Think about your garage size. If you are someone who owns or thinks they may own a large pickup, suburban, etc, increase the size of your garage. Think about where the stairs in your garage lead into your home as it may take length away from you parking a vehicle. Larger and longer garage is always do able and worth the money. Larger vehicles will have to be placed in at a diagonal and will take room from your third stall. Also a huge benefit if you are someone who has toys such as boats etc.
Building a New House
- Thread starter djcubby
- Start date
A lot of cities don't allow drains in the garage anymore. I asked when I bought my current house and the builder told me they cannot put them in because people were pouring oil and other chemicals down the drain vs. proper disposal.
When my parents were looking at building new vs remodeling they were told the same thing. I think one builder mentioned that they had been able to get away with having a drain that simply exited out the side wall of the foundation onto the lawn like a downspout would.
Don't do geothermal unless you plan to stay a looong time. It takes quite a while to break even on that.
A lot depends on what you want to spend. I'll share some things that I like in the house we built that was around $250k. If you are a building a $800k house, I would say just add gold to everything I noted below.
We built two years ago and one of the main things I wish we had did differently is make the laundry room larger. It is the entrance to the garage from the kitchen and when the kids are trying to get their shoes on in the morning to leave or coming home with everybody it is a cluster. We put roll-out trays in the larger base cabinets and I like those. I also have a small 9" cabinet next to the oven that is used for cookie trays. Think about where your trash can will go and consider if you can give up a base cabinet to use for a roll-out trash can. Also, soft close cabinet drawers and doors are very nice. Especially with kids.
We have a wetbar in the basement and we decided to put a full size fridge down there instead of an under the counter fridge. The extra fridge space when you are having people over is great. Or when you are smoking and need a spot to keep lots of rubbed meat overnight.
I am super paranoid about water so we had them put in a water-powered back-up pump. If the electricity goes out, it will work as long as you still have municipal water. With these, you don't have to worry about checking the battery. I'm glad we did this, because I hear the sump pump running all the time. I kinda wish I would have added a second sump pump pit that left the house through different pipes.
We also added a back-flow valve to the sewer line so you don't have to worry about sewer back-ups.
We also added a patio slab at the bottom of the deck stairs. I like having the deck and the patio. I wish I would have added another light outside the patio door, though. They only put one out there and I wish there was one on both sides of the deck.
I would also suggest looking for home websites with message boards. Lots of threads like this with other people building or have built and I remember getting ideas from those sites.
Make sure to leave room in the bedroom for a sex swing.
We built two years ago and one of the main things I wish we had did differently is make the laundry room larger. It is the entrance to the garage from the kitchen and when the kids are trying to get their shoes on in the morning to leave or coming home with everybody it is a cluster. We put roll-out trays in the larger base cabinets and I like those. I also have a small 9" cabinet next to the oven that is used for cookie trays. Think about where your trash can will go and consider if you can give up a base cabinet to use for a roll-out trash can. Also, soft close cabinet drawers and doors are very nice. Especially with kids.
We have a wetbar in the basement and we decided to put a full size fridge down there instead of an under the counter fridge. The extra fridge space when you are having people over is great. Or when you are smoking and need a spot to keep lots of rubbed meat overnight.
I am super paranoid about water so we had them put in a water-powered back-up pump. If the electricity goes out, it will work as long as you still have municipal water. With these, you don't have to worry about checking the battery. I'm glad we did this, because I hear the sump pump running all the time. I kinda wish I would have added a second sump pump pit that left the house through different pipes.
We also added a back-flow valve to the sewer line so you don't have to worry about sewer back-ups.
We also added a patio slab at the bottom of the deck stairs. I like having the deck and the patio. I wish I would have added another light outside the patio door, though. They only put one out there and I wish there was one on both sides of the deck.
I would also suggest looking for home websites with message boards. Lots of threads like this with other people building or have built and I remember getting ideas from those sites.
Make sure to leave room in the bedroom for a sex swing.
as to the bolded - we too liked the idea of the roll-outs. Our builder pointed out that they add an extra step every time you go in them and are more likely to break/have stuff fall off or get stuck. Do big drawers
Soft close is pretty neat
Gardenweb has a pretty good building forum.
if you build an $800k house, please do a special brick pizza oven. Saw that in a similarly priced house and that seemed awesome.
We didn't build our first house, bought a new one but we are well aware of what we will want in our second house if we do go with a builder.
No sliding glass doors. French doors or anything else.
We settled for a two car garage cause we liked the house so much. Don't do it. Make it 3 if building.
Don't go cheap on a glass shower door if you have a nice tiled shower. We have a nice tiled shower...and just an awful glass door we spent part of our "builder allowance" on after moving in. 800 bucks for total flimsy metal frame crap. Impossible to keep clean as well and rusts. Go frameless all glass...way easier to clean and looks 100000x times better. We are going to replace ours soon.
Huge mudroom like already mentioned. Can never have too many coat hangers or place to throw your shoes and other crap. Wish ours was twice the size. Not a fan of the laundry in the mudroom when entering house though, especially in 2 story houses.
Id sacrifice space in our finished basement for a bigger family room on our main floor. Just don't use the basement as nearly much as we thought we would. I know this can really vary from person to person, some people love and use their finish basements all the time, but I'm guessing there are a lot of people like us that eventually just fill it up with a bunch of crap and don't use it much.
