I admit I know nothing about IP cameras. I have read most of the threads but its still confusing to me. Is it possible to have a 1 camera install that right now isn't hooked to a NVR? I am building a house starting in April and would like a more detailed system then but need 1 camera now. I know some cameras have a sd slot to record. Can I just view the camera via laptop?

If you have it set up then you don't have to record, and just have live streaming. But you could also run am external drive somewhere and have that act as your storage for the camera.

I would start with following Hikvision and a POE switch, it is one of the most popular cameras for the price.  The switch will provide power to the camera all you need to do it run the Ethernet cable to it.  You can also install a internal SD card in the camera for recording, and then later on down the road you can get a NVR or add multiple camera to the current switch.  The recordings on the camera can be accessed just be going to the cameras IP address in your web-browser, you can also set up port forwarding on your router if you want to access it remotely.





Camera:


http://www.amazon.com/Hikvision-DS-2CD2132-I-Fixed-Focal-Camera/dp/B00EJXK0I6





POE Switch: (Support for additional Cameras)


http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-SG1008P-8-Port-Giagbit-802-3af/dp/B00BP0SSAS


or


POE Injector: (Single camera only)


http://www.amazon.com/TP-LINK-TL-PoE150S-Gigabit-Injector-compliant/dp/B001PS9E5I





Search Youtube for 'Hikvision DS-2CD2132-I', there is lots of sample footage to see the quality.