Even wood framed houses have a lot of more substantial stuff here and there - wires, plumbing, ducts, radiators, appliances, etc. And if you add cordless phones and a microwave oven into the mix, it can get worse.

My rental is an older house with paper thin walls, but I still have a couple weak/dead zones, even though I can reach a good 75-100 feet outside my house in other directions. I think one is caused by a combined shadow of the refrigerator and stove/hood/vent (almost side-by-side), two flues in cavities behind them, and some bathroom fixtures. In a room 10 feet over from that problem area, I get a full signal.

We're in a rental while renovating our house: I'll have a pair of hard-wired APs when we move back in in a month or so. They'll be POE, mounted in a couple closets, one on the first floor and one at the other end of the house on the second floor. As near as I can tell, everywhere in the house will have good angles for solid coverage from one or the other, as should the back deck.

-jk