Building a house (1 Viewer)

[gangrenengold]

Thinking about building a house. Can't find an existing home that will work for our family, so thinking about building. Met with a builder to discuss options, financing, floor plans, available lots, etc.... 

Does anyone have any tips, suggestions on things to do/avoid during this process? Looking to avoid any major money traps/unnecessary upgrades and things of that nature. 

Any necessary thing that you would add to a home if you were building?  Examples: whole home audio, tankless water heater, heat exchanger, etc?

Again first time getting into this process, so any tips/help is greatly appreciated. 

 

[ghostguy123]

I have zero experience with this, though people i know who had their house built all seem to feel like they overpaid for not exactly what they wanted.

Personally I think people try to customize too much and it cause a lot of problems.  If it were me i would try and find an existing home that is the exact style i want, get the blueprints, and have that built with maybe some minor customization.  

 

[Caesar]

Are you meaning you are going to a builder that is selling houses in a neighborhood setting that have different base styles and options, or are you talking about starting with an architect and designing your home from the plans up?   I read your post as the former, but it looks like Ghostguy read it as the latter..... just for clarification, of course.

My wife and I are closing on a house next Friday that we did the whole builder in the neighborhood.  I think we got exactly what we wanted out of it, and the appraisal came back with a 6.5% increase over the purchase price.  By the time it got built, about 7 months, we gained a bit of equity.  We are doing the final walkthrough next Wednesday and close on Friday.  If that is the route you are going, I am able to walk you through how our process went.

 

[gangrenengold]

Allright, to clear things up. Met with a local builder and am currently looking at their floor plans to build. Haven't found exactly what we wanted yet from them, but think they build a very good house. I'll continue to look at different plans of theirs and others until I find something that I like. 

 

[avoiding injuries]

I've done it. Never again. Terrible financial decision. Be patient and find an existing home. 

Dont get wrapped up in the emotions and excitement of building your own home. 

 

[RC94]

My parents built 2 houses and both times had problems with the house and the builder.  In general, I can't think of any good examples.  Everyone I know who has built a house has been unhappy with it.  And good luck trying to get the builder fix any of their mistakes and cut corners once you pay for it.  I will never do it.

 

[Mario Kart]

Geothermal if your in an area with four seasons. 

 

[glvsav37]

Built mine 14 years ago. We were total n00bs and prob would have done things a little different, mostly about spending more/wiser money on upgrades. We had some basic issues with the contractor, but nothing crazy. 

not sure what your guy is offering in terms of base options, but def go for the higher basement ceiling, we put a big PVC pipe under the driveway so we can snake irrigation and wires through it, I wish I would have put all-weather outlets in my roof soffits for xmas lights, upgrade your kitchen as much as you can—its the most expensive room to remodel down the line.   

We were recently looking to move, but every resale we looked at needed work. In the end, knowing that I put in every plank of my deck, grew every blade of grass and everything was all mine we decided to stay and expand. 

good luck.

 

[[scooter]]

Hidden panic room.

 

[tommyboy]

Thinking about building a house. Can't find an existing home that will work for our family, so thinking about building. Met with a builder to discuss options, financing, floor plans, available lots, etc.... 

Does anyone have any tips, suggestions on things to do/avoid during this process? Looking to avoid any major money traps/unnecessary upgrades and things of that nature. 

Any necessary thing that you would add to a home if you were building?  Examples: whole home audio, tankless water heater, heat exchanger, etc?

Again first time getting into this process, so any tips/help is greatly appreciated. 

Just did a large addition.

Choose someone who's work you can see, like a friend hired them or someone in the neighborhood who you can talk to about their work.

Most of them will underbid based on the cheapest possible materials/finishes. So you might get a quote for 300k that really will be closer to 350k when you start changing things. Examples: floors, tiles, cabinets, lighting, garage doors and openers, doors and windows, siding, paint quality, stonework, exterior lighting, roofing and any landscaping.

Our biggest expenses were hard wood floors and roof. In hindsight we should have asked for a different paint finish inside, they whitewashed with a flat cheap paint that shows every kid fingerprint.  Other than that they did great work but we knew this guy in advance and had seen his work. 

Once work starts, be around to chat up the various crews, offer them a beer or soda get to know them and ask questions. Get their phone #s, you might want them to do additional private work for you down the road. If you're cool to these guys they ll give you extra things free or try to do a better job.

 

[Doctor Detroit]

I'd like to build a house with all the details, then have an MQ-9 Reaper drone just destroy it.  Is that wrong? 

