Custom Home - Must Haves?

[DenverCountryBoy]

Just getting my site county permitted for my forever home on my families ranch. Looking at house plans right now....this thread is a time-saver and in my situation perfect timing and one of the top "man-card" threads on the net right now.

Thought I'd try to help in some way so here's a link to vault doors...Why get a impossible to move heavy safe when you just slap this on a fortified cement walled room.-WW
https://www.sturdysafe.com/products/vault-door

I got that with the extra steel upgrade. Lowered it into the basement before building the upper levels.

 

[Jason__G]

Don't know if this has been mentioned, but a walk-in closet with stacked washer and dryer in the closet. Always seems pointless to carry dirty clothes from the closet to the laundry room, wash them and then carry them back.

 

[Timberline001]

A walk-in gun safe and a cooled butcher room with space to age meat is on my must haves for when I build my house.

 

[tttoadman]

Insulate all the interior walls

Don't have a toilet on an adjoining wall to your living space. nothing cooler than hearing "energize" or even worse listening to a guy take a piss through the wall.

don't be bashful with the smurf tubes in the TV rooms. I know many things are wireless now, but It may still be handy if you are a hardwire guy.

This may be another old thing in the day of wireless. but I ran a four pack of 1 1/2" conduits through a wall from the crawl space to the attic. It was really handy if the need arises to pull power or media wire.

Make sure and run a spare conduit to the shop for all the phone and ?? you may need later.

Ditch the PITA solar for a gate. I sucked it up and ran about 400ft of wire from the house to the gate. It also allowed me to wire a simple door bell button in a handy spot in the house to open the gate for people. It also allows you to push more power out there for some nice lighting or additional security. they still run a battery backup system, so you are still operational with a short power outage.

I will vouch for the heated floor. I did it all myself in our last house and it was really nice.

I love my tankless water heater. They are nice for never ending heat, but they really save space as well.

don't put the walk in master closet(s) in the bathroom like many builders do. Your clothes are actually sitting in a sauna and will get funky from dampness. if possible, make the master closet entry from the bedroom not the bathroom.

look for ways to use nice pocket doors. (not those F'ing barn doors) There are many places that make pocket doors handy and much cleaner looking. I high end open house I just went to had big pocket doors to enter the office. It was a great idea. You really only close up the office doors when people come over. during the majority of the time, the office entry is clean, open, and very nice looking.

don't make a line of sight view into your master bedroom from anywhere in the house. It just needs to have a small turn or corner.

don't put a microwave hood over a gas range. it doesnt like the heat.

be careful putting the safe in the basement. When the rest of the burning house just buries it, it turns your safe into a baked potato. I am too poor to worry too much about it, but a guy in OR this last fall lost a LARGE!!!! amount of cash and collectables after his 4000sq ft cedar house just collapsed on the safe and cooked it for days. I realize it is compromise of security, but I would love to give my safe a fighting chance to keep my paperwork intact.

 

[slim23]

super ideas guys! I will be building this fall

 

[actionshooter]

super ideas guys! I will be building this fall

Sweet! Where at? We are soon also pending dealing with Thurston County

 

[Datslab]

Run your utilities inside of a bigger conduit pipe so if you ever need to repair them you can do so without excavation.

 

[Cody06]

Reviving an old thread that was helpful. Two questions.

1. If you did build a 30’x30’ garage and had two oversized garage doors, what size would you prefer?
To go along with the question is there a “standard oversized” door (10x10x 10x9, 10x8, etc) that would cheaper compared to customizing your own specific door size. For a truck and SUV.

2. What window brands would you chose?


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[VernAK]

Root cellar!

 

[WiscoHoundsman]

Reviving an old thread that was helpful. Two questions.

1. If you did build a 30’x30’ garage and had two oversized garage doors, what size would you prefer?
To go along with the question is there a “standard oversized” door (10x10x 10x9, 10x8, etc) that would cheaper compared to customizing your own specific door size. For a truck and SUV.

