Designing/Building a House (1 Viewer)

[SWC]

7.) We have a stupid built in desk in our kitchen, we never use it because it's small, low and useless. If I didn't have legs and a torso it would still be useless but at least I would be able to sit at the desk and not use it for anything. However, at least I could fling my head, neck, arms and hands on it and comfortably gripe about how useless it is there whilst perched on some sort of miniature chair from a kindergarten for torso-less, legless people.

i turned ours into a wine rack when we had the countertops replaced so instead of a low spot now the countertop just runs at one consistent level over the gap where the desk was and i filled that in with the wine rack and it turned out pretty good and then we filled it up i had a heart attack and dont drink no more and so now we dust off the bottles quarterly so your mileage may vary take that to the bank bromigo

 

[SWC]

10.) This one is more philosophical. Our first home you parked your car, opened the garage door, walked through a mud room, then the living room, then you walked through the dining room and then into the kitchen. I passionately hated that design because in the rain, cold, winter, fall you're dragging wet, dirty shoes or leaves or snow through the house and you're constantly cleaning/moping that up or walking on throw rugs. Our current home, you park your car and walk through a mudroom straight into the kitchen - it's perfect.

a lot of people and this is just me talkin take off their shoes in the mud room instead of walking through the rest of the house because you know that is what like mud rooms are for and stuff but again thats just the milwaukee boy in me take that to the bank brohan

 

[Gally]

Ice melt/radiant heat for driveway... If that's a concern.

I want to look into this for sure. I am not sure what kind of grade the driveway will need to have yet but I want to make sure I account for this if I need to. Anybody have any ideas on what this kind of thing costs? Is it a couple K or like $20K? Is it normally done with just a hot water loop under the drive way or some sort of electric coils built in?

I mean I could just invest in a flame thrower and heat that up to melt the ice...take that to the bank brochachos.

 

[STEADYMOBBIN 22]

I admit I am liking that my home has most of these suggestions. The folks that built this home were really into all that and well ahead of their time.

Which brings up something I haven't seen mentioned yet.... house placement. From what I gather, facing south is preferred but ymmv.

Something to think about.

 

[NutterButter]

I love having a ranch with a basement and a gently sloping roof. I do a fair amount of diy home improvement and everything is super accessible.

 

[Gally]

From what I gather, facing south is preferred but ymmv.

I would guess that would depend on your view and what is best for your property. I am sure there is some sun rise/set considerations to some degree. I will have to look into that but not sure how much flexibility there is based on street/lot orientation.

 

[Grahamburn]

Indoor/Outdoor feel is my highest priority. Significant patio under roof so you can basically increase the square footage of the home when the weather permits. Accordion doors. Outdoor kitchen. Pool. Firepit. Huge patio with multiple seating areas. I'd basically design a new house from the outside in.

 

[El Floppo]

From what I gather, facing south is preferred but ymmv.

I would guess that would depend on your view and what is best for your property. I am sure there is some sun rise/set considerations to some degree. I will have to look into that but not sure how much flexibility there is based on street/lot orientation.

South facing gives you passive solar and an overall brighter interior. But yeah... Like having a "flat driveway", it's all about what site you have and what's going to work best for it

 

[wlwiles]

We're currently in the designing phase of a new build as well, so I'm secretly piggybacking on @Gally 's thread here. A couple of things we've talked about putting in ours, or things we've been advised on by our designer:

1. Retractable screens for back porch (mosquitos are terrible here)
2. Electrical outlets EVERYWHERE. All interior walls, outside eaves for Christmas lights, underside of top kitchen cabinets (not on backsplash), pop up outlets in the kitchen island. So many couches are motorized these days we're probably going to put some recessed ones in the living room floor as well.
3. Double-size/industrial size refrigerator
4. Separate ice machine in kitchen or pantry (no more buying bags of ice for parties).
5. Instant/tankless gas water heater
6. Dog shower in your mud room/laundry room
7. CAT6 pre-wired to all rooms
8. Potfiller over your stove
9. Small room off the garage that will be for normal storage, but built with thicker concrete/steel/whatever to be a safe room/storm shelter (we live in tornado country). Have this room wired for TV/radio so can keep up with news/weather when in use.
10. Whole house generator
11. Under and above cabinet lighting on all kitchen cabinets
12. To save a bit of $ - Reduce/minimize the number of outside corners your house/foundation will have. Corners cost the most money, on foundation, framing, gutters, drywall, everything. Rectangular houses look boring, but having little jut-outs everywhere is $$$$.
13. To save a bit of $ - Try to combine and minimize the walls where your water will be run - put bathrooms back to back walls, put laundry room sink on same wall as half bath, etc. A toilet next to the shower is cheaper than across the room from it. Reduced cost for plumber to install, and reduces number of walls you may have to open up later if a leak happens. 4 toilets + bathroom sinks + showers/tubs + laundry sink + stove potfiller + outdoor kitchen sink + ice machine/fridge water line + dog shower = a ton more water connections than you think it'll be.
14. Think hard about your driveway size. Unless you want a driveway wide enough for cars to pass each other on it, anything more than 1-2 ft of space on either side of a single car is just added cost. Designer initially gave us a 16 ft wide driveway, we're cutting it down to 12 ft and I'm thinking hard about 11 ft. But make sure you have enough driveway width at the garage to easily pull in and out. Nobody wants to do a 4 pt turn everytime they pull in or out.
15. If this is going to be your retirement home, plan ahead. If one of you may ever end up wheelchair bound, make sure your doorways are wide enough now to accommodate. Pedestal sinks in bathrooms can accommodate wheelchairs, cabinet mounted sinks can't. (My wife's grandmother lives with us full time so we're planning for all this too). Showers with a small curb or stall/walls vs. bathtub showers, etc.

