Building a house : must haves

[76aggie]

Amazing how many of these ideas are virtually the same as mine. Wife and I just met with an architect to get our plans drawn up for our retirement house. Told him I wanted an area to put a gun safe out of sight and he brought up combining that room with a steel tornado shelter. Back porch never needs to face west or north. I bought my property with this in mind. Hose bibs on all sides of the house. You can never have too many electrical plugs. Four car oversized garage with enclosed storage room on one side. Stairwell in garage to access storage over the garage. I'm too old for those stupid pull down stairs now. Single story. No formal dining room. Two living areas; his and hers. Wet bar in my living room. Large additional closet for my hunting junk. Cooking area on back porch. Ceiling fans throughout. When I move from this last house it will be into a pine box.
Foam insulation. Tankless hot water heater.

[Mike D]

CAT6 is a communications line for data (internet). Since so many people are going to streaming services, it is wise to run one to every tv location in the house and to anywhere you plan to have a computer. I'm sure someone will tell you that everything is going wireless, and they're not wrong. However, a hard wired connection is always better than wireless and it won't cost you much during construction. There is also a chance of a bunch of wireless signals causing interference with each other thus distorting a signal.







Those cost savings usually come with a rider that says they won't cover hail damage...

Or that is has to be so many dents of a certain size or it’s considered cosmetic and not covered. So if you get a decent hail storm your awesome metal roof will look like a hail damaged car.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[BrianL]

Batt insulation and solid core doors in ALL walls around master bedroom and media room. Dual stage HVAC.

[35remington]

If you do 2x6 walls around master bedroom, offset the studs. 1 one side 1 other. This will help tremendously on sound as it cannot transmit straight thru wall. You can even go farther and get rubber dampers for the studs to isolate drywall.

I do not understand this. Can you unpack?

[TN_boy]

I do not understand this. Can you unpack?

First, minimize sound bridges. Sound travels through solid materials more readily than through air and soft materials. One approach is to reframe the wall with staggered studs, using 2×6 bottom and top plates and 2×4 studs set in an offset pattern. The studs supporting the drywall on one side of the wall are separate from the studs supporting the drywall on the other side. You can take this a step further by replacing the top and bottom plates with steel track, which will help reduce the sound transfer between materials.

[junkmanhunter]

We are going spray foam and metal roof. The windows will be pretty energy efficient, if we get what our builder has told us.

What brand window are they using? There are a lot of builder grade that they tell you is the best. Check with builder and see if the frames are filled with foam?

[junkmanhunter]

What's the purpose for a faucet above the stove?

Pot filler when cooking

these are all great recommendations and I second them. Additionally i'd build a storage room/closet somewhere that you can store a fully decorated christmas tree in. after the presents are unwrapped you simply slide that baby into the closet and close the door until next year.

Wife has one of those built in the house we are starting next month

I am getting ready to start a build within 30 days.

A few must haves wife and I came up with.

We made the garage an extra 6’ deeper than normal, you won’t regret it.
Garage doors will be 8’ tall openings instead of standard 7’
Wife wanted a Xmas tree room to store a decorated tree in.
All exterior doors going into house are either 42” or 48” wide. Old age thinking
Exterior bathroom with shower
Electrical plugs and water faucet outlets everywhere outside
In restrooms and kitchen we are putting elec outlets in some of the drawers, wife wants to keep hair dryer and such plugged in and able to keep in drawer hidden. (Tell your wife to look them up on Pinterest). Ones in kitchen are to charge phones and IPads.
Safe room. The cost is minimal in the big scheme of things mine is 12’x12’


I’m sure there is more but those were must haves for us.

Congrats on the new house and good luck with the process.

[Roscoe]

I put stairs in my garage to access the attic. Now the wife can run up there to get stuff. Well worth the little space it takes up in the garage. No more pull downs...

My aunt & uncle did this in their home they built a couple years ago. It’s freaking fantastic.

They went with a metal roof and spray foamed the attic also. . It’s unbelievable how comfortable their attic is midday during summer.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Black Ice]

I went with the dual tank/pump/timer setup and it’s been great.

I installed a 22kw Generac propane powered generator with whole house ATS and a separate panel and distributed 40 circuits throughout the house and shop. That generator will supply about 90 amps so I was able to put all lights, one A/C unit, water well, septic, a few receptacles, a couple of kitchen circuits and a few other things on it. They sell them at Home Depot it if you’re in one of the larger metro areas generator superstore has them and will be better versed in what would work for you.

CAT6 hardwire means to run a CAT6 cable to all locations in the house where you want to take advantage of the full speed capabilities of your internet. There can be a substantial speed loss using WiFi. Since we use streaming for our TVs I put a CAT6 drop at every TV location as well as in my home office.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

I did the same thing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[30-30]

Electric ceiling heater/fan above the toilet, with switches on the wall next to the toilet.

[IOWA BOW HUNTER]

Lights in the attic! Never again will I live in a house without installing lights in the attic...

[35remington]

First, minimize sound bridges. Sound travels through solid materials more readily than through air and soft materials. One approach is to reframe the wall with staggered studs, using 2×6 bottom and top plates and 2×4 studs set in an offset pattern. The studs supporting the drywall on one side of the wall are separate from the studs supporting the drywall on the other side. You can take this a step further by replacing the top and bottom plates with steel track, which will help reduce the sound transfer between materials.

That's awesome. Thank you for explaining.

[35remington]

I have one suggestion and one question.

Suggestion. Insulate the roof such that your attic is part of the conditioned space instead of subject to giant temperature swings.

Question: You guys with safe rooms: do you have HVAC in them?

[rtp]

Plywood behind sheetrock, in rooms you want to hang heads in.

When you get through adding up all the suggestions, your house is going to cost $1.25 million.

Probably more....

[Still Hunter]

Might be a repeat,


Add three 4" conduits across and underneath your driveway for future needs before they pour and mark the spot ( lighting? Sprinkler system? etc)

Add a switch for outside receptacles underneath the eaves for Xmas lights
Install 3 way and 4 ways switches for exterior lighting at the front door, back door and master bedroom so you can light up the exterior of the house at any time from any exterior door or your master bedroom. (Security and you can see them running away for better shot placement)

Add a switch at each exterior door and stub a circuit out to a PVC J-box for exterior lighting Trees/decorative/or security needs
Stub out power for a future shed