2. What window brands would you chose?


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We just built a house last summer and our garage is 44’x30’ we have a 18x8 and a 10x8 with 9 ft ceilings in the garage. The truck fits into the 10x8 just fine and I have a ram 3500 crew cab. I don’t even fold in the mirrors.

windows we did Pella and they are great. We did triple pane as we are on the top of a windy ridge. Not sure if it was worth the money but they are here now. I have also heard great things about Anderson. Price of both of these were similar and expensive.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I didn't read the entire thread but if not mentioned, I would make garage drive thru if possible. A little something for your other half, house vacuum system.

 

[Titan]

For a residential garage door it jumps way up when you hit 20’ wide. 16 to 18 is next to nothing.

commercial is another story. I have a couple 10x10 and 16x14. Fairly reasonable for all sizes and we have extremely high wind loads. Shop around though, large chains were almost double.

we also have pella windows. They are good windows. Choose your panes based on exposure.

for anyone else building, I would recommend watching Matt Risinger on YouTube. Incredible attention to detail for things that really matter. I found it after I built and realize all the crappy things my builder and subs did. Could have been avoided.

 

[Ksfarmer]

I didnt read all the replies, so forgive me if I mention things already mentioned.

Id do a gun/safe room for sure. Half my safe is full of things that dont go boom. If i could do over, id get a vault door.

As your house is being built, and especially after wiring, plumbing, and hvac, take pictures of every wall in your house. I did, and have looked at them many times. Add chase pipes throughout your home from basement to attic, you will use them for something. Put caps on them if they arent in use.

Im a master electrician. If your service is fairly close to the home, easiest way to add generator is at the service. Just have a 200 amp automatic transfer switch put in. That way it powers your whole house and even if its a small gen, you can select what needs to run by flipping breakers so you dont overload gen. I would recommend a 20k watt minimum though. Keep ya warm or cool, live like the power didnt go off almost. Run a gas line to where your generator will set if you get a automatic standby.
Go ahead and have your electrician run at least 2 extra 120 volt circuits in the attic, and some below if a crawlspace. Its way easier and cheaper now then when its finished. If you plan to have a big patio, hot tub, or whatever, i always liked to put a small outdoor sub panel near that area. Everyone i did it for thanked me. If you have a 2nd story, get a sub panel up there also. Theres always stuff being added. Id run coax for tvs, cat 5 doesnt get used much anymore with wireless internet, but I would run about 4-5 cat 5s to shop. U can run about anything on it now. Tv, phone, internet, security. If you do security, hard wire everything. That way you dont have 25 batteries to mess with, and ugly sensors all over every door and window.

Garages/shops are never big enough. Ive never heard anyone say i wish my shop/garage was smaller. I hear shoulda made it bigger ALL the time. Make your mud/laundry room huge. I wish i had put alot more thought into mine. So does the mrs! If you do a shop, do 2×6 stud walls vs insulated pole barn. You can insulate so much better, and easier to utilize walls. I did insulated red iron. I regret it. Buddy did stud wall with 1 inch closed cell spray foam and batt insulation. He can heat his 40x60 with 2 small electric heaters!

Dont put your hvac unit in the attic or crawlspace. Its just a bad idea for alot of reasons.

I hate my giant tile shower. Looks great, pain in ths butt to keep it that way. Id do solid surface if i could do over. Its so much easier.

Consider sprayfoam. Its higher priced upfront but well worth it. At least a 1 inch layer of closed cell at minimum. Will make your home airtight.

If you have a firepit, run a gas line to it. You will use it more if its not a hassle. Im a fan of wood, but the smoke and hassle gets old.

Think thru your downspouts and any underground lines to get the water away from your house. If you have a basement, dont dump the gutter beside your house.

Put in plenty of sump pumps. 1 is not enough! If you do a basement and can do a walk out with natural drains, id be all over it vs a basement on flat ground. Still do sumps if its a natural drain. Shit happens.

From a contractors point of view, think it all thru and have a plan down to the last detail. Before work begins, meet with your builder and figure it out. Go over things ur not sure of before work begins. Go look at other peoples houses. Spend some time on this, the whole expeirience will be much better for you and contractors. It will cost you time and money if you cant answer questions timely, delay work, or are constantly changing things. Be open to suggestions from contractors. Sometimes good ideas pop up. There may be 10 dumb ideas before a good one. That 1 good idea may be one of the things you enjoy the most. The better you communicate your vision/expectations before work, the more focused and practical the ideas are. The cheapest bid isnt always the best. Ive watched people go thru hell and back from choosin the cheap guy. Not always, but it happens alot. Alot of times the cheap guy is just as much as the guys who really know how to bid a job. Do your homework before selecting a builder.
Good luck!!

