Posts
864
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
US
Hey guys,
My wife and I are starting the "exciting" journey of building our first home. We are in the planning phase and have just made our initial contacts with some builders.
I am looking for some recommendations. From do's and don'ts of the building process, to neat features that other people have in their homes (or wish they had) or have seen, etc. Nice features/amenities. Suggestions. Anything?
Some background info:
This is a lake house at the end of a street. We bought the property across the street to build my moto garage. We will also have an attached 2 car garage. The house design will be modern/urban lake house. Large windows in front facing the water.
Anybody build a house and think back, "man I wish I had done this or not done that?"
Thanks and I look forward to posting some pics in a few months!
My wife and I are starting the "exciting" journey of building our first home. We are in the planning phase and have just made our initial contacts with some builders.
I am looking for some recommendations. From do's and don'ts of the building process, to neat features that other people have in their homes (or wish they had) or have seen, etc. Nice features/amenities. Suggestions. Anything?
Some background info:
This is a lake house at the end of a street. We bought the property across the street to build my moto garage. We will also have an attached 2 car garage. The house design will be modern/urban lake house. Large windows in front facing the water.
Anybody build a house and think back, "man I wish I had done this or not done that?"
Thanks and I look forward to posting some pics in a few months!
Construction video.
Building
It's long but there are many rewards. Some great commentary too.
Side note: I am not really talking about the garage specifically. I'll certainly listen to those suggestions. More interested in hearing housing ideas. Like neat features that might not be popular yet. I don't want to finish the house and find new technology/features that I wish I had used from the beginning.
The Shop
What climate will you be building in? Which direction will the house face? What is your idea of square footage? Single, or multi-level? What is the topography like, is it level or sloping?
Climate: I live in Central North Carolina. So it goes both ways. It gets cold, but not much snow, but it also gets pretty hot in the summer.
The house will be facing NWish, more towards west. Not exactly sure, as I want the builder to help with this decision. The view will be the most important aspect of the house.
Sq footage will be around 2500 or so. 2 levels.
Our lot is pretty level. It is actually 2 lots combined into 1. Lake lots are small so we cant really build anything with a huge footprint. So the house will be more long and narrow, with a garage coming off of the non-lake side.
Here is an inspiration home design: http://www.olsenstudios.com/portfolio-item/urbanlakehouse/
I think we will end up with a similar lay out. Must haves are the vaulted ceiling and open concept. I like the back entry way with the windows being able to see all the way through it (this will give you a view of the lake from the backside).
I am interested in radiant floor heat. I'll have to do some research on it. Is it much more expensive than central heat (when starting from scratch)? We want to go with natural gas for our heat source.
My in-laws live in Paris and their home has a lot of unique features not usually found in a US home.
-9' ceilings a must
-If you have a basement add an extra course of block
-Add plumbing to basement for future shower, toilet
-Add plenty of outlets to the garage
-If a 2-story, dual zone heating/cooling a must have
-Insist on plywood exterior sheating (not foam with plywood corners)
- Pay to have them paint the interior the colors you want during construction
- Do not use vinyl siding ( LP siding and or brick/stone)
- Do not install linoleum/vinyl or any fake flooring, stick with tile and wood (carpet ok where you want)
-Make sure the builder provides good allowances for decent plumbing/electrical/etc (faucets, tiolets,lighting, etc) so you dont get surprised with a huge add-on
-Stay out of the builders hair during the building process, but confirm the work as they go in the evenings. When you find issues BE NICE in addressing them and understand shit happens
I stayed on top of everything during our building process and the home came in $4000 under bid. We had no change orders because we knew what we wanted up front.
I have hot water heating here, and I'm not a fan of duct work in general - so might consider mini-splits/ductless heat pumps for heating & cooling in your shoes.
Bottom line is consider heating & cooling demands/wants together in the decision - all kinds of permutations & connotations out there, could even go with both in-floor + boiler, and ductless for a/c.
A few notes, I wont reply individually.
We will NOT have a basement due to the expense and the lot we are building on.
