My SIL has the robotic vacuum (iVacuum? iRobot?) and loves it.

How much are you saving by not roughing it in? Shouldn't be much. Can you rough it in yourself to save cost?

If you want the central vac, and aren't desparate to reduce costs, I recommend roughing it in. You can always decide not to install the central vac, but if it's not roughed in now, it's difficult and costly to install one later.

Well, I had one in the last house . . . lived with it from 2001 until we moved in 2007. I had just a few non-negotiables for the new house - and #1 on the list was a VacuFlo.

I'd planned to include HAH but the two installers in my area had never done one and were very, very negative -- although they freely admitted it was probably because of their lack of experience with it. Their prices were extremely high. So I ended up not getting HAH, but I wouldn't even consider not installing the system.

Yes, dragging the hose is a nuisance. BUT . . . it's WAY easier than shoving a stand-alone vacuum around. And to me, the huge advantage is that the dirt simply disappears. It doesn't recirculate in the air, there's no "stale doggie" odor, as there was with my old Hoover. It's a big advantage for my allergies.

As the previous poster noted, you can save the space for the unit and have all the pipes put in for a very modest amount, and add the unit itself later. My DS and DDIL did that -- I think it was considerably less than $500 -- and then added the unit when they could afford it. Actually they added it way sooner than they'd expected, because they just couldn't wait.

My new house has one . . . and I still love it, even without the HAH.

Arlene