Building own home wish list--

About 5 years ago, I think on this group I read a fascinating, lengthy thread on what different people would tell to someone planning to plan and build their own house, basically it was:

What things would you add to a house if you were building it? Things you normally wouldn't think of. I am talking small, clever things that don't cost a lot(who doesn't want a 4 car garage, and a 3rd bathroom), but add greatly to the functionality of the home.

Has anyone seen that list? I'd love to see it again. It was full of clever ideas.

One thing I would add to the list, outlets built into the eves so I can easily plug in Christmas lights.

I definately would not build a house without some sort of charging station in the kitchen. Maybe a couple shelves built into the wall with power outlets, so you can plug in your cell phones right there. It would have to have lots of outlets available, as we have so many things that need charging now days, it would be nice to have one central area that would be easy to use.

Other ideas?

Reply to
Rotation Slim
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I prefer to unplug things when not in use, but a switch on the charging station bank would be ok & I wouldn't have to unplug.

  1. I don't know if it's legal but I've often wondered about using the upstairs shower's waste water for flushing the downstairs toilet. It would help cut down on water waste.
  2. If you don't have carpet everywhere, a real janitor's mop bucket and mop are much superior to any "household" mop. But it's a real pain to lift the bucket & dump it in a sink. So I'd have a floor-level drain, probably something with a concrete lip around it. The water heater would be on an "island" in the floor level sink.
  3. The water valves for the clothes washer located where someone 5' 2" can easily reach them.
  4. I had to rent a snake a couple weeks ago to clear a kitchen drain. It was hard to get the snake around the right-angle first corner and the 1.5" (?) pipe is pretty small. I'd like to have easy snake access ports and 2" or larger drains.
  5. Two sinks in the kitchen, not next to each other. One for washing dishes and the other for food prep.
  6. Design for easy handicap access.

  1. Kitchen on the north side of the house (in the northern hemisphere). My wife likes light but hates the direct sunlight glaring in.

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark Jerde

One "soundproofed" room. My daughter exercises regularly and likes to hear her music over the noise of the treadmill. The rest of us don't.

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark Jerde

A Google Groups search of alt.home.repair turned up a few threads:

"New house wish list":

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"New Home Wish List Redux":
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Joe F.

Reply to
rb608

Have a security system installed while the walls are open. Put a 220v. outlet outside where you might use a welder or plug in a motor home. Add a sewer drain in that area. Install thermostatically controlled attic exhaust fans if you live in a hot clime. Enclose soffits to keep birds and rodents out. Build your entry so that you can have a security door enclose an outside foyer. ( You can leave the front door open for ventilation, and not have someone walk in.) Install a hose bib on each side of the house. Put

110 receptacles out in the yard to power weed wackers, radios, appliances for entertaining, etc. Stub out power for future exterior lighting. Stub out a gas line for a bbq or outdoor firepit, whether in the plans now or later.

Think ahead and stub out with expansion in mind. Digging and installing the stuff later is a bear.

HTH

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

Good idea.

I'd also include:

-Large ducts in the floor for cables/pipework etc and to allow other stuff to be added at a later date.

-Perhaps artificial ceilings like in offices that can be lifted from below to allow the routing of cables?

-Built in cupboard with mains sockets, phone sockets etc that will take router, server, aerial amp and any other bits of electrickery as needed.

-Large loft with decent access.

-Large cellar with decent access.

-Gas, water and electric points in rear garden for BBQ's etc.

-Pit in garage floor for working on vehicles

-Sink/running water in garage. Maybe also a loo?!

-Workshop leading off garage.

-Garden irrigation system.

sPoNiX

Reply to
S P O N I X

Laundry room upstairs next to bedrooms. Leave space for two dryers and include counter space and cabinets.

Outdoor kitchen in yard for cookouts.

Pre wire every room for cable, two phone lines and computer network

Mudroom area near most used entrance with plenty of storage for coats, boots, backpacks, etc.

