Don't bring Hemingway into this! You'll bring the Arts grads to life. Oh wait - that would be me... Outa here...

I had a couple, but they were sent for recycling after they became self-aware and went on strike.

and regretted it. Go for the full rack day one for full access. Think very hard about cooling and power. You may very well start small, but it will grow, you will run out of electricity, and it will get hot. I asked my construction company for a dedicated A/C unit, and foolishly let them talk me out of it. Just redid the whole thing with a 3KV rack-mounted UPS, separate A/C unit, and a dedicated 30A circuit. However you go, spend a few bucks on a remote temperature sensor that alerts you when it hits an warning state. My entire setup came close to frying when the house A/C controller kept calling for heat and the server room hit 90 degrees. Construction companies have no idea. You know more than they do, because you are asking the questions and they are not. Don't trust the A/C companies either. Their goal is to sell you stuff they can do quickly, not to listen to what you tell them! Write down what you want, ask them to document their assumptions, show you their math, and give you a written guarantee it will work to your specifications. Good luck. This was the funnest part of the house build by far - at least the second time around!