 

[Pinewood]

a lot to unpack here very good suggestions. i was thinking 26’ garage bays but i may need to reconsider. why WIC outlets?

Build things like garages, and the rest of the house in units of 4, saves on material. A 29' space would leave wasted plywood.

 

[Pinewood]

An large percentage of these comments can be summed up as "bigger, taller, wider, more rooms!" Almost every person I knew that has built a custom house has suffered from this exact scope creep and the subsequent budget creep. Some could afford it more than others.

I'm looking at another house build right now myself and at least trying to go in the opposite direct. If we build again, we will focus on a more efficient space and try to drop the finished sq footage by 10% or more. We long ago nicknamed our current house "Basecamp", and use it as a launching pad for our many family outdoor activities. Extra space tends to collect clutter, mud, and kid detritus and takes time to keep clean and money to maintain. If there is a trail to be found, I don't want to be wasting my weekend on chores... and my wife is worse than me.

A mud room though... No getting away from that. Man, we own a lot of boots in this family.

I love this post. I manage custom home builds for a living and one thing I see over and over again is people letting the designer cost them a bunch of extra money for things and square footage they will never need. It makes much more sense to build efficient homes with better quality components than just building large for the sake of the it. All that extra space is space that needs to be cleaned and maintained. I think the sweet spot is 23-2800sq. ft for a family of 4. I do agree going bigger on a garage if not having a separate shop.

 

[Yellowknife]

I love this post. I manage custom home builds for a living and one thing I see over and over again is people letting the designer cost them a bunch of extra money for things and square footage they will never need. It makes much more sense to build efficient homes with better quality components than just building large for the sake of the it. All that extra space is space that needs to be cleaned and maintained. I think the sweet spot is 23-2800sq. ft for a family of 4. I do agree going bigger on a garage if not having a separate shop.

I’ve poured the foundation on my new home since I wrote that post. Framing to start on Monday if all goes well. I unfortunately didn’t end up any smaller…. Gained 100 sq ft actually to 2500 (family of 5). Despite knowing the risk, even I’m not immune to scope creep!

I did put an extra measure of energy efficiency in everything. 2x8 framing with dense pack blown-in fiberglass. Triple pane windows. And a slightly unusual full thermally broken foundation slab.

Shop/garage is going to be detached, but connected via short breezeway. Keeps the smelly stuff out the house.

Yk

 

[Boarmaster]

I would want a large room at the entry From or near the garage that had my washer dryer, freezer, a larger sink and a ton of counter space and cabinets And a half bath. Sort of a pantry/ utility room on steriods. I would use it for everything from storage to making sausage to finishing game processing. I would also want a room with its own hvac and ventilated to the outside for gun storage and cleaning and hunting gear storage. I live in an place that has an obnoxious humid climate 6 months out of the year. Im single so I want all my toys in my house. I dont need a huge master suite but I would want a master suite. I would be good with a couple more smaller bedrooms connected by a full bathroom. A three car garage with enough depth to be able to park a 3/4 ton crewcab with a 7 foot bed and be able to walk all the way around it. 3 bay would be a countered workshop.
I had this discussion with a few friends and they decided I should just live in a climate controlled warehouse with a bedroom and kitchen. As far as resale I could care less as if I had a custom home I would live there until the coroner picked me up so after that its someone else's worry.

 

[cornfedkiller]

And a slightly unusual full thermally broken foundation slab.

Pics?

 

[Yellowknife]

Pics?

My foundation is a poured mono-slab with radiant heat. Not particularly unusual of a design, but I borrowed a detail from the Scandinavians and insulated under the footers as well. In the US that is usually un-insulated and the concrete is in direct ground.

This essentially means that the entire slab (and thus, the house) is floating on a raft of foam. Eliminates the perpetual heat leak that is warm concrete on cold earth.

 

[Blackdog317]

Hot water circulation system/pump. I get hot water within 5 seconds from anywhere in the house. Love that thing.