Reply to
Tracey

Nearly every tip I have heard were in those two threads linked to by the other guy. But i'll just reaffirm some points from personal experience. Hmmm... most seem to be efficiency and money saving ideas. I'm on an efficiency/thrifty kick right now.

- Insulate Insulate Insulate. Your largest monthly cost is probably going to be your heating/cooling cost. Here in Southern ontario it regularly gets below -20C in winter and above +30C in summer. Building code is a rediculous R18 in the walls. I wish i'd know that before building. Investigate environmentally friendly building methods too. Straw bale insulation is around R40 and actually costs less than stud/fiberglass construction.

- Laundry room near the bedroom. I didn't see the point and thought it would just be a disturbance while trying to sleep. Now I see the light. No more lugging laundry baskets up/down. And front loading washers are so quiet you don't even know their running, not to mention they're more efficient. One note, front loading washers have a wicked fast spin cycle. If your laundry room is going to be upstairs, consider putting in a few extra floor joists under it to help accomodate the extra vibration.

- If you want to be energy efficient, plan to use compact flourescent bulbs instead of incandescent ones in your ceiling fixtures. However, CF bulbs reccomend that you don't use them in completely enclosed fixtures. Therefore choose ceiling light fixtures that have airflow. Something like the type where it's two bulbs horizontal against the ceiling wiht a piece of frosted glass suspended bleow them to diffuse the light. I don't like tubular flourescent light but i love the CF bulbs.

- Rough in the central vaccum at build time if there's the possibility you might eventually get one. MUCH cheaper this way.

- Extend your garage a couple feet in each direction. Even if you only want a one car garage, that extra foot or two in width will just make life so much easier.

Kevin

Reply to
kevins_news

A washer shut-off valve set is made with an electronic remote. It can be wired on the wall next to the washer, but behind it. It also can be set to turn off after a set time, like an hour, so you can't forget to turn it off.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan
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This will be highest on my wish list. I just reached senior status, am ablebodied and independent for now. Figure I will be good for another 20 years. I live alone and will like to remain independent as long as possible.

If ever I build another house it will have a larger bathroom (12' x

12" say) where a wheel chair can be maneuvered easily. The floor will be tiled and have a floor drain that it can be mopped, washed or hosed down easily should there be any spills or should I or an elderly person be soiled in bed and need a thorough hosing down. In place of a bathtub it will have a large shower stall that can accommodate a wheelchair or whatever lifting patient device is in use. A large shower stall can also be used to wash and hang up to dry large sheets and articles.

The clothes and linen closet will be accessible from the bathroom or the bedroom - it forms a partition between the two rooms.

Probably it will be a good idea to put a stacked clothes dryer-washer combo in this washroom too. With a laundry tub next to it.

For the elderly or the disabled bathroom access is the most important thing in the world and other needs will be quite minimal, just a bed and a place to eat.

On wheelchair access the current fad for laminated wood flooring is ideal and easy to keep clean.

I would also plumb the whole house for all the modern electronic gizmos (phone, computer access, stereo cables) as well as for compressed air. I love my pneumatic tools and I think I can invent or put together air powered tools for domestic use when the time comes.

Reply to
Klm

This makes so much sense to me - you generate almost all your laundry in the bedrooms and adjacent bathrooms.

I don't know if this will help or just aid in transmitting the vibration to the rest of the storey. Better to put the washer and dryer on some kind of vibration isolation widgets.

As well, there's no reason you can't design the laundry room to be more soundproof. You'll have to accomodate the air wanted by the dryer and dumped out.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Daly

Others have suggested pre wiring areas of the home. Rather than pre wire, I've made sure I can easily get whatever comes along in the future to any spot in the house.

People are pulling Cat 5 or 6 into junior rug rat's room. May well be obsolete long before the little &^%$# gets around to using it.

Don't pre wire. Pre pipe or make sure the ceiling below will always be open.