 

[Gally]

Potfiller over your stove

What is this?

ETA: nevermind. I assume this is a water spout

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Think hard about your driveway size. Unless you want a driveway wide enough for cars to pass each other on it, anything more than 1-2 ft of space on either side of a single car is just added cost. Designer initially gave us a 16 ft wide driveway, we're cutting it down to 12 ft and I'm thinking hard about 11 ft.

I'd be careful with this one. If you need to use a wheelchair or walker, a wider driveway is a good thing.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

5.) Highest elevation you can find in the area you're building in so you don't have to worry about water runoff problems.

The land is sloped front to back. It's a gradual slope but it all goes front to back down to a creek that flows year round at the edge of the property that leads to the lake. It also has varying slopes and gets steeper towards the back of the property as well. The house site is flat enough (I think) that it won't require a stepped floor plan. If it does I plan to do a walk out basement and have the living space on the upper floor with just the basement downstairs. Not quite there on the design part to know for sure.

Friends of mine built a house on land that sloped down to a creek. When it rained extra hard, the water really wanted to go through the house. No amount of moat made any difference. They had built up the land beneath the house, just not enough.

 

[massraider]

Think hard about your driveway size. Unless you want a driveway wide enough for cars to pass each other on it, anything more than 1-2 ft of space on either side of a single car is just added cost. Designer initially gave us a 16 ft wide driveway, we're cutting it down to 12 ft and I'm thinking hard about 11 ft.

I'd be careful with this one. If you need to use a wheelchair or walker, a wider driveway is a good thing.

I'm not building my own home until I have the money to build the dream driveway I've always wanted

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Think hard about your driveway size. Unless you want a driveway wide enough for cars to pass each other on it, anything more than 1-2 ft of space on either side of a single car is just added cost. Designer initially gave us a 16 ft wide driveway, we're cutting it down to 12 ft and I'm thinking hard about 11 ft.

I'd be careful with this one. If you need to use a wheelchair or walker, a wider driveway is a good thing.

I'm not building my own home until I have the money to build the dream driveway I've always wanted

I wouldn't have had an opinion on this one, except that the previous (original) homeowners had the driveway made about 18 inches wider than the standard one. I have no idea why they did it, but we really like it. No more squeezing past cars when we are carrying stuff.

 

[snellman]

Ice melt/radiant heat for driveway... If that's a concern.

ETA... I didn't think you were offended, thanks. just wanted to stop myself from cluttering your thread with snarky comments.

I don't mind the snark. That's one of the benefits of the FFA........hahahaha

Not to hijack, but back in the day when the FFA was more fun it was partly because of the snarky comments and everyone took it lightly like jokes. Much like society, we can't be as snarky anymore because people take to too seriously and get offended easily. Sorry, back to your regularly scheduled program.

 

[massraider]

I wouldn't have had an opinion on this one, except that the previous (original) homeowners had the driveway made about 18 inches wider than the standard one. I have no idea why they did it, but we really like it. No more squeezing past cars when we are carrying stuff.

This ties in with the driveway, but as someone who likes to actually put the car in the garage, I feel like they are commonly much tighter than necessary.

I want to back in when I get home, so I can launch myself out of the garage like I'm driving the Batmobile, and when you only have 2 inches on either side, it sucks

 

[massraider]

Also, considering how everyone requests a booth at the restaurant, shouldn't we see more breakfast nooks? It's always a treat when I see one

 

[stbugs]

Some things I took into considerations that may or may not be normal:

- I had it built into the side of a hill so that you walked into the second level from the front, looked like a one story. Then the first floor opened up to the back yard. That helped with house insulation and privacy for the back yard.

