New Construction - Options you wish you had included/those you could've lived without

[Boho]

I'd want the largest deepest sink that's within the range of normal for residential use, to reduce splashing on clean dishes and the counter and to make washing large things when the sink isn't empty easier. When I bought an 8 quart pot I got curious about how big the largest kitchen sinks were and I was expecting to find some crazy-large ones but none of them seemed that large.

 

[Ronstar]

^ make sure that it isn’t so deep that the bottom of the sink is below the level of the drain pipe going into the wall.

 

[Jerry1]

Even if you don’t plan to get an EV now pull the 6 or 8 gauge wire from the electrical box to the garage. Also think about visitors in the future that might need to charge outside the garage in your driveway.
It’s not like copper wire will ever get cheaper.

Rather than running wire everywhere, I would run conduit so that future wire upgrades can be done easily. Should be much cheaper than doing a lot of wiring that you may never use. Also will be better in the future if whatever wiring you use today becomes obsolete.

I lived in a cape cod (1-1/2 story) house that had no common walls on the first and second floors. We did run a pipe from the basement to the attic which came in very handy for running cable long after we built the house. There really wasn’t internet when we built the house, only dial up. I did have phone cable run to every room, but never thought about the changes the future would bring.

 

[ERD50]

For everyone who says they need a light switch in a different area, it's not hard to add one after the fact. I need to do this in one or two places in my house. Someday...

Just plug "add a light switch without wiring" into your search engine.

The added wall switch is a battery powered transmitter, and you replace the existing wall switch with this combination switch/receiver. So it acts like a "3 way" switch set up.

-ERD50

 

[pjigar]

Rather than running wire everywhere, I would run conduit so that future wire upgrades can be done easily. Should be much cheaper than doing a lot of wiring that you may never use. Also will be better in the future if whatever wiring you use today becomes obsolete.

I lived in a cape cod (1-1/2 story) house that had no common walls on the first and second floors. We did run a pipe from the basement to the attic which came in very handy for running cable long after we built the house. There really wasn’t internet when we built the house, only dial up. I did have phone cable run to every room, but never thought about the changes the future would bring.

Speaking of which: if you have a choice then go for a single story house. Running new wires, ducts, pipes, etc can be done from attic.

Our area traditionally runs water pipes in the slab which means any leak will need busting the slab and destroy the flooring. I moved *all* of the water plumbing in the attic using PEX pipes when we did the gut-out renovation. I mean we traditionally have water heaters in the attic already so why not the pipes, especially with PEX? This is an experimental decision which may come to haunt me so tread carefully! We buried the PEX pipes with heavy layer of insulation to minimize freezing issue. Attic in Dallas, Texas stays relatively warm even during the coldest months so hopefully it will work out!

 

[Badger]

When I was a boy we lived in a house that had a laundry chute from the second floor to the basement and a dumb waiter from the kitchen to the second floor. Easy and cheap to build with new construction but so convenient and saves many trips up and down the stairs. I don't know why they stopped putting these into multi level homes.


Cheers!

 

[mountainsoft]

When I was a boy we lived in a house that had a laundry chute from the second floor to the basement and a dumb waiter from the kitchen to the second floor. Easy and cheap to build with new construction but so convenient and saves many trips up and down the stairs. I don't know why they stopped putting these into multi level homes.

They are a fire hazard, and I think are prohibited by fire codes now. If a fire starts on the lower level (maybe in the pile of laundry at the bottom), the chute essentially becomes a chimney for fire to rush up to the upper level. Dumbwaiters are a similar fire hazard.

That's the same reason homes need to have blocking in the walls every eight feet vertically (four feet in some areas), so a fire doesn't rush up inside the wall cavities.

When we built our home in 2004, the inspector made very sure we not only had fire blocking in place, but also caulking to prevent any air leaks that might allow fire to travel up inside the wall. And we have a single level home. With multilevel homes, especially with multiple dwellings like an apartment or condo, I'm betting it would be even more critical.

 

[mountainsoft]

When I designed our kitchen layout, I made the base cabinets 30" deep on the wall where the refrigerator is located. This lets us buy a standard refrigerator and have it end up fairly flush with the cabinets.

Otherwise, a standard refrigerator sticks out far beyond the counter, or you have to spend much more on special "counter depth" refrigerators.

 

[rrs26ja]

Things to include in your new house

1. Think about where you spend most of your time
Large kitchen (spend a lot of time in our kitchen)

Big area to watch TV (this is where we are when not in the kitchen)

2. Have hard wired internet in every room, its cheap and fast

3. Make the garage larger than you think
4. I have high ceilings in my house, tough to heat and cool
5. I am not sure where you are living but in the northeast I would put on a metal roof. Will last your life time.
6. Locate your thermostats where you will be spending your time. Not in hallways.
7. Spend money on top quality windows and doors
8. Never have wood or painted siding, you will spend time painting it, not what you want to do when you retire


Good luck

 

[Andromeda]

We had one new-build home and did some bathroom renovations in 2018 on our new-to-us home.

1. On my "glad we have it" list:

- Heated bathroom floor in master bath (and our cats love it, too)
- Removed bathtub in master and replaced it with a large shower for two, with regular shower head plus three jets
- Removed tub from guest ensuite bath and replaced it with a relatively inexpensive shower enclosure. Added grab bars in shower, in front of toilet and at the side of the toilet. (This is the bathroom most often used by our parents and parents-in-law, so we wanted it to be relatively accessible.)