Really wish we had a dedicated room for an office on main floor as well.
If the house isn't all hardwood and will have carpet in either the bedrooms or family room or whatever, go with nicer carpet and not the cheap crap builders put in most houses you see. I know there is a lot of anti carpet people altogether, but its nice when you have toddlers or babies.
Whole house humidifier.
/first world problems
No sliding glass doors. French doors or anything else.
We settled for a two car garage cause we liked the house so much. Don't do it. Make it 3 if building.
Don't go cheap on a glass shower door if you have a nice tiled shower. We have a nice tiled shower...and just an awful glass door we spent part of our "builder allowance" on after moving in. 800 bucks for total flimsy metal frame crap. Impossible to keep clean as well and rusts. Go frameless all glass...way easier to clean and looks 100000x times better. We are going to replace ours soon.
Huge mudroom like already mentioned. Can never have too many coat hangers or place to throw your shoes and other crap. Wish ours was twice the size. Not a fan of the laundry in the mudroom when entering house though, especially in 2 story houses.
Id sacrifice space in our finished basement for a bigger family room on our main floor. Just don't use the basement as nearly much as we thought we would. I know this can really vary from person to person, some people love and use their finish basements all the time, but I'm guessing there are a lot of people like us that eventually just fill it up with a bunch of crap and don't use it much.
Really wish we had a dedicated room for an office on main floor as well.
If the house isn't all hardwood and will have carpet in either the bedrooms or family room or whatever, go with nicer carpet and not the cheap crap builders put in most houses you see. I know there is a lot of anti carpet people altogether, but its nice when you have toddlers or babies.
Whole house humidifier.
/first world problems
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Pull a ****load of Cat6 and coax and speaker cable. I'd homerun it all to a central equipment closet. Multiple runs to every room.
Wire surround speakers in rooms that you'd want a TV in. Wire is cheap, especially when there's no drywall to screw around with.
Wire surround speakers in rooms that you'd want a TV in. Wire is cheap, especially when there's no drywall to screw around with.
Not a feature, but take pictures as they are building the house before they put up the drywall. It's nice to have a record of where stuff is ran through the walls and what the framing looks like in case you ever need to remodel or to tear into the walls.
Have them run sewage and water lines in your basement to a spot in case you ever think you are going to finish it and put in a downstairs bathroom. Much cheaper than tearing up the floor
Have them run sewage and water lines in your basement to a spot in case you ever think you are going to finish it and put in a downstairs bathroom. Much cheaper than tearing up the floor
This definitely, I have a Yukon and barely can get it in the garage. Make extra space, you can't really have too much especially if you throw in a work bench, a big mower, fridge, etc.
Are at-grade walk-in garages allowed these days? When my folks built theirs a dozen years ago, I thought getting rid of the two steps up into the house from the garage was maybe the best idea ever, but I have been told since that they are often not allowed by code--something to do with carbon monoxide risk.
Up until this moment I've never questioned why attached garages usually have stairs going into the house
If you do much outdoors or even have kids in sports consider a basement entry from the garage that leads right to a bathroom/laundry area. My neighbors built a new house a few years back and did this and it is great for them with chore clothes to have a separate entry/bathroom/laundry without having to track through the house.
If you have an irrigation system, make a rough draft where all of the pipes run throughout your yard. There is absolutely no way to know where they are once the scar marks heal and it's a pain in the butt in the future when you want to plant trees, or do landscaping. Also, if you even have problems with a line leaking in the future, you may do a heck of a lot of digging before you even find where the pipes are.
We have been seeing a lot of at grade garages. Most are for retirees or people with disabilities. I think the key is having a good slope towards the garage doors.
Thanks for all of the tips guys. For those asking, no, we are not building an $800k house. If we were, I would definitely have a secret room for a safe room/gun room, a built in keg-aerator in the basement, and would probably have to go with the brick oven for pizzas, as well. :smile:
I'm telling you, that pizza oven was nice. Actually, we saw that at a Parade of Homes house. I would definitely recommend going to one even if you have your builder picked and have seen a lot of houses because you house shopped for several months like we did. It's good to see what is going on currently vs. homes built 5, 10, 15+ years ago. Can also get good ideas on what type of cabinetry, flooring, and layout type stuff you like. We weren't 100% set on our builder yet and seeing some of the "best" work by other builders gave us good direction on who we'd like to talk to further or didn't have any interest in. I'll never forget the one that had random brushes of paint on the entry wall as you came in - clearly a mistake and chipped paint/drywall in several areas. I mean, just a very obviously rushed and poor job. I thought if they can't put any attention to detail in the house that is supposed to be their best foot forward.........I don't want to know how they'd handle my home!
I'd say be prepared for 20% but 10% is more likely and the next person I hear say that they built their house for the bid number will be the first.
I've moved into two brand new homes (though we didn't build them ourselves as you're doing) and one thing we failed to consider is utilities. If possible, get CenturyLink and Mediacom lines run from their respective boxes to your house and buried before sod is laid. Even though you likely won't be using both services at least the lines will be there for later if/when you decide to switch and they won't have to come back and cut through your yard someday.