 

[FreeBaGeL]

My wife and I just spent months trying to do this.

We had a specific plot of land in mind, so we were looking at someone to come in and build there, not to join one of those new developer neighborhoods.

We looked both at the developers who do those neighborhoods, but having them build for us on our plot of land, and also custom builders.  The developers were much cheaper.  We worried that it meant cheaper materials but it didn't really seem that way.  One in particular had a great reputation and a million great reviews.  And our realtor, who wanted to sell us a house where he would make a much better commission (he would only get the commission on the land if we built) was very forthcoming that they were very reputable.

The main downside to the the developer in this case is that they had a set of floorplans to pick from.  You could make modifications (make this room 100sqft bigger, add a 3rd car garage, we want a bigger deck, etc), but you can't just give them a list of wants and have them design a house that meets it all.  In general a few of the floorplans were pretty close to what we wanted (I guess our tastes are modern), but it still wouldn't be that "F this let's just build a house so we can literally get every little thing we want".

For that, we'd have to either use a custom builder or have the floor plan drawn up by an architect, at which point the developer said they would look at it and see if it's something they could do.  The architect fee was estimated around $20k.

With a custom builder, the design was mostly included so you lose that architect fee, but the prices elsewhere are generally higher by a good amount.  The main advantage there is that you're working directly with the guy building your house, and most custom builders work on referrals so he's probably going to want to keep you pretty happy.  With the developer your point of contact is a salesperson and they may have 200 houses being built at the same time.

In the end, we ended up skipping it because we worried about resale value.  The developer houses end up affordable because they're on these tiny plots of land cut out from a usually affordable big land purchase.  In our case, the lot we wanted to build on would cost us $200k.  The lots they typically build on are worth about $50k.  So basically their pricing was to take the price they would normally sell a floorplan for and subtract $50k out since we already owned the land.  But that left us coming out somewhere around $135/sqft for our final cost and homes in the area we were looking to build seemed to be selling more in the $90-$110/sqft range.

It's still something I'd like to do some day, but I think we'll wait to do it with our final home where we're not worried about resale value and budget and are willing to pay more to just get exactly what we want.  Dilly dallying with pre-set floorplans that were kinda sorta what we were looking for to land at the top of the price/sqft range for the area just didn't seem like the right move for us. 

 

[Otis]

- great call on lots of outdoor outlets for the Xmas lights

A few other must haves on my wish list:

- butlers pantry with wine fridge and plenty of cabinets

- central air 

- big island in kitchen. Can't be too big. Main congregating space for your whole house

- open kitchen into family room

- generous sized mud room. A feature that makes life easier every single day

- finished basement

- if you're in a snow-ice region, while pouring driveway/front walkway, might as well throw coils underneath to heat them. Never shovel again 

- covered porch out front and in back. Cannot have enough outdoor sittin/drinkin/smokin spots

- multiple fireplaces

- 3 car garage and definitely multiple car width driveway. Our long, one car width driveway is a PIA always moving cars in and out 

- run tons of thick tubing/piping for AV/HDMI/etc cables anywhere you have a TV. Consider a single cabinet in your basement that all your first floor TVs run down to, so that you don't need any cable boxes anywhere on the first floor, just nice clean TV hanging on a blank wall. For the same reason have outlets installed midwall anywhere you'd hang a TV

- 2nd floor laundry 

- whole house vacuum system. 

- lots of windows, and big windows. You can't put a price on natural light in a living space. 

This is making me want to move again. 

 

[wilked]

We did it about 10 years back... design wasn't exactly what we planned but we like it 

http://cdn.playbuzz.com/cdn/a310a764-dcfb-4c82-af0a-468dc781885c/847f2ac1-a23d-4c79-bd29-a03517b623ae.jpg

 

[El Floppo]

 You want a custom home,  but don't want to use an architect. 

I went into the wrong field. 

If you're going to get pick a non-custom cookie cutter builder house... why not just buy an existing home and spare yourself the pain of construction? Serious question.

 

[avoiding injuries]

Ask about the sewer system in the neighborhood. Are they going to add an assessment fee to have each home pay for it? It's the "new" thing in MD. When I built, after people were emotionally invested, they hit people with a $40k non-interest note to pay for the water system. 

Also, if you're somewhat savvy, you can subcontract all your upgrades after you close for much less. You just won't be able to wrap it up in your mortgage. Definitely add Windows and do bump outs, or anything else that you can't do later. 

Everything is an upgrade and I bet you'll end up with a price $30k higher than you're thinking right now. Also, you're on your own for closing costs. 

