Also, put switches next to the master bed for both interior and exterior lights.
My father built a box around the bathtub and routed hot air from the furnace through it. The tub was always warm in the winter, and the hot water stayed hot longer. He also put a register in the master bathroom ceiling that blew hot air directly onto the mirror so it wouldn’t fog up.
A friend put individual shutoff valves on hot & cold water to each room from the utility room in the basement (there were still shutoffs at each appliance, sink, toilet…). It was basically a central breaker panel, but for water. This way, if you needed to work on the bathroom, or if you broke a shutoff valve, you could turn off that room from the basement without having to shut off the whole house. Very, very handy, but it did require some extra piping from the basement.
Make sure to plan a place for your TV set that won’t have glare problems from outside windows and fixed-location lights.
Put a four-outlet box (dual duplex) where you expect the entertainment center to be, and put it on its own 20 amp circuit. Ditto where you expect your main computer center to be.
When you think the kitchen has enough lighting, add some more.
Put a hose bib and external power on every side of the house.
WHY do people build detached garages on new houses? I will never understand this.
If you live in an area with snow:
[ul]
[li]Make sure the roof won’t dump snow on the front steps, where it will pack and freeze[/li][li]Use screws, not nails, on outside decks. Nails will pop and catch the snow shovel.[/li][li]Make sure your front walkway is SMOOTH so you can shovel it.[/li][/ul]
Under? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Did you mean over, or do people really spend the money to excavate under the garage and create a super-reinforced ceiling/floor?
I see a lot of people suggesting this, but it seems like a waste of money to me. Make sure there’s cabling to a central location where you can put the wireless router. Why hard-wire all over the house? Cabling is expensive and clutters up the room. A lot of my Internet-ready devices don’t even have Ethernet ports–they’re wireless only!
Perhaps but then one could make the same comment about Contractors. But good Contractors and good Architects realize the value of the other. I have worked with some excellent General Contractors and together we have saved the client lots of time and money, and I have worked with bad General Contractors that have cost my client lots of money. A successful project is only as good as the people involved and someone who comes out of the gate with a negative attitude is only going to get worse in my opinion. There are enough real issues on any construction project without the GC telling the client that the Architect doesn’t know what he is talking about, or the Architect telling the client that the GC is trying to rip him off, etc. There indeed may be a time to have that conversation and I have had my share of those conversations with my client. But until a Contractor demonstrates that he doesn’t have my clients best interest in mind I tend to give him the respect that his position calls for. It just makes for a better working environment in my opinion, but I am not hesitant to call anyone out on poor construction or any other behavior that isn’t in my clients best interest.
As for the 10% increase in construction cost, probably about right, maybe even a bit more to be honest. A house is a very unique thing to design, very personal and will require a lot of time to get what you want. I always have found it interesting that people are willing to fork over 6% when they sell their home but want to have someone design it for nothing. You get what you pay for in my opinion. I am very good at my job and feel I save my clients at least my fee if not more, but more importantly I also give them the house they want. If you want a generic house that sort of fits your life, buy a spec home or a generic house plan. If you want a custom home that truly meets your needs, then you will need to spend the money and hire an Architect.
Uh…no.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:42, topic:571983”]
WHY do people build detached garages on new houses? I will never understand this.
[/QUOTE]
Really? I love that about this current house. We have a detached garage that has a covered breezeway to the house that is part of a big deck on the back of the house. I personally don’t like the visual of a garage as it tends to overpower the house–so it is nice that it is pulled a bit away from the actual house itself.
The big advantage is when it is raining and I want to grille. I just position the grill on the deck just past the breezeway and I can cook to my hearts content without getting wet.
Everyone who has seen our house loves the breezeway. I am curious as to what don’t you like about the detached garage?
Exposure to the elements and a longer walk. There are ways to minimize those two inconveniences, to be sure.
I live in Atlanta and love detached garages, but I can completely understand why some people wouldn’t.
I have done some remodeling on my house, so here is my list.
During construction.
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Take pictures lots of pictures.
I put extra phone wires with out puttting in phone outlets on every wall. I moved my desk. Got out the pictures figured where the wire ended. put a hole in the wall pulled out wire added new phone outlet. -
Put in extra outlets. In each room add more outlets than required by code. It is nice not using extension cords. In the kitchen code was every 6 feet mine are under 4 some 2. Also many are 4-plex outlets. And every now and then I wish I had put in more.
