Custom Home - Must Haves?

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

In the process of designing a custom home and shop. Trying to think of anything we've missed in the design aspect before we finalize.

Is there anything yall wish you had at your current place? Anything that's not thought of normally but comes in handy often?

A couple things Ive thought of:

• Wire house panel to be able to tie in a portable generator for freezers
• Prewire for internet to most rooms. Hookups for wall mounted TV's
• Run gas to the patio
• While we're at it run gas & structured wire to shop for shits & gigs. Water is a must.
• Large garage to fit full size vehicles easily
• Storage, where to put gunsafe etc, im not sure, WIC maybe? Built in?
• eave outlets for christmas and patio lights
• Vaulted living ceiling in case I ever get a monster elk

Interested to see if there are any cool ideas out there.

Thank yall

For brand new home, I would install an off grid solar array and batteries big enough to run your refrigeration and well pump for emergencies and SHTF scenario. If you go this route make sure to look into the EMP hardened hardware from places like Practical Preppers.

 

[Jimbuck]

Lots of great advice on this thread. Just a few thoughts- If your running utilities to the garage I'd bury empty conduit from the house to your termination point in the garage. Then in the future you could easilly pull fiber or cat 6 for internet and cameras if that's a thought down the road. Also if you can, I'd recommend installing conduit inside the house for a lot of your drops to the various rooms for cable, internet etc. I'm in the process of upgrading my home network and it's been a total pain fishing wiring to all the termination points in the house.

 

[bsnedeker]

Cable? Cat6? What decade are we planning to live in?

Just kidding! Network cable to extend a wifi-connection out to the garage is a good idea.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Button]

I put a 220v outlet in the garage to use my mig welder until the shop is built. I guess it could double as an electric car charger if we were to ever get one.
The pantry is big 9’x7.5’ with some custom shelving and a few outlets.
Master bath has a big tub.
Master closet is quite large.
Our back porch will be very easy to frame out and make it a sunroom/green room/whatever room down the road.
The attic is very large, and the load bearing beams/walls are in position and strong enough to support an extra room if we wanted to frame one out someday.
House will be finished and ready to move in by July. Before we move in I’m going to epoxy paint the garage floor.
We are on our own water well, I’ll be building a well house around it this summer.

 

[balkodd]

In the process of designing a custom home and shop. Trying to think of anything we've missed in the design aspect before we finalize.

Is there anything yall wish you had at your current place? Anything that's not thought of normally but comes in handy often?

A couple things Ive thought of:

• Wire house panel to be able to tie in a portable generator for freezers
• Prewire for internet to most rooms. Hookups for wall mounted TV's
• Run gas to the patio
• While we're at it run gas & structured wire to shop for shits & gigs. Water is a must.
• Large garage to fit full size vehicles easily
• Storage, where to put gunsafe etc, im not sure, WIC maybe? Built in?
• eave outlets for christmas and patio lights
• Vaulted living ceiling in case I ever get a monster elk

Interested to see if there are any cool ideas out there.

Thank yall

Lots and lots of outlets. Put them in closets above your cabinets, etc. I’ve never heard someone say that they wish they hadn’t put so many outlets in.

 

[PaulBunyun]

For those mentioning epoxy coating the garage slab, what product do you use?

 

[HunterEldridge]

damn good info in this thread.

 

[Yellowknife]

Just moved into the house build I was working WAY back when this thread started. It generally turned out awesome.





Two regrets:

I didn't pay enough attention to the plumbers and they used a 1" trunk and branch system for the hot water distribution. Under a slab. Hot water took forever, and I had to install a recirc system using the cold water pipe which isn't ideal. A home run system or a dedicated recirc line would have solved that neatly, but is the kind of thing you have to specify.

Outlets in the closets. EVERYTHING is cordless now, so charger outlets in the closets would have been far more useful than extra outlets in the halls. Also gives you a place to plug in stuff like wireless routers, etc. I did add desk level outlets in the office, and those are handy.


Stuff I don't regret.

- Using a small general contractor that was dedicated to the project. We finished two weeks ahead of schedule (5.5 months under construction), and on budget. That is extremely rare in the current building environment.

- deep (2x8) walls with a blown in dense pack insulation. Cuts the wind noise down and makes for a very stable indoor temperature. It's not as flashy as something like a kitchen or bath upgrade, but you only get the chance to do it once.

- Triple pane windows. Same comments as above.

- Radiant heat. Slab on grade has drawbacks for the other mechanical systems, but it's pretty nice for heat.

- HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilator). With a tight house in a northern climate, these are really nice. Because of my home design, I used a ductless system built by Lunos. Jury is still out on ducted vs ductless, but so far so good.

- Single story. I don't miss stairs at all.

 

[Clarktar]

Just moved into the house build I was working WAY back when this thread started. It generally turned out awesome.


View attachment 396606


Two regrets:

I didn't pay enough attention to the plumbers and they used a 1" trunk and branch system for the hot water distribution. Under a slab. Hot water took forever, and I had to install a recirc system using the cold water pipe which isn't ideal. A home run system or a dedicated recirc line would have solved that neatly, but is the kind of thing you have to specify.

Outlets in the closets. EVERYTHING is cordless now, so charger outlets in the closets would have been far more useful than extra outlets in the halls. Also gives you a place to plug in stuff like wireless routers, etc. I did add desk level outlets in the office, and those are handy.


Stuff I don't regret.

- Using a small general contractor that was dedicated to the project. We finished two weeks ahead of schedule (5.5 months under construction), and on budget. That is extremely rare in the current building environment.

- deep (2x8) walls with a blown in dense pack insulation. Cuts the wind noise down and makes for a very stable indoor temperature. It's not as flashy as something like a kitchen or bath upgrade, but you only get the chance to do it once.