 

[apalmer]

We did it 10 years ago and loved it.  Since the builder we wanted didn't have anything that met our needs, we found a plan online that was about 95% of what we wanted (got it at https://www.frankbetz.com/homeplans/) and then had him make the minor changes.  The first step is to sit down and decide what things are most important to you.  Since we were in our 50's when we were building, it was important to have a home we could stay in down the road if/when one of us starts to have problems with things like stairs, so that was our primary focus--first floor master, laundry, etc. Dining room is open to the foyer and living room on two sides so it can be "expanded" with extra tables for holiday dinners with kids, grandkids, etc. in the same room.  Also adopted a lot of the above suggestions--making sure there were extra electrical outlets where we might want them, lots of CAT5 and cable outlets pre-run to all rooms, etc.  My only regret is that we didn't expand from a 2-car to a 3-car (or at least 2 1/2 car) garage.  It would have been more convenient to store the lawn tractor and other items there than to need a shed in the back yard. Of course, it's important to find a builder you can trust (get references from everyone you can) and to stay active with them once construction starts.  We visited daily and were able to intervene when change notes on the plans were misinterpreted before it became a major issue.  Knowing we would be stopping by every day also kept the job high on the priority list (as opposed to other jobs where the owners wouldn't see day to day progress).

 

[MattFancy]

Thinking about building a house. Can't find an existing home that will work for our family, so thinking about building. Met with a builder to discuss options, financing, floor plans, available lots, etc.... 

Does anyone have any tips, suggestions on things to do/avoid during this process? Looking to avoid any major money traps/unnecessary upgrades and things of that nature. 

Any necessary thing that you would add to a home if you were building?  Examples: whole home audio, tankless water heater, heat exchanger, etc?

Again first time getting into this process, so any tips/help is greatly appreciated. 

We built our house 3 years ago.

When going through with the builder and thinking of things to upgrade, I would encourage you to upgrade things that you wouldn't be able to do yourself.

Also, see if the builder will work deals with upgrades. We got $35k in upgrades for half price. Worse thing they can say is no, so it doesn't hurt to ask.

Definitely walk through the house frequently during building to make sure everything is correct. Much easier to fix things before they get too far.

 

[Caesar]

 You want a custom home,  but don't want to use an architect. 

I went into the wrong field. 

If you're going to get pick a non-custom cookie cutter builder house... why not just buy an existing home and spare yourself the pain of construction? Serious question.

For us, we looked into the cookie cutter floor plans and there was one that we really liked.  Some of the things I wanted was the finished basement, 2nd floor laundry, large master bedroom, open kitchen floor plan, three car (in our case tandem) garage so I could turn one section into a wood shop.  The developer gave us a morning room free and finished the basement for free.  That little perk saved us about 30K.  We were able to choose custom adds as well that made the cookie cutter floor plan unique to us.  I'm sure there are a couple out there exactly like ours, but maybe not.  I added a service door from the back tandem garage to the back yard for ease of moving stuff in and out if the front garage was used for parking, and also for dog entrance during rainy/muddy type days.  (still working out the details on that plan)

We were also able to choose our cabinets, countertops, carpet, flooring, etc, and it made the home "ours".  We met with a security company that added some features to the house that are just nice to have.  Surround sound in the basement for the big screen, internet ports in selected locations for hard wire access to internet.  Basically, we have a central hub for electronics.  I don't know enough about that stuff to really say how much I will use it, but for the cost, there didn't seem to be any real downside on the resale value.  Yeah, you can find houses on the market that are close to what you want and then add projects, but I bet you won't start with 50K equity, unless you put that much down in advance.  Not to mention the cost of the projects you need to do to make it right.  Building right now when the market for these kinds of houses is strong means you can see  nice increase.  I could close next friday, turn around and sell it on saturday and I would net about 20K over what my downpayment was.  

That's not to say I don't have any projects in mind to do already.  I do.  I saved several thousand by having them just install a 3X3 deck instead of the standard 12X14 because I know that is a project I want to do myself and personalize.  (apparently having a deck is a requirement in our city)  There are a few other smaller things that we felt we could do ourselves that we didn't feel the need to overpay for like chair rails, backsplash, and things like that, but those are pretty easy, fairly low dollar projects.  

For us, the building process was not a hassle at all.  It was actually quite fun and we loved driving by and watching the house go up over the past 7 months.  It was fun and exciting and knowing we were with a quality builder just made us feel that much better.  I own a house 10 minutes south of where we are building, and have a lease contract signed to rent it out as soon as we move out.  

