Home Build Advice

[CaptainDave]

Many great suggestions thus far. There's really tons of things and some is just personal preference, etc.

- Outlets as stated. Can't have enough. All walls, any place close to possible TV mounts, floor by couches, mantels, stairway, hallways, outside under soffit for Xmas lights, back porch, front porch, etc. Basically anywhere you think you would ever need power without needing a cord stretched across the room.

- Larger garage if possible even if you don't have a lot of tools. Being able to park inside garage nightly is really nice too. Wider driveway as well. Add 3 feet to whatever you think is enough.

- Plumb in hot/cold water and electric to back porch if you ever may consider an outdoor area. It's much cheaper to rough in anything like this during a build, than later on.

- Large walk-in shower for master as well as separate closet for toilet. Large soaking type tubs are appealing, but rarely get used. Just make the master shower larger.

- plenty of storage areas up and downstairs; the less you need to store in the attic, the better

- If you are planning on living there a while, spray foam insulation

[RWB]

Plumb an outside house bib with hot water supply.
Also think ahead about water softner placement and possible ice machine.
If you think you may do a pool someday have it wired from the start same for generator.
Hire a contractor that you DONT like from the beginning, that way when it's done your feelings for them will not have changed.

[huntingarcher]

You will have to build the same house 3 times before you get it right.

[Paycheck]

we built our house about 10 years ago. I did not want the master bedroom on the west side of the house because of the heat. and I wanted the back porch on the south east side to get a good breeze. The master is on the west and the porch is on the north east. I wish I would have insisted.

[chehunt]

It sucks and won't be perfect. If its a mid to big size house with tall ceilings, go with 8' interior doors. Just personal preference, but I think looks a lot better.

[tpack]

The main thing is to stay within your budget. Things like a bigger garage and a bigger patio will add up pretty quick but now is the time to do it. Two years ago when we signed our contract with our builder the garage was 40 psf. above the allotted sf. and the patio was 30 psf. above the allotted sf. which was pretty liberal. Those two items ran us about 17,000 extra from day 1(most of it was the patio). I would get as much driveway and sidewalks as I could afford. Mine was 4200 sf. for driveway and sidewalks. Spend it where you will use it the most. Do not buy property that you have to build with the back of the house facing the evening sun(west). Good luck.

[sendit]

Since I am getting older everyday and had the pleasure of taking care of my father before he passed I quickly learned to appreciate ADA requirements. Every door other than the pantry is 36" wide, hallway is 48" wide and we made our master shower wheelchair friendly.

I may be the odd man out but I am not a porch dweller and don't understand the giant porches of todays home. Have seen a house here with more porch space than living space.

[kmitchl]

Spend a lot of time reviewing the plans. Look at door swing and drawer opening.

If you are going for an open plan where the family room and kitchen are together be aware that someone getting ice or washing dishes drowns out the tv.

Use frost proof hose bibs. No worries when you get a freeze.

Locate your air handler to provide good access for maintenance. I located the ac outside unit near the master bedroom. If it hiccups in the middle of the night I wake up. Some people don’t want the hear it. pour the pad for the outside unit when you pour the slab but don’t connect it to the slab.

Select your exhaust hood and make sure space is allowed for the duct. Ours required an 8” duct for 600 cfm.

We located light switches in closets, etc. inside the closet and used motion switches to turn on the lights.

If you are doing surround sound make sure the receiver is no more than 50’ from the tv/ projector.

Have all your appliances selected and purchased befor the cabinet guy starts. Assemble a binder with all of the installation dimensions and give to the cabinet guy. Have lots of pictures of the cabinets and trim you want. If you want some deep drawers to store specific items spell that out. Cabinet guys like to build stacks of three drawers all the same. Soft close drawer slides are about $20/pr. Standard drawer slides are about $4/pr.

Pre-wire for any in cabinet lights and under cabinet lighting.

[Barrett]

Many great suggestions thus far. There's really tons of things and some is just personal preference, etc.

- Outlets as stated. Can't have enough. All walls, any place close to possible TV mounts, floor by couches, mantels, stairway, hallways, outside under soffit for Xmas lights, back porch, front porch, etc. Basically anywhere you think you would ever need power without needing a cord stretched across the room.

- Larger garage if possible even if you don't have a lot of tools. Being able to park inside garage nightly is really nice too. Wider driveway as well. Add 3 feet to whatever you think is enough.

- Plumb in hot/cold water and electric to back porch if you ever may consider an outdoor area. It's much cheaper to rough in anything like this during a build, than later on.

- Large walk-in shower for master as well as separate closet for toilet. Large soaking type tubs are appealing, but rarely get used. Just make the master shower larger.

- plenty of storage areas up and downstairs; the less you need to store in the attic, the better

- If you are planning on living there a while, spray foam insulation

We are planning on 7-10 years at least. Why spray foam? Much more expensive? Im guessing its much more efficient?

[Barrett]

Just got home from the ranch and look a look at all these great tips. I sure do appreciate all of your advice. Now time to write some of this all down. Thanks again

[Jon B]

We are planning on 7-10 years at least. Why spray foam? Much more expensive? Im guessing its much more efficient?

I bit the bullet and bought the spray foam insulation. My highest electric bill was 170.00. 1800 SQ feet house and 900 SQ feet shop. We like our ac at 67. Worth the money.

[fbchunter]

Spray foam, custom cabinets, no glass in showers, water heater on ground floor, bell bottom piers.

[Danimal14]

Good tips I’ll be building soon too..


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[tps7742]

Take advice respectfully from the builder but at the end of the day “remember he works for you not the other way around”.

[TMC50]

I’m in the process of getting mine built now. It’s on here as “piece of Texas”

I have a lot of porch space. I grew up without a porch and wanted one.

I have a huge car port. I wanted to be able to park and work on whatever I need to.

I put water on all 4 corners.

I think I’m at 50 plugs. Basically 2 on every wall BUT I forgot to put one in the hallway

Huge master bathroom. I wanted my own space!

When you buy tile, account for the cabinets. Our builder didn’t and we have a bunch of tile left, thankfully we can use it where we were going to stain the concrete

We didn’t go fancy or anything but we are getting what we want and anything we added, we paid for out of pocket