My current issue... is just the amount of energy needed to run this bulk storage array.... I need to identify a solution that allows me to have a large number of drives, good performance, AND low energy usage.
It also depends on the area too. Generally, the higher quality houses are a solid foundation without a crawlspace.
And- don't make it sound like you get the short end of the stick! Having a solid house built from double-brick walls sounds fantastic, compared to my house built with 2x4s, which are not even 2"x4". Especially, when we get a ton of very strong wind....
Had a 100mph wind gust recently, knocked off half of the roofs in my town.___
I am going to assume you found the post regarding the 500$ closet NAS I built a few years ago.
One of the driving reasons behind the inclusion of that, was actually taking a jab at drobo units, which after failure.... which, while recoverable, takes a decent amount more effort then just plugging the drives in elsewhere.
For photos, I'd highly recommend checking out Photoprism.
the "PhotoSync" app available for both android and apple can sync from your phone to photoprism.
But, nextcloud itself, works pretty nice for me. But, I use OIDC-based logon, with Authentik.