Finally, the biggest reason why I decided to go with new construction was because the last two houses I have bought aftermarket have had issues that made me feel like I inherited problems that the previous owner knowingly covered up.  My basic mistrust of home sellers forevermore added to our need to expand to accommodate twins coming in a month was all I needed to make the decision.  We found what we wanted and what we liked, and we did it.  It is less than a year since we bought our current house, and the developers had no problem getting us into the new construction.  

 

[gangrenengold]

Geothermal if your in an area with four seasons. 

Yes, North of Milwaukee, WI.  Can you give me more background on geothermal?  Costs? 

 

[gangrenengold]

Built mine 14 years ago. We were total n00bs and prob would have done things a little different, mostly about spending more/wiser money on upgrades. We had some basic issues with the contractor, but nothing crazy. 

not sure what your guy is offering in terms of base options, but def go for the higher basement ceiling, we put a big PVC pipe under the driveway so we can snake irrigation and wires through it, I wish I would have put all-weather outlets in my roof soffits for xmas lights, upgrade your kitchen as much as you can—its the most expensive room to remodel down the line.   

We were recently looking to move, but every resale we looked at needed work. In the end, knowing that I put in every plank of my deck, grew every blade of grass and everything was all mine we decided to stay and expand. 

good luck.

Thanks for the reply.....base options are pretty upgraded as it seems with this builder.  I'll try to upgrade a list in the next day or two after I do some more research.  Higher basement ceiling is interesting.  Are you talking 9', 10' more?  

Outlets in the roof soffits sounds so simple and convenient....that sounds like a must.  

Kitchen needs to be big, have 5 kids and need the room.

 

[jb1020]

 

[gangrenengold]

Once work starts, be around to chat up the various crews, offer them a beer or soda get to know them and ask questions. Get their phone #s, you might want them to do additional private work for you down the road. If you're cool to these guys they ll give you extra things free or try to do a better job.

I love this....it's like brown nosing the teacher for a better grade.  Everyone likes bribes right?  I've done much manual labor in my days and always appreciated a client who went an extra step for me, whether that was offering a soda, or baking some cookies.  Thanks.

 

[RC94]

- if you're in a snow-ice region, while pouring driveway/front walkway, might as well throw coils underneath to heat them. Never shovel again 

 

[gangrenengold]

My wife and I just spent months trying to do this.

We had a specific plot of land in mind, so we were looking at someone to come in and build there, not to join one of those new developer neighborhoods.

We looked both at the developers who do those neighborhoods, but having them build for us on our plot of land, and also custom builders.  The developers were much cheaper.  We worried that it meant cheaper materials but it didn't really seem that way.  One in particular had a great reputation and a million great reviews.  And our realtor, who wanted to sell us a house where he would make a much better commission (he would only get the commission on the land if we built) was very forthcoming that they were very reputable.

The main downside to the the developer in this case is that they had a set of floorplans to pick from.  You could make modifications (make this room 100sqft bigger, add a 3rd car garage, we want a bigger deck, etc), but you can't just give them a list of wants and have them design a house that meets it all.  In general a few of the floorplans were pretty close to what we wanted (I guess our tastes are modern), but it still wouldn't be that "F this let's just build a house so we can literally get every little thing we want".

For that, we'd have to either use a custom builder or have the floor plan drawn up by an architect, at which point the developer said they would look at it and see if it's something they could do.  The architect fee was estimated around $20k.

With a custom builder, the design was mostly included so you lose that architect fee, but the prices elsewhere are generally higher by a good amount.  The main advantage there is that you're working directly with the guy building your house, and most custom builders work on referrals so he's probably going to want to keep you pretty happy.  With the developer your point of contact is a salesperson and they may have 200 houses being built at the same time.

In the end, we ended up skipping it because we worried about resale value.  The developer houses end up affordable because they're on these tiny plots of land cut out from a usually affordable big land purchase.  In our case, the lot we wanted to build on would cost us $200k.  The lots they typically build on are worth about $50k.  So basically their pricing was to take the price they would normally sell a floorplan for and subtract $50k out since we already owned the land.  But that left us coming out somewhere around $135/sqft for our final cost and homes in the area we were looking to build seemed to be selling more in the $90-$110/sqft range.

It's still something I'd like to do some day, but I think we'll wait to do it with our final home where we're not worried about resale value and budget and are willing to pay more to just get exactly what we want.  Dilly dallying with pre-set floorplans that were kinda sorta what we were looking for to land at the top of the price/sqft range for the area just didn't seem like the right move for us. 

