… what would you have added this time?
I’m coming up with a list of nice to have features for the new home being started. Things like outlets in the front eaves for holiday lights, a second water line and shutoff for the master bath toilet - things like that. Little details.
What things do you wish you had, or ended up adding later?
Ken
BBI: ...”you better not forget the safe word because shit's about to get weird”...
revchuck38: ...”mo' ammo is mo' betta' unless you're swimming or on fire.”
We built our home 2 years ago. Our house is a "modern farmhouse" with big porches front and back. When we built, I did have the outlets in the eaves for holiday lights with switches in the garage. Things I did that I am happy we did was the expandable foam insulation. we live in Oklahoma and the swing in temperatures is pretty wide. The foam insulation keeps the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter and is very economical. We had a whole house (22K) Generac Generator installed. I can't tell you how many times we have power outages and neighbors will call to come over since we're the only ones on the block who have power. We went with a gas fireplace, and wish we had gone with a wood burner. May have a wood burner retro fitted. I wish I had more electrical outlets outside as well as water spigots. Would also think big and if you ever have a desire for a pool or hot tub, have the electric ran at the build. We put a pool in after the fact and had to spend an additional $3000 to have the electric ran. Above our garage is a game room. We opted to not put a bathroom up there, wish we did. We had a media closet put in for all of our media equipment as well as having a surround sound system put in in our great room. It's nice to have music piped in when having friends over and if we want to watch a movie, we have a theater like experience. Oklahoma is known for tornadoes. Under the staircase, we had a safe room installed. If someone comes in, it looks like a closet door, but when you open it, it is a room that can hold 8 people in the event of a tornado. Also, tankless water heater... biggest regret of not doing.
www.hero911.org
Hero911 when seconds save lives.
I designed my dream house 15 years ago. Couple of suggestions:
1. Install solar tubes to bring light into any closets, bathrooms or other areas that don’t have significant windows.
2. Seal off the underside of your eves to eliminate spider webs and clean up the outside look. If you plan on putting up Xmas lights ever, put a few switched plugs under the eves.
3. Tankless water heaters, use lp or gas to heat if can.
4 . Wood floors, not carpet or tile (except bathrooms)
5. 6 inch walls.
6. Double roof insulation depth.
7. Built in Pellet stove in main area, super efficient.
8. Solar panels if can, asphalt shingle install areas.
9. Tile roof everywhere else
10. More outside water faucets and electrical outlets than you think you’ll need.
My wife and I were owner/builder when we built our current house in 2005. We built it for re-sale thinking our jobs may take us elsewhere at some point, so went bigger than two of us need (4 bed, 2 1/2 bath) bc nobody with kids would be interested in a 2 bed/2 bath house.
If/when this housing boom subsides -AND- we figure out where we want to live (since retired Jan 2021) I might consider building another house. So this topic has been on my mind for a while.
A few features I want the next place to have:
-Smaller. Screw the resale, scale it to what two people with hobbies need. So roughly 1,600 sq ft house max, but big a$$ shop with at least 12’ tall doors.
-3’0” wide interior doors or at least 2’10”. 2’8” blows for moving furniture and (gun safes).
-Single story instead of 2. But vaulted ceiling with clear story windows for light. A partial basement would be nice.
-Extra blocking in the framing in the bathroom walls to install grab handles (I’m thinking ahead to the future).
-Less windows. Current house has 54 windows and 8 skylights (I know bc I installed most of them).
-Solar panels on roof and to be self-sufficient during power outages.
-Native vegetation for 90% of the property. I spend way too much time mowing April-Sept.
A guy can dream…
Back a while we bought 25 acres of rural property with the aim of building the house we would die in. Some of the things on my list:
-Low/no maintenance exterior: metal roof, 40 year exterior walls ( I'm not sure what I was looking at at the time)
-Passive solar, extremely well insulated, partially earth sheltered ( the property in question allowed for this)
-First floor utility/mechanical room, ideally accessible off of the garage via a larger than normal door (maybe even a roll up) to allow for easy access/replacement of furnace, water heater, pressure tank, etc.