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Descide how long you are going to live there. If the rest of your life when looking for appliance descide what you want then look at the price. My wife’s kitchen the double oven was the only step down we made. A 33 cu ft cost double a 30 ft. If you are goin gto live with it a long time get the best and have no regrets.
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Do not put in a built in micro wave oven If you have a problem with it late the replacements will have to fit the same. Include a space off the counter for the micro wave.
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Before designing go shopping for any future appliances and get their measurements. When doing the kitchen we were not ready for a new frig. But we looked and new ones. Took the measurements, and built the space for the frig to a new unit.
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Where the frig goes bring the counters out on either side. Most kitchens the frig stickes out past the counters. In our kitchen it is a straight line from the counter across the frig and on to the oven. It is a cleaan look.
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If you are building two story put in two AC/furnace units. Trying to ballance the load and temps is so much easier. Also before starting to build have the AC contractor look over the plans to offer suggestions on how it should be done.
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Pre wire Put in alarm, phone, TV, speaker, and computer wires through out the house. They do not have to be connected but there incase you change the use of a room.
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Consider putting in a control wire If you ever want to automate anything it will be easier.
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Either go with instant hot water systems near the use points or put in a hot water circulating system When doing the kitchen I put in a three pipe domestic water system. Hot, cold, and return to water heater. Also I automated the pump. The time clock turns it on about 15 minutes before my wife gets up in the morning, and goes off about an hour later. I also put a button in each bathroom and kitchen. Push the button and the pump turns on for an hour. In one minute we have hot water at the sinks or baths. No more running 2.5 gallons of water before getting hot water.
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Skylights are nice. I have 4 in the family room. Two we can open. We went with hand crank but you can get motorizes.
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On cieling lights use three wire conductors If you add cieling fans with a light then it is possable to switch lthe fans on and off without having to use the pull chain. And you can also put in a speed control switch.
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**Get good windows ** Our contractor on the family room helped keep the price down. He found a supplier with a lower cost. We are considering replacing the windows with new.
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Thinkn about the future Kids get oldler and a cute kids room may be hated by a teenager. Also as a person gets older some joints get weaker. WE have a two story and my knees are going.
15 Going back to the outlet thing. Conside putting outlets in the middle of the floor of large rooms. Our family room is on a slab floor I put two outlets in the floor. The couch does not go against the walls and it is nice to have a lamp near the couch with no cord draped across the floor to the wall.
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Be sure you and your wife are always on the same page about any design issues My wife made a coment about kitchen cabinets going all the way to the cieling being hard to reach. But she did not like the space above the cabinets being open to collect junk and dirt. I lowered the kitchen cieling 8 inches. Left it open in the center. Put lights in the center figuring on putting a lens over the light fixtures. The lights are in a recessed area of 7 ft by 12 ft. When I went to design the lens she hits me with the lens has to be one piece no cross pieces in the middle. for 17 years we have not been able to come up with a buildable lens that she will approve. I am now tearing out the lights and doing something different. And she now says she wished the cabinets went all the way to the cieling so she could have the extra storage. It was just the open space above the cabinets she did not want. That would have been so much easier in the first place.
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I am going to put this down twice take pictures during construction I wish I had a picture where the wires run from the light switches to the kitchen lights now. I did not take enough pictures.
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Be aware of you childs sensitivites Noise level of appliances, tatilness of floors and walls. Make sure you design people are aware of them. Talk with your childs teacher. This point comes from my wife who works in special ed.
Some thing I forgot.
19 Put in a biger electrical panel then recomended The bigger the better it leaves room for changes. On new I would not consider putting less than a 200 amp main.
- It is normal to put lights on 15 amp circuits don’t You are building one home it will not cost much more put everything on a 20 amp circuit and only use 12/2 with ground wire. The more is maybe $200 but problably less than $100
BTW, I hate those powder rooms/half baths that people have just off the foyer or the living room. I don’t like the idea that whatever noises I make in there can be heard by everyone in the living room. So I’d like it if it were possible to soundproof that room (perhaps by insulating the interior walls).
And I’d like to be able to watch TV in the living room while cooking. So if I could do it, I’d turn the stove around so that I can look past it at the flat-screen TV in the family room.
This is very good advice. In fact the guy who helped me design the kitchen first question was have you aligned up the devorce attorneys yet?
We had no problems. When she complained about washing dishes in the bath tub I would sweetly ask how she liked her old kitchen. The other thing was she picked what she wanted and if it could be done she got it. After all she is a great cook and it was her kitchen. We really made only one compromise. That was trhe size of the double oven.