This is very helpful....I do have a piece of land that I'm interested and can bring my own builder to it.  But I would really like to see what the home would be worth once it's built.  I'm not made of money so I really do want to consider this as an investment as well.  I'm meeting with the builder again tomorrow to ask a lot more quesitons.  Thanks.

 

[gangrenengold]

- great call on lots of outdoor outlets for the Xmas lights

- central air 

- big island in kitchen. Can't be too big. Main congregating space for your whole house

- open kitchen into family room

- generous sized mud room. A feature that makes life easier every single day

- finished basement

- if you're in a snow-ice region, while pouring driveway/front walkway, might as well throw coils underneath to heat them. Never shovel again 

- 3 car garage and definitely multiple car width driveway. Our long, one car width driveway is a PIA always moving cars in and out 

- run tons of thick tubing/piping for AV/HDMI/etc cables anywhere you have a TV. Consider a single cabinet in your basement that all your first floor TVs run down to, so that you don't need any cable boxes anywhere on the first floor, just nice clean TV hanging on a blank wall. For the same reason have outlets installed midwall anywhere you'd hang a TV

- 2nd floor laundry 

- lots of windows, and big windows. You can't put a price on natural light in a living space. 

This is making me want to move again. 

Otis - You nailed a lot of what we are looking for.  Coils under the driveway is something i never thought of.  Assume this is a little pricey to do, I don't mind getting the shovel out in the wintertime, (I refuse to get a snowblower) but it would be awfully nice sitting back with a coffee in the morning watching the neighbors take care of their driveways while mine just melts away.

 

[gangrenengold]

When going through with the builder and thinking of things to upgrade, I would encourage you to upgrade things that you wouldn't be able to do yourself.

Also, see if the builder will work deals with upgrades. We got $35k in upgrades for half price. Worse thing they can say is no, so it doesn't hurt to ask.

Definitely walk through the house frequently during building to make sure everything is correct. Much easier to fix things before they get too far.

These are great tips.  Thank you.

 

[gangrenengold]

 You want a custom home,  but don't want to use an architect. 

I went into the wrong field. 

If you're going to get pick a non-custom cookie cutter builder house... why not just buy an existing home and spare yourself the pain of construction? Serious question.

All of the homes that are currently available don't meet what we are looking for.  I'm ok with a cookie cutter floor plan if it meets my needs.  There will not be a need to get an architect involved, I can draw up the floorplans if needed.  The homes that I've found that meet my criteria are either 20-30 years old and need new windoows, roofs, etc or are out of my price range.

 

[coyote5]

- great call on lots of outdoor outlets for the Xmas lights

A few other must haves on my wish list:

- butlers pantry with wine fridge and plenty of cabinets

- central air 

- big island in kitchen. Can't be too big. Main congregating space for your whole house

- open kitchen into family room

- generous sized mud room. A feature that makes life easier every single day

- finished basement

- if you're in a snow-ice region, while pouring driveway/front walkway, might as well throw coils underneath to heat them. Never shovel again 

- covered porch out front and in back. Cannot have enough outdoor sittin/drinkin/smokin spots

- multiple fireplaces

- 3 car garage and definitely multiple car width driveway. Our long, one car width driveway is a PIA always moving cars in and out 

- run tons of thick tubing/piping for AV/HDMI/etc cables anywhere you have a TV. Consider a single cabinet in your basement that all your first floor TVs run down to, so that you don't need any cable boxes anywhere on the first floor, just nice clean TV hanging on a blank wall. For the same reason have outlets installed midwall anywhere you'd hang a TV

- 2nd floor laundry 

- whole house vacuum system. 

- lots of windows, and big windows. You can't put a price on natural light in a living space. 

This is making me want to move again. 

Good call on the central air.  I bought a car recently and my wish list included power windows and locks!

 

[Otis]

Good call on the central air.  I bought a car recently and my wish list included power windows and locks!

First house my wife or I ever lived in with central air was the current house we bought two years ago.  I guess it's an old house thing. 

 

[RokNRole]

Hidden panic room.

As opposed to well displayed one?

 

[El Floppo]

All of the homes that are currently available don't meet what we are looking for.  I'm ok with a cookie cutter floor plan if it meets my needs.  There will not be a need to get an architect involved, I can draw up the floorplans if needed.  The homes that I've found that meet my criteria are either 20-30 years old and need new windoows, roofs, etc or are out of my price range.