- Triple pane windows. Same comments as above.

- Radiant heat. Slab on grade has drawbacks for the other mechanical systems, but it's pretty nice for heat.

- HRV (Heat Recovery Ventilator). With a tight house in a northern climate, these are really nice. Because of my home design, I used a ductless system built by Lunos. Jury is still out on ducted vs ductless, but so far so good.

- Single story. I don't miss stairs at all.

Congrats!! I hope in a year we are breaking ground. Lots to get done before then.

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[ShortMountain91]

Just finished GCing mine also and thought this thread was super helpful during the process. I also thought yellowknifes post outlining the regrets / non regrets would be great for others so thought I might throw in mine as well.

Regrets:

- Wish I would have put in a man door on my garage. Use the garage as my primary entery and exit and have to open a garage door every time.
- Wish I would've went bigger on garage. Measure you biggest truck and add 6 ft in all directions
- Live in the southeast and got talked out of a dual fuel heat pump due to cost and with some of the unusually cold days we had this winter, I was really wishing I had the option to switch to gas.
- Putting in nest thermostats. Started making my reversing valve go crazy. Switched to Ecobees and so far so good with those.
- If money wasn't an option I would've really liked to make the master closet with concrete walls and steel door essentially making it a safe room / storm shelter
- Not doing this sooner

Not regrets but things I didn't fully know the downsides when I did them:

- Spray foam insulating the crawlspace apparently makes it where pest control companies won't warranty for termites. We pre treated the foundation and did bait stations after grading but there was no damage warranty included. They said you could still get the termite warranty if you left the last block (8 in) unfoamed but when most of the crawlspace is only 3 block high that's 1/3 of the space your missing the insulation / benefit
- Contracting the project myself took way more of a toll than I expected. Everyone warned me but it really was hell for several months. That said it does indeed save you a s*!t ton of money.

No regrets:

- Standing seam metal roof. Expensive but beautiful and will last a lifetime
- I was very pleased with the spray foam insulation and crawlspace encapsulation. I do think the 2x8 walls with blown in that yellowknife did is also an interesting and probably very effective option also and I guarantee it made his windows look good.
- Extra concrete and rebar in the footer. Cheapest insurance you'll ever buy
- Got talked into more lighting and they're right, you can not have too much
- Paying extra for contractors with known reputations. Had an amazing framer and finish carpenter. Great luck with all my other trades also except painter and HVAC guy.
- Working with Farm credit / rural 1st on financing. Can't say enough good about their operation and the only ones who were really comfortable with me managing my own build
- Home run pex water system. Love being able to control all the fixtures from one place and getting hot water quicky
- Gutter pop ups in the yard
- Finishing out space over garage on the front end. Framer talked me into this (and yes he got paid by the square ft) and yeah it's not cheap, but it'll never be cheaper than when you are first building

Hope this helps someone in the future and glad to see all these fine Americans living the dream!

 

[Yellowknife]

- Paying extra for contractors with known reputations. Had an amazing framer and finish carpenter. Great luck with all my other trades also except painter and HVAC guy.

Can't stress this enough. Low bid will cost you money (and frustration) in the long run with a custom build. Paying for the guy that shows up on schedule and does the job right the first time will save the most in the end.

Yk

 

[wymtnpounder]

Any other ideas, or updates? We're doing ICF with a walk out basement.

 

[dtrkyman]

Garage bigger than the house!

 

[GSPHUNTER]

If at all possible, add man door from house to garage.

 

[NeHunter13]

Any other ideas, or updates? We're doing ICF with a walk out basement.

Love to see this! I have plans drawn for a house using ICF. They are a superior product but if you're planning to use them, you already know that.

 

[nobody]

Any other ideas, or updates? We're doing ICF with a walk out basement.

I’m positive I’m in the minority here, but be VERY careful with ICF. We are currently working on an extremely high profile job in Salt Lake City, installing huge amounts of stone on an ICF structure that a huge local company formed and poured. I’ve NEVER seen walls so out of plumb or crooked in my life. There is one wall that’s 6” out of plumb in 18 feet of vertical. The waterproofing membranes won’t adhere appropriately to the wall, and it took forever to cure, none of the corners are square, and the insulation is crumbling away. The owner has now stated that, no matter how energy efficient ICF is on paper, they’ll never use it again. I tend to agree with them, I’ll likely never use it either after watching the nightmare of this job. Some of the issues can surely be tied to poor install, but some of them seem to be inherent to the materials.

If you do go that direction, you need to vet the installer EXTREMELY well. And even then, I wouldn’t go above foundation with it. Like I said, I acknowledge I’m in the minority, but it only took me one building to write the whole system off as a gimmick. YMMV.

 

[doc holiday13]

Has anyone mentioned having a fold away water spigot over their stove area? The correct terminology would be "pot filler"

 

[Q child]

I'd install a hot water hose bib on the outside of the house if I were starting from scratch.

 

[doc holiday13]

Cable? Cat6? What decade are we planning to live in?

Just kidding! Network cable to extend a wifi-connection out to the garage is a good idea.

There is sufficient evidence coming out that constant WiFi exposure ain't good for ya

My next house will be getting CAT6 run all through it so I can hard wire most connections. I'll have WiFi limited to specific rooms and using Faraday Blankets to block it from getting beyond the specified areas.
Currently I have my WiFi programmed to turn off and on at certain points in the day

 

[backyardbandit]

Has anyone mentioned having a fold away water spigot over their stove area? The correct terminology would be "pot filler"

I know 2 people that have them that have caused a TON of damage by leaking. I'll stick to filling my pots in the sink after their nightmares.

My dream home will have a urinal somewhere in it!