2. On my "wouldn't do it again" list:

- We selected a very dark charcoal grey finish on our custom kitchen cabinets, and it promptly got really dinged up. Next time, we won't go with dark cabinets.
- Floating vanities in the bathroom. (Actually, we inherited these in our current house and I wish we'd taken them out and replaced them.) I'm sure someone is going to lean on one and pull it out of the wall. Plus, there's less storage.
- We have a large, finished basement but it's essentially all one room. There's no easy way to divide it up to create a separate space for a guest bedroom or gym - so all of our basement stuff is just in one room and it looks awful.
- The sump pump is in a closet that opens directly onto our giant basement space. It's noisy, so no one can use the basement area for a bedroom.

3. On my wish list for a future house (or a renovation here), in addition to the items from List 1:

- Window seats with storage in a few rooms
- Either an ensuite bedroom on the main floor or an elevator (for accessibility - either for ourselves or someone visiting us)
- A larger pantry space (storage, sink and space for secondary appliances)
- Utility cupboard on each floor, to use for cleaning supplies, linens, etc). Our current house lacks a linen closet on the floor where all our bedrooms are, and there is no utility closet on our main floor.
- A laundry room that is big enough for side-by-side washer and dryer, with space to fold and hang clothes.

 

[2lhasas]

So many great suggestions here. I'll go with a couple of little things I've come to appreciate.

We have a very large and deep kitchen sink. If there are dishes left in the sink, they aren't visible which is nice.

As someone else mentioned, we also did drawers instead of cabinets for most of the lower kitchen cabinets - no crawling on the floor to get that pot in the very back of the cabinet.

Our daylight basement bath has a door to the outside, which is great for keeping kids and BBQ guests from tracking dirt all over the house.

We put outlets in drawers/cabinets in the bathrooms. My husband can have his shaver charging in the drawer instead of on the counter, and I keep my hair dryer plugged in under the sink, use it then toss it back under. It's kept my bathroom counters nice and clean.

We converted our grill to gas and have it connected to the house gas. We also have an in line generator connected to our gas. So much better than propane and gas cans.

Lastly, my husband the IT guy, insisted on good cabling run to all the rooms and wall blocking anywhere we might want to add a TV in the future. And I agree with the person who suggested documenting all the cable layouts while the walls and ceilings are still open. Years from now, that will come in handy.

 

[indiajust]

Elevated elongated toilets. Full size doors, close to ADA, but historic. Walk up attic. First floor suite. Access chase crawlspace to attic for future piping and wiring. Light switches in the door frames for closets. Provision for solar water heat. Lighted double deep pantry with internal piano hinge flip shelves. convection microwave above convection oven as matched pair instead of useless double ovens. Grab bar prep.

 

[djw3580]

Central vacuum

 

[Raygun99]

Glad I installed sink in the garage.
Glad I enlarged the garage for large work bench

Wish I had put AC in the garage for summer work activity.

 

[6miths]

Great thread. Is someone writing this all down and adding tabs?!

 

[msanniee]

I’m pretty happy with my new house. However Wish I would have done:
Insulate garage
Vented range hood to outside
Wider patio slider (too little room left after dog door was installed)
Better closet organizers

I could have done without the soaker tub.

 

[sengsational]

I'll second the motion to put a conduit from the attic to the basement/crawlspace; you can fish something up or down a wall easy enough, but it's a mess to traverse an entire floor, or two floors.

 

[KCalla]

So many things already listed! Some of my favorites:
As mentioned, just above: Central vacuum system with vac-pans in the master bathroom and kitchen.
We had all of our electrical outlets placed 4 inches above standard. I was told that standard height was the length of a contractor hammer. Our Electricians just made a 2x4 4 inches longer and used that. This has been fantastic.
Christmas light outlets in soffit of porch and switch inside the hall closet near the front door.
Stainless steel single unit kitchen sink and countertop. With a marine edge to keep spills corralled. No sink edges to clean. I would think that undermount would be the next great thing.
Rarely used: a big, deep sink in the pantry. Was thinking that we would have a large garden like we did at the last house. This lot was not suited for it because we are adjacent to wild areas with lots of critters and HOA prevents the type of fence we would need around a garden to hope to have enough yield for us!
This thread is wonderful.

 

[Yoheadden]

We replaced a jacuzzi style tub, that rarely got used for a walk-in shower with a bench. This also left room for a larger closet with better lighting.
Light/heat fixtures in the bathroom ceilings get used quite a bit. They are nice on chilly mornings.
Changed doorknobs to lever style handles for easier use.

We thought a glass top stove would be nice for easy cleanup, it has proven to be just the opposite.
I love the idea of the drawers instead of cabinets, but would go one further and get the soft closing kind. There is nothing worse than hearing them slam close because can’t close them slowly.

 

[HI Bill]

Lots of great ideas here!

I'm working on an existing house, and here are a few more:

• Magnetic door stops on every door that's not a pocket door.
• Grohe faucets everywhere there's a faucet.
• Bidet toilet (seriously, I have new toilets now that can't be retrofitted due to an odd base design, and I'm about to rip one out and replace it just so I can add the new seat).
• Smart dimming light switches (voice activated).
• Electric awning on the sunset side of the house.
• In-wall wiring for the home theater.
• Home theater.
• LED undercounter lights.

 

[someguy]

We had all of our electrical outlets placed 4 inