooms are easy and which are a fight.
- We are renovating. When should we call?
- Before the walls close, and ideally while the drawings are still being revised. Running wire into open framing costs a fraction of what it costs afterwards, and it is the only chance to get the network, speakers and shade pockets exactly where they should be.
Services available here
Start a project
Tell us about the space. We'll come out and give you a straightforward plan.
The consultation is complimentary and it starts with a walkthrough or a set of drawings. You will leave it knowing what is realistic in your house, what it costs, and what can wait until phase two.