I wonder if lawyers, doctors and other licensed professionals run into this... I'm sure they must.

good luck with the house selection... exciting stuff for you guys. (no schtick).

 

[El Floppo]

For us, we looked into the cookie cutter floor plans and there was one that we really liked.  Some of the things I wanted was the finished basement, 2nd floor laundry, large master bedroom, open kitchen floor plan, three car (in our case tandem) garage so I could turn one section into a wood shop.  The developer gave us a morning room free and finished the basement for free.  That little perk saved us about 30K.  We were able to choose custom adds as well that made the cookie cutter floor plan unique to us.  I'm sure there are a couple out there exactly like ours, but maybe not.  I added a service door from the back tandem garage to the back yard for ease of moving stuff in and out if the front garage was used for parking, and also for dog entrance during rainy/muddy type days.  (still working out the details on that plan)

We were also able to choose our cabinets, countertops, carpet, flooring, etc, and it made the home "ours".  We met with a security company that added some features to the house that are just nice to have.  Surround sound in the basement for the big screen, internet ports in selected locations for hard wire access to internet.  Basically, we have a central hub for electronics.  I don't know enough about that stuff to really say how much I will use it, but for the cost, there didn't seem to be any real downside on the resale value.  Yeah, you can find houses on the market that are close to what you want and then add projects, but I bet you won't start with 50K equity, unless you put that much down in advance.  Not to mention the cost of the projects you need to do to make it right.  Building right now when the market for these kinds of houses is strong means you can see  nice increase.  I could close next friday, turn around and sell it on saturday and I would net about 20K over what my downpayment was.  

That's not to say I don't have any projects in mind to do already.  I do.  I saved several thousand by having them just install a 3X3 deck instead of the standard 12X14 because I know that is a project I want to do myself and personalize.  (apparently having a deck is a requirement in our city)  There are a few other smaller things that we felt we could do ourselves that we didn't feel the need to overpay for like chair rails, backsplash, and things like that, but those are pretty easy, fairly low dollar projects.  

For us, the building process was not a hassle at all.  It was actually quite fun and we loved driving by and watching the house go up over the past 7 months.  It was fun and exciting and knowing we were with a quality builder just made us feel that much better.  I own a house 10 minutes south of where we are building, and have a lease contract signed to rent it out as soon as we move out.  

Finally, the biggest reason why I decided to go with new construction was because the last two houses I have bought aftermarket have had issues that made me feel like I inherited problems that the previous owner knowingly covered up.  My basic mistrust of home sellers forevermore added to our need to expand to accommodate twins coming in a month was all I needed to make the decision.  We found what we wanted and what we liked, and we did it.  It is less than a year since we bought our current house, and the developers had no problem getting us into the new construction.  

thanks for the reply. 

pro of architect... getting exactly what you want, distinct to your own way of living.

negatives... scarves, and the architet's fee. of course- architects also act as a means of checks and balances with the contractor... so often act to save the client money that they didn't know was savable if just going with a builder.

I guess when people talk about custom- they're talking about "new". the customized stuff being described sounds more like accessories than making any real adjustments to how the house lays out specific to your needs. and yeah- I get the appeal of not having to inherit existing problems from an previously lived in house. of course, I've also heard of problems with some of these newly built builder/developer houses (cheaping out on infrastructural things). 

 

[Coeur de Lion]

We built our house 3 years ago.

When going through with the builder and thinking of things to upgrade, I would encourage you to upgrade things that you wouldn't be able to do yourself.

Also, see if the builder will work deals with upgrades. We got $35k in upgrades for half price. Worse thing they can say is no, so it doesn't hurt to ask.

Definitely walk through the house frequently during building to make sure everything is correct. Much easier to fix things before they get too far.

We built 2 years ago -- the bolded are both particularly awesome advice.

Also, be very choosy when picking a builder. Research, check references, etc. The experience that we had with an experienced, reputable, and established 2nd generation local guy vs. the nightmares that some of our friends have gone through with slightly cheaper companies are night and day.

 

[James Daulton]

I wonder if lawyers, doctors and other licensed professionals run into this... I'm sure they must.

good luck with the house selection... exciting stuff for you guys. (no schtick).

I think just architects and realtors. 

 

[RC94]

Otis - You nailed a lot of what we are looking for.  Coils under the driveway is something i never thought of.  Assume this is a little pricey to do, I don't mind getting the shovel out in the wintertime, (I refuse to get a snowblower) but it would be awfully nice sitting back with a coffee in the morning watching the neighbors take care of their driveways while mine just melts away.