Umm, this is just called a walk out basement. That’s extremely common. When we build our lake house, we’ll have to do this due to the gradual slope of the lot to the lake. It avoids doing lots of grading. Anyway, walk out basements are very common when the property has any type of drop off from the front to back.

 

[wlwiles]

Think hard about your driveway size. Unless you want a driveway wide enough for cars to pass each other on it, anything more than 1-2 ft of space on either side of a single car is just added cost. Designer initially gave us a 16 ft wide driveway, we're cutting it down to 12 ft and I'm thinking hard about 11 ft.

I'd be careful with this one. If you need to use a wheelchair or walker, a wider driveway is a good thing.

Very true…and we are considering that. I should have mentioned though, it’s going to be 30+ something feet wide outside the garage, so plenty of space for loading/unloading next to the house. And in my case, the driveway will be kind of long, so keeping cost in mind - 16 ft wide x ~200 ft long adds up. Narrowing to 12 wide saves 800 sq ft of concrete.

Go as wide as you want, my point mainly was just think about how wide you want it, don’t overlook that detail.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I wouldn't have had an opinion on this one, except that the previous (original) homeowners had the driveway made about 18 inches wider than the standard one. I have no idea why they did it, but we really like it. No more squeezing past cars when we are carrying stuff.

This ties in with the driveway, but as someone who likes to actually put the car in the garage, I feel like they are commonly much tighter than necessary.

I want to back in when I get home, so I can launch myself out of the garage like I'm driving the Batmobile, and when you only have 2 inches on either side, it sucks

We always garage our car. Otherwise, one hailstorm and it's all over. No thanks.

We live on a cul-de-sac. If we launched, we would be in such trouble. There's a planter/island thingie in the middle of the circle.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

I thought of a couple of other things to consider. Make sure you have enough electrical circuit boxes. Installing an extra one is a pain after the fact. Also, you may own an EV in the future. Putting a charging station in now might be worthwhile.

We also have our smoke/carbon monoxide detectors wired into the electrical system. Since we have power walls, they are always powered. No more messing with annoying screaming battery death at 3 AM.

We also have a large swim spa. We didn't really need/want a pool, but the spa is awesome. You may want to leave space for this feature.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

Epoxy garage floors.

Windows with sun protection baked right in. Sort of like this. Your stuff doesn't fade, and it's more energy efficient.

We haven’t done the garage yet, epoxy is a must. And we got those badass windows. They make a huge difference. And they’re soooo noise dampening. It’s so much quieter in the house now.

 

[massraider]

There's a planter/island thingie in the middle of the circle

If you gave it enough gas, I think you could clear that

 

[DA RAIDERS]

Ice melt/radiant heat for driveway... If that's a concern.

ETA... I didn't think you were offended, thanks. just wanted to stop myself from cluttering your thread with snarky comments.

Utter douchnizzles.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Ice melt/radiant heat for driveway... If that's a concern.

ETA... I didn't think you were offended, thanks. just wanted to stop myself from cluttering your thread with snarky comments.

Utter douchnizzles.

The snark is mostly why I come here.

 

[WVU Alum]

Ice melt/radiant heat for driveway... If that's a concern.

ETA... I didn't think you were offended, thanks. just wanted to stop myself from cluttering your thread with snarky comments.

Utter douchnizzles.

The snark is mostly why I come here.

Oh, is it now?

 

[yak651]

As mentioned 3’ wide doors. Ranch layout with 9’ basement walls, ideally walkout but if land doesn’t allow at least half wall in portion for large windows. Even if not planning to finish stub for future bathroom and wet car/kitchen. Vaulted ceilings in main living area, and possibly kitchen. Large enough kitchen for gathering. 3-4 car garage with small garage door access to back yard if layout allows. Large covered back porch for outdoor entertaining, grilling, etc. Let your wife pick bathroom tubs, showers and have her major input on kitchen so you don’t need to remodel these items in 5 years…Metal roof if you plan to be there long term. Wired so you can have generator outside house plug in to run needed items during power outage. Radiant heat garage and basement floors.

 

[El Floppo]

Radiant heat garage and basement floors.

That was all good stuff.

Talk to me about the radiant heated garage... Not something I've done before.

And 3' doors are great. If interested in saving a little and still getting an eventual wheelchair/walker through, 2'-10" work too and are min code for ada (2-8 for pocket door)

 

[yak651]

Basically running pex in the garage area before they pour concrete. This goes to a boiler system that heats the floor in winter. Will keep the garage warm, and is great if you are someone that works in a garage as your feet stay warm. Same thing can be done in the basement. Initially it takes a bit to warm but once it’s to set temp it stays there pretty easily.