-Fire sprinklers (Specifically because it was rural)
-Fully wheelchair accessible (to include a ramp, rather than stairs, to the second floor)
-Empty runs for future wiring ( ethernet, fiber optic, ???) to every room
More to the point, I promised my wife that we'd move, once I was settled in my 2nd career/retirement job. That process looks to be starting around a year from now. What I'm thinking currently:
-1 floor plan, as accessible as possible
-I'm no longer interested in building anything, being 55, I would rather spend the year or so in an acceptable new place, than building the 'perfect' place.
-Location is a bigger consideration than the house itself, beyond the 1 floor accessible criteria
Edited to add, after reading more replies:
-Plan for future needs and run the plumbing and electrical when you build (pool, hot tub, etc.)
-It's way cheaper to wire for a whole house generator when you build than to retrofit it.
Last edited by TQP; 01-25-2022 at 12:09 AM.
'Nobody ever called the fire department because they did something intelligent'
I'd never build a house these days without at least two if not three zones of A/C and at least two hot water heaters, one for the bathrooms and one for the kitchen/laundry. You want enough A/C to freeze your ass out. You can get away with heat pumps, pellet stove will be overkill except for ~3 days a year.Originally Posted by HeavyDuty
More important for you at this stage, you should consider having a storm room installed. Where you are going some of the worst tornadoes occur in the country. When it's being framed is the best time to select an interior closet and have it reinforced as a storm room. You won't be able to dig down far without reaching the water table. So you'll need to opt for an above ground. It's truly the perfect time to get it in there, especially if you can before the subfloor is put down. If you select a pre-fabbed unit and have it installed now, it can double as your gun 'room' (closet, but bigger than a safe). Something kind of like this is an 'easy button' https://www.lonestarsaferooms.com/ -
I'd opt from the get go to have gas lines brought in and pre-setup for a natural gas generator. I've seen that area have power outages measured in weeks before.
At least as many bathrooms as bedrooms.
"You win 100% of the fights you avoid. If you're not there when it happens, you don't lose." - William Aprill
"I've owned a guitar for 31 years and that sure hasn't made me a musician, let alone an expert. It's made me a guy who owns a guitar."- BBI
We didn't build our house, but I do have a list. For context, we live in the Pacific Northwest, in the middle of a wooded property near a national forest.
- A large covered porch big enough for the kid to run around and play on during the wet season.
- A mudroom, with lots of coat hooks, and storage for gloves and hats. preferably with a floor that would allow things to drip dry and with outlets and space for boot and glove driers. Storing this stuff on the porch isn't a good idea, as you might find a bushy tailed wood rat curled up in your expensive ass LL Bean boots. And you'll get funny looks from the UPS guy when he walks up as your are bashing the rat's head in with a piece of firewood.
- Wood storage and some sort of pass through to minimize the amount of wood debris you drop on the floor as you bring firewood in the house.
- Wired for a generator and whole house surge protector.
- One or two locations in the house where you can turn on all the exterior lights with a single switch. at least one switch would be in our upstairs room that is our strongpoint.
- More food storage. like enough to store a whole year of dry goods, because thats what we are up to. we've bought some decent cabinets and such, but honestly what i would like to have is a room I can walk in with some steel shelving.
I was into 10mm Auto before it sold out and went mainstream, but these days I'm here for the revolver and epidemiology information.
Adequate countertops and cabinetry in the kitchen. More and more countertop appliances these days, but our older home has limited countertop space, and what I wouldn’t give to have more space to put the stupid things away when they aren’t actually in use. Used to be, you’d have a toaster and maybe a slow cooker or something. Now I’ve got an insta pot, and several crock pots, and she wants a mixer, and so on.
More places to put crap away so I could actually use the countertops more for prep and so forth would be amazing, or just straight up more countertop space.
Last edited by Duelist; 01-25-2022 at 03:47 AM.
1) I'll make sure my next house can stay reasonably warm/cool without electricity/HVAC. This house does pretty well except the fire-safe vestigial eaves allow rain to enter open windows if there is even the slightest breeze.
2) I'd also make my garage at least large enough to park two full size trucks inside, leave all their doors open, & still have room to walk by each and futz at a work bench.
3) I wouldn't have the kitchen so far from the garage (so I wouldn't have to lug groceries as far).
4) I'd take a closer look at the layout around the doorways to make sure they don't open into useable space. I hate getting thwacked by an opening door when brushing my teeth or moving the laundry into the dryer.
Reply With Quote