I am not sure how much it will cost you since it will probably partially depend on how big your driveway is, but over time it would pay for itself.  Considering the time and effort it would take for you to do it yourself or the money it costs to pay someone to do it, IMO the heated driveway is worth it.  On the other hand, you said you have kids and as my father always said - the reason he had kids is so he had someone to do things like mow the lawn and shovel the driveway.

 

[Caesar]

thanks for the reply. 

pro of architect... getting exactly what you want, distinct to your own way of living.

negatives... scarves, and the architet's fee. of course- architects also act as a means of checks and balances with the contractor... so often act to save the client money that they didn't know was savable if just going with a builder.

I guess when people talk about custom- they're talking about "new". the customized stuff being described sounds more like accessories than making any real adjustments to how the house lays out specific to your needs. and yeah- I get the appeal of not having to inherit existing problems from an previously lived in house. of course, I've also heard of problems with some of these newly built builder/developer houses (cheaping out on infrastructural things). 

My brother is an architect here in the area, and I have discussed things with him as the process has moved along as well as sending him pictures as the house was being built.  He gave a few tips and things to check to make sure were being done correctly.

Residential is not where he focuses his efforts now, and he has a family of his own, so I didn't want to impose.  He is very busy.  I can barely get our families together for dinner, but he has helped out just in making us feel comfortable with the process as it has happened.  

That being said, if he had designed my house, I think I would have ended up with more of what he wants than what my wife and I want, so this was likely the better course for us.  

 

[Mr. Ected]

Otis - You nailed a lot of what we are looking for.  Coils under the driveway is something i never thought of.  Assume this is a little pricey to do, I don't mind getting the shovel out in the wintertime, (I refuse to get a snowblower) but it would be awfully nice sitting back with a coffee in the morning watching the neighbors take care of their driveways while mine just melts away.

I am not sure how much it will cost you since it will probably partially depend on how big your driveway is, but over time it would pay for itself.  Considering the time and effort it would take for you to do it yourself or the money it costs to pay someone to do it, IMO the heated driveway is worth it.  On the other hand, you said you have kids and as my father always said - the reason he had kids is so he had someone to do things like mow the lawn and shovel the driveway.

I wonder if the coils would be something better for an area that doesn't get tons of snow; how well do they work when you are getting an inch an hour or more?

 

[Mario Kart]

Yes, North of Milwaukee, WI.  Can you give me more background on geothermal?  Costs? 

I'm in your area. Not many people do it up here or st least it is not advertised by many. I went to the home show and asked people about it there and they either didn't know about it or poo-pooed the idea. Overall it costs, depending on the size, 15-30k but on a new build it may be cheaper cause wires and stuff are not having to be worried about and other things. Everyone around here wants you to buy a water heater and stuff like that. Geothermal is all about using water/steam in pipes to heat/cool your place hear round. I think for a new build it is an easy decision, if you can afford it. I'd build a smaller  house to add geothermal into it. 

 

[El Floppo]

I think just architects and realtors. 

I said "professionals"

 

[Otis]

I wonder if the coils would be something better for an area that doesn't get tons of snow; how well do they work when you are getting an inch an hour or more?

I think the point is you just flip the switch on before the precip starts falling. It raises the temp to just sufficiently above freezing that nothing ever sticks. I always pay guys to do our drive and walk these days and I imagine I'd save a pretty penny doing this, but to have to dig up what's there and install it would be pricey. 

 

[James Daulton]

I said "professionals"

Oh yea, apologies realtors for lumping you in with architects.

 

[Johnny Rock]

I have geothermal and you need to find a legit company with experience. I'd have to look at the numbers but I think it was about $30,000 extra. I have forced air and radiant floor heat, plus heat the garage floor too. It doesn't save as much on the bills as I'd like but still love it. Don't waste your money heating the driveway unless there's a cost effective option I've never heard of. I live in MN.

9' ceilings including the basement was a must have. 

I have outlets in the outside soffits, but it's tricky because you want a roofline with at least a 6/12 or 8/12 pitch which makes it harder to do lights. 

Try to do a one-time close loan that converts a construction loan to permanent for less fees. 

I have a million things to add but where do I stop? 

 

[El Floppo]

I have geothermal and you need to find a legit company with experience. I'd have to look at the numbers but I think it was about $30,000 extra. I have forced air and radiant floor heat, plus heat the garage floor too. It doesn't save as much on the bills as I'd like but still love it. Don't waste your money heating the driveway unless there's a cost effective option I've never heard of. I live in MN.

9' ceilings including the basement was a must have. 