We have a flat screen hanging on the wall fo her kitchen.
[ul]
[li]Since it’s 20 feet from the house, I can’t run heating/cooling to it easily.[/li][li]Having to walk outside and open two different doors while carrying groceries–especially when it’s below zero and there’s two feet of snow on the ground.[/li][li]Can’t run hot water out there, and can’t install a water heater because the garage freezes in the winter.[/li][li]It’s farther from the car to the house when carrying something heavy.[/li][li]More external walls to paint/maintain.[/li][li]The inconvenience of having to go outside in rainy/snowy/cold weather to get a tool from the garage.[/li][li]The useless strip of land between the house and the garage (we already have a lovely deck in back - I don’t need another one in front between the house and garage).[/li][/ul]
My current home is the first I’ve lived in with a separate garage, and it’s less efficient and more annoying in pretty much every way. I can see doing it after the fact when you’re adding a garage to a house that didn’t have one, or maybe doing it if you live somewhere that doesn’t get cold, rain, or snow. But even then, why design your home to make you walk farther on purpose?
True. Unfortunately too many “architects” essentially pass off tweaked generic plans as custom architecture, telling people that a “custom” house means the owners get to pick out tile patterns and such.
My own prejudices are as follows:
Metal roof, steeply pitched
Forced-air heat, gas if possible
6-inch walls, with copious insulation
No chimneys penetrating the roof
Deep layer of gravel and at least two layers of plastic sheet under the basement floor
Separate plumbing for foundation drains and downspouts
Electrical outlets about every four feet
No concrete block construction
Hardwood floors
You do not want torch-down roofing or “mopped-in” gutters (when they leak, your roof rots). Nor do you want your foundation drains and downspouts to share plumbing (take all the water from your roof and route it into your basement? What a great idea!).
It has always bugged me that so much of a house is done in 14 gauge, 15 amp circuits. On a couple of occasions I had the opportunity and the sore temptation to go with 12 & 20 but I chickened out and just replaced like with like (I did upgrade the kitchen to 12/20 though). My question:
Is price the only reason to go with 14 gauge? Or is there some other virtue about the lower amp service and less robust wire? Someone…please stop me from doing everything in 12 gauge!
As a contractor, I think the stupidest item clients try to skimp on is design. If you give me a complete set of plans and specifications, I’ll give you a price. If you give me something off the internet, or that was drawn up for you by a buddy for free, you’re going to get a guess at best. If you come to me with a survey, benchmarks, soils tests, utilities locates, etc, I can give you a bid or estimate that will be within a few percent at most of the actual cost.
Furthermore, realize that the $1200 cabinet upgrade you’ve decided you really want doesn’t exist in a vacuum. You’ve likely by that point made other changes that added to the cost of the project. It’s all too easy to forget/ignore the cumulative nature of these until the final bill, and then the shit hits the fan. If you want/need to stick to a budget, get full plans/specs, and carefully consider any changes.
Lots of other good advice upthread.
So the collecive Doper built home would have heavy duty high powered in conduit wiring. With electrical sockets and switchs every couple feet inside and out. Future proofed precabled comication systems and lots of lights.
His was a a great thread. Highly informative and fun to read.
It seems he electricity was brought up the most.
You forgot the roof-mounted machine guns and lock-down shutters on all the windows.
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:42, topic:571983”]
Under? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Did you mean over, or do people really spend the money to excavate under the garage and create a super-reinforced ceiling/floor?
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, under. It is not common, but there are a few homes around here with that feature.
Poured concrete basement with a ‘lip’ at the top. Then a crane drops in steel reinforced concrete panels. Then a couple inches of concrete over that, and then some nice textured no-slip epoxy garage floor paint.
Folks use the space for storage, exercise room, golf cart/lawn mower garage (if house is built on a slope), or a home theater. The weight of even an SUV divided down into pounds per square foot (example, 5000lb/132 sq.ft.= 40lb.sq.ft. which is a typical snow load to design for) is not excessive. If you were nervous about that, a wall down the center would increase the load bearing capability by a factor of 4.
It is really cheap square footage to add to a house. You are looking at the increment over the footing under the garage you would be doing anyhow, and the cost of the precast reinforced slabs. Mostly, this space is below grade, so not much impact to your HVAC calculations.
How is that different from basement space? It sounds like the same thing.