 

[El Floppo]

Basically running pex in the garage area before they pour concrete. This goes to a boiler system that heats the floor in winter. Will keep the garage warm, and is great if you are someone that works in a garage as your feet stay warm. Same thing can be done in the basement. Initially it takes a bit to warm but once it’s to set temp it stays there pretty easily.

I've done a number of houses... Never been asked for radiant in the garage. But it makes sense if it's a place that will be actively used for purposes other than parking cars.

Doing a house now on the beach in SoCal with a required 4 car garage, which the owners have said will likely only be 2 in use. So planning the other 2 spaces for "something". It's SoCal though, so even though we're running radiant inside, I doubt we'll need or want the expense out there.

 

[Uruk-Hai]

I'll also back getting manifold plumbing, both for efficiency and peace-of-mind. My father put it in every house he built starting in the 1960s. I'm going to refit the plumbing to this method in the house I'm in now, but have a couple of things ahead of it on the list.

 

[DA RAIDERS]

Basically running pex in the garage area before they pour concrete. This goes to a boiler system that heats the floor in winter. Will keep the garage warm, and is great if you are someone that works in a garage as your feet stay warm. Same thing can be done in the basement. Initially it takes a bit to warm but once it’s to set temp it stays there pretty easily.

I've done a number of houses... Never been asked for radiant in the garage. But it makes sense if it's a place that will be actively used for purposes other than parking cars.

Doing a house now on the beach in SoCal with a required 4 car garage, which the owners have said will likely only be 2 in use. So planning the other 2 spaces for "something". It's SoCal though, so even though we're running radiant inside, I doubt we'll need or want the expense out there.

A y word on whether you’ll be coming out here yet? And I’ll be in nyc 7/14-7/17

 

[El Floppo]

Basically running pex in the garage area before they pour concrete. This goes to a boiler system that heats the floor in winter. Will keep the garage warm, and is great if you are someone that works in a garage as your feet stay warm. Same thing can be done in the basement. Initially it takes a bit to warm but once it’s to set temp it stays there pretty easily.

I've done a number of houses... Never been asked for radiant in the garage. But it makes sense if it's a place that will be actively used for purposes other than parking cars.

Doing a house now on the beach in SoCal with a required 4 car garage, which the owners have said will likely only be 2 in use. So planning the other 2 spaces for "something". It's SoCal though, so even though we're running radiant inside, I doubt we'll need or want the expense out there.

A y word on whether you’ll be coming out here yet? And I’ll be in nyc 7/14-7/17

Construction won't start until probably Thanksgiving or later.

 

[Instinctive]

Keep things simple and maintenance free.

I am all about the maintenance free. I don't want to be overrun with yard work in my retirement years. I hate yardwork. I plan a natural landscape that is zero to low maintenance for sure.

It's part of why I started this thread to take the collective experience of people to learn things I might not even know that I don't know.

We made our useless front yard area into a turfed, surrounded by hollies, awesome patio/living area and it is amazing.

Then we took our stupid pergola thing and tiled over a patio 2x the area, got a real roof, and built an incredible outdoor smoker/grill setup.

if you like hosting and grilling those two things bring me LOTS of joy. And almost no maintenance for a yard that's patio/deck/turf and not plants.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Thought of another possible feature. My parents bought their house in 1974, and it had amazing cupboards in the main bathroom. One wall was a Shaker-style set-up with cupboards top to bottom and side to side. Three quadrants had double doors with shelves inside for blankets, towels, etc. The lower left hand one had one door with no shelving to keep spare pillows in. The other had a laundry chute door with the lower door opening for the hamper beneath. We never ran out of space. It was really nice. It would probably work in a laundry or mud room situation too.

 

[Gally]

Thought of another possible feature. My parents bought their house in 1974, and it had amazing cupboards in the main bathroom. One wall was a Shaker-style set-up with cupboards top to bottom and side to side. Three quadrants had double doors with shelves inside for blankets, towels, etc. The lower left hand one had one door with no shelving to keep spare pillows in. The other had a laundry chute door with the lower door opening for the hamper beneath. We never ran out of space. It was really nice. It would probably work in a laundry or mud room situation too.

Definitely will be planning for lots of storage throughout the house for items you will need near the area for the storage. You can never have enough storage.

 

[the moops]

You can never have enough storage.

Yes you can if that means you are anything like my parents which just means you fill all that storage space with useless crap

 

[Gally]

You can never have enough storage.