Sooner or later something is going to come along to replace fiber optics. Cat 5 will be land fill.

Lorence

Reply to
Lorence M

Heavily insulate the hotwater lines from the waterheater to the fixture.

Reply to
PJx

Unfortunately, around here you can NOT "stub-out" extra "future" gas lines, connections, capped off T's, valves, etc.

Possible way around is simply a legal gas line with no actual connection to the live gas main pipe, near a convenient threaded fitting, capped at both ends. (It's not a pipe for anything)

More and more homes are designed with the laundry "closet" near the bedrooms. Excellent idea, but how about this:

We love closets. But do we need hallways to be loaded with so many breaks in the walls? Tiny closet here, tiny closet there?

I''d rather have a larger or walk-in closet in each bedroom and forgoe the stupid "linen" closet in the hall. Each bedroom's linens can be stored in it's own oversize closet, and that frees up wall space in hallways for family photos, antique mirrors, and other nicer things. Bathroom towels can go in their own bathroom closet, rack, or cabinet.

I'm behind you 100% on the garage sink, toilet and SHOWER. The shower can be a large corner, waterproof, where large things can be hosed down as well.

Definately design and wire for use of CF bulbs. That means fewer dimmers though too. but at 13-26 watts a pop, a LOT of lighting can be run from a generator, so a couple of generator circuits consisting of at least 1 ceiling light in every room, front door, garage near panel, attic, hall, stairs, geez a generator with a 15amp- 220 volt output can run 120 compact flourescent bulbs! (the 26 watt /100 watt incandescent equiv.)

Reply to
HA HA Budys Here

There are dimmable CFLs on the market now.

Mike

Reply to
Michael Daly

Insulating the hot water pipes is a must, but I really like our hot water circulation pump. I would add one line from the farthest hot water faucet back to the water heater so that the circulator pump could be mounted at the water heater. Hot water at every faucet, right now!

If any excavation is going on for the construction a ground loop for a ground source heat pump might become economical. Really cheap heat and cooling.

The kitchen would have to be near the garage. Our garage is on the opposite end from the kitchen - grrrrrr.

Rake, comb, sweep, anything - just clean up the crawl space before the sub floor goes down. Crawling on rocks and concrete slag is a pain in the A$$! Oh, yah, the crawl space access should be in the center of the house, not in the master bedroom closet on the far end of the house!!! And the access to the attic should not be from an outside vent on hinges that is higher than the rafters than the length of my leg - OUCH! Can you say pull down ladder, please?

Our floor is kind of springy. I guess this is a function of the floor joist spacing and the dimension of the plywood subfloor. Make it sturdy enough to place a grandfather clock on without clanging the weights and chimes when a fat man walks by.

Or place it in a neighborhood filled with caring, wonderful, kooky, fun, and friendly neighbors, and the rest of the house doesn't matter so much.

Reply to
Larry Davick

I've added these, and would definitely add numerous outdoor outlets. My house came with none when I bought it, many have one, or maybe two.

I'd also add water spigots. I'm in a non-freeze area so it's easier to deal with, but not having to drag 150' of hose around to wash the car is a luxury that's cheap at build time.

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Cochran

YES! We did this in our house. And have the eave outlet switched from inside so that you can turn on the Christmas lights from inside the house. Way cool and the ultimate in luxury.

You can never have too many outdoor outlets, electrical and hose. We have four hose bibbs and six electical outlets and every one gets used.

Jim

Reply to
ChiliJim

Reply to
EmbErna

My Dad used to talk about kitchen cabinets that go through the wall into the garage. You'd come home from the store, open the trunk of the car, and shove the groceries into the BACK of the kitchen cabinet. The groceries would slide forward, and you'd never have that 15 year old can of stuff in the back of the shelves that you can't quite reach.

(I know, fire code, solid cement wall between garage, but that's another subject).

Reply to
Stormin Mormon

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