I have outlets in the outside soffits, but it's tricky because you want a roofline with at least a 6/12 or 8/12 pitch which makes it harder to do lights. 

Try to do a one-time close loan that converts a construction loan to permanent for less fees. 

I have a million things to add but where do I stop? 

who said you had to?  

 

[Colts Win]

Bump.

 

[Buttonhook]

I can respond to a few things:

Geothermal:  Based on my experience with friends that have installed...  Upfront costs are steep.  The increase in the monthly electric bill (mostly to run the pumps) is generally equal to the amount you save in the heating bill.  So kind of a lose-lose situation.  Until they come up with more efficient systems I would only consider this on a high-end house where going GREEN can be a selling point.

Driveway snowmelt system:  You shouldn't have to flip a switch - the better systems include surface sensors that turn the heat on when precipitation on the surface is identified.  They can easily handle 1" of snow per hour.  But it's more extensive than just running some pipes under the driveway.  You need a boiler to run the system, so if your current house heating system will utilize a boiler than you likely just need to upsize your boiler, but any other heating system will require a separate boiler just for the snowmelt system.  Also, unless the contractor takes special precautions during construction, differential settlement at the interface between the heated and non-heated surface often occurs, requiring repair or reconstruction.  Much like geothermal, I would only consider this on a high-end house.  

If I could design a house from scratch, I would definitely include a docking station for all of the hand-held electronic crap we need to plug in.  A convenient place in the house with plenty of electrical sockets, USB ports, etc. and a sliding door/pantry to hid it all.   

 

[massraider]

If I could design a house from scratch, I would definitely include a docking station for all of the hand-held electronic crap we need to plug in.  A convenient place in the house with plenty of electrical sockets, USB ports, etc. and a sliding door/pantry to hid it all.   

When we were designing a restaurant, the one idea I had that everyone listened to was installing USB ports along the banquette wall.  

Super easy/cheap/convenient.  

Have one in the kitchen, living room, and an office if you have one.

 

[El Floppo]

When we were designing a restaurant, the one idea I had that everyone listened to was installing USB ports along the banquette wall.  

Super easy/cheap/convenient.  

Have one in the kitchen, living room, and an office if you have one.

it's amazing how long it's taken for the standard manufacturers of outlets and coverplates to get on board with this.

totally agree with all of you guys- this should be a standard thing near bed-side tables, kitchens, home-offices/libraries, etc.

 

[massraider]

One general thing that I would say about building a house is that thinking about resale value is important.   

My stapfather is a GC, and my mom is a RE broker, and it's amazing, in listening to them, how much people agree on things they don't like in homes.  I am sure this is different in other parts of the country, so I won't get into specifics too much as I wouldn't want to steer anyone wrong, but a good example is: Hot tubs.  My first thought is that a deck amd a hot tub off the back of the house is good for the value, but it's not.  People get skeeved out by your hot tub, and stary thinking the whole place is dirty.  Hot tub will lower a resale value.  

Younger homeowners/first time buyers, a big trend has been smaller homes.  My younger brother has been designing his home with his new wife, and it's surprising how conservative they are, in terms of size (''What do I need with all these rooms?'').   

Open floor plans on the first floor are very popular, who knows if that will seem like a dated trend, but that's what people want now.  

 

[lumpy19]

I can respond to a few things:

Geothermal:  Based on my experience with friends that have installed...  Upfront costs are steep.  The increase in the monthly electric bill (mostly to run the pumps) is generally equal to the amount you save in the heating bill.  So kind of a lose-lose situation.  Until they come up with more efficient systems I would only consider this on a high-end house where going GREEN can be a selling point.

Driveway snowmelt system:  You shouldn't have to flip a switch - the better systems include surface sensors that turn the heat on when precipitation on the surface is identified.  They can easily handle 1" of snow per hour.  But it's more extensive than just running some pipes under the driveway.  You need a boiler to run the system, so if your current house heating system will utilize a boiler than you likely just need to upsize your boiler, but any other heating system will require a separate boiler just for the snowmelt system.  Also, unless the contractor takes special precautions during construction, differential settlement at the interface between the heated and non-heated surface often occurs, requiring repair or reconstruction.  Much like geothermal, I would only consider this on a high-end house.  

If I could design a house from scratch, I would definitely include a docking station for all of the hand-held electronic crap we need to plug in.  A convenient place in the house with plenty of electrical sockets, USB ports, etc. and a sliding door/pantry to hid it all.   

The only driveway system I've seen ran copper under the driveway, no boiler needed.