Yes you can if that means you are anything like my parents which just means you fill all that storage space with useless crap

I agree but not having enough is a now problem. The too much storage is a then problem for whoever has to clean out your house when you are gone...hahaha

 

[Peggy]

Outdoor power outlets- if you put up Christmas lights, make sure they are up by the soffit.
Hose outlets on all sides of the house
Prewire motion sensor/video camera around the house

YES

Need power and/or Cat 6 for PoE to run video cameras. I was limited to where I had outlets and that caused two cameras to be right next to each other facing different directions. The two like to interfere with each other because of the proximity.

 

[Kanil]

10.) This one is more philosophical. Our first home you parked your car, opened the garage door, walked through a mud room, then the living room, then you walked through the dining room and then into the kitchen. I passionately hated that design because in the rain, cold, winter, fall you're dragging wet, dirty shoes or leaves or snow through the house and you're constantly cleaning/moping that up or walking on throw rugs. Our current home, you park your car and walk through a mudroom straight into the kitchen - it's perfect.

a lot of people and this is just me talkin take off their shoes in the mud room instead of walking through the rest of the house because you know that is what like mud rooms are for and stuff but again thats just the milwaukee boy in me take that to the bank brohan

Agreed. Although OP is probably the type of guy who takes more than one trip to bring in the groceries. I have no polite advice for that type of person.

 

[nirad3]

Thought of another possible feature. My parents bought their house in 1974, and it had amazing cupboards in the main bathroom. One wall was a Shaker-style set-up with cupboards top to bottom and side to side. Three quadrants had double doors with shelves inside for blankets, towels, etc. The lower left hand one had one door with no shelving to keep spare pillows in. The other had a laundry chute door with the lower door opening for the hamper beneath. We never ran out of space. It was really nice. It would probably work in a laundry or mud room situation too.

Our bathrooms have absolutely no room for towel, etc. storage. Hate it. Our vanities have storage underneath but it's barely enough room to put much of anything.... let alone bath towels and cleaning supplies, extra Q-tips, etc. And the house has hardly no storage to begin with. We use the hall closet for food storage because there is no pantry.

I wish we had built-ins in our bathrooms.

 

[Chadstroma]

Thought of another possible feature. My parents bought their house in 1974, and it had amazing cupboards in the main bathroom. One wall was a Shaker-style set-up with cupboards top to bottom and side to side. Three quadrants had double doors with shelves inside for blankets, towels, etc. The lower left hand one had one door with no shelving to keep spare pillows in. The other had a laundry chute door with the lower door opening for the hamper beneath. We never ran out of space. It was really nice. It would probably work in a laundry or mud room situation too.

Our bathrooms have absolutely no room for towel, etc. storage. Hate it. Our vanities have storage underneath but it's barely enough room to put much of anything.... let alone bath towels and cleaning supplies, extra Q-tips, etc. And the house has hardly no storage to begin with. We use the hall closet for food storage because there is no pantry.

I wish we had built-ins in our bathrooms.

Or at least make sure you have space in the bathroom where you can put something. We did that in our second full bathroom as there was some space that we could do that with.... but I would say that usually most bathrooms that have not been designed for it will lack space to out in a cabinet or shelves or whatever.

 

[nirad3]

Thought of another possible feature. My parents bought their house in 1974, and it had amazing cupboards in the main bathroom. One wall was a Shaker-style set-up with cupboards top to bottom and side to side. Three quadrants had double doors with shelves inside for blankets, towels, etc. The lower left hand one had one door with no shelving to keep spare pillows in. The other had a laundry chute door with the lower door opening for the hamper beneath. We never ran out of space. It was really nice. It would probably work in a laundry or mud room situation too.

Our bathrooms have absolutely no room for towel, etc. storage. Hate it. Our vanities have storage underneath but it's barely enough room to put much of anything.... let alone bath towels and cleaning supplies, extra Q-tips, etc. And the house has hardly no storage to begin with. We use the hall closet for food storage because there is no pantry.

I wish we had built-ins in our bathrooms.

Or at least make sure you have space in the bathroom where you can put something. We did that in our second full bathroom as there was some space that we could do that with.... but I would say that usually most bathrooms that have not been designed for it will lack space to out in a cabinet or shelves or whatever.

Yeah our bathrooms are TINY. Tract house in SoCal built in the 60's. I barely have enough room to dry off after a shower. We have a shelf thingy that goes over the toilet in the "master" bath but baskets of makeup and other "girly stuff" take up all the space. We end up putting towels on the top shelf in the master bedroom closet, next to my folded-up jeans (which was a "What's Normal" discussion several months back, I believe).