The lake that we live on does have some boat houses, but unfortunately you are not able to build new ones anymore. So only if you have an existing boathouse, and our lots did not.
The lake levels fluctuate tremendously during the off season, anywhere from full pond to 5-10ft down. Our dock ends up sitting on the ground at some point during the winter.
We have a wooden sea wall now, which needs repair, so we will be building a new sea wall. Either wood or rocks.
We are rebuilding our pier and dock with aluminum components. It is wood now.
Pit Row
Document everything. Never agree to additions without a change order/price tag attached.
PLAN where all your trees, shrubs, etc. will go. You don't know how many times I've wished I didn't plant that darn palm tree in that one spot.... it blocks my RV/trailer access! Speaking of trees, having a few on the west side of your house will do wonders for your air conditioning bill in the summer.
Also, plan a nice ingress/egress to your parking areas, especially if an RV or trailer is in your future.
- air exchanger
- 10' or 11' plates on 1st floor, 10' on 2nd floor
- 8' solid core doors throughout
- tankless water heaters
- zone all of the HVAC with control system by phone
- have a media guy run your TV cable throughout the house, not the electrician
- real wood or engineered wood floors
- search and search again on pricing (you can always find it cheaper but same quality on everything)
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWFcEPWn-76UkQX1DJMInEA
Because when it comes time to refi, or sell to a regular joe, you're at the mercy of comps unless selling to cash and the buyer is in love with it.
Otherwise you could potentially be sitting on an upside down brand new home.
We have an extreme case of a 4.5 MM dollar brand new custom estate about a mile or so from me who is about even, or maybe even 10-15% upside down. Maybe even more. His build loan was 70% of the ABV at the time they started 2 years ago.
Install the hose bib inside the garage. It looks better than hanging it off the side of your house. This pic is a cold line but you get the idea.
The bib inside the garage? Not so much. I have that in my home now... not a fan. I'm not even sure why; I just don't like it very much. I much prefer to roll up my hose and put it in the garage after use.
Radiant heat, in concrete, fed by a boiler takes maybe 3 hrs to warm the slab.
You can't just come home and turn up the temperature.
And no ac.
Mini split, ductless heat pumps the coming thing, but are very complex to work on.
Same with the higher end furnaces and heat-pumps.
If you have natural gas available, imo, the best HVAC system, as far as performance and longevity are concerned,
is a mid grade 95% gas furnace with a 14 to 15 seer straight central air conditioner. Will last 20 years,
If you don't have natural gas, and are thinking propane, forget it, go straight heat pump, all electric,
Some will try to sell you a hybrid, a gas furnace with a heat pump instead of a straight ac unit.
Again, complex, something goes up, not every guy in the local HVAC shop will be able to fix that thing.
2 stories, with the above ducted system, you can go with just one system, but you will find the 2 floors will
never really be the same, temp wise. Summer, the top floor will be a bit hotter, winter the bottom floor a bit colder.
This can be avoided by zoning the 2 floors, but again, things get complex. Zoning a duct system, you put in a zone control board, which then becomes the brain of the whole sheebang. The furnace, the zones, the thermostats, the ac units, are all slaves to the board. It can be kind of overwhelming to a guy lacking in HVAC experience.
Or you can put in 2 systems, top and bottom. More money, but you can keep the floors the same, temp wise, and have a kinda back up when one goes down.
And all of this can be controlled off an Internet ready thermostat. A Honeywell pro 8000 is just fine.
I'd stay away from the smart house wiring stuff. Again, complex the guys that work that stuff charge a ton.
Myself, I'm thinking going 2 floors is a kinda mistake.
The area you live in is prime retirement location. And retirees don't want steps. Neither will you one day.
A washer and dryer near the master bedroom is killer, def on the same level.
Good luck dude.
I agree with the 2 floors thing, if anything the master bedroom definitely needs to be on the first floor. Around my area of NC, all the bedrooms on the second floor is the kiss of death for resale unless it's in the city limits (younger demographic of buyers).
OP, good luck with the build. Have some patience with the builder, it's not as easy as it looks on TV!!
Post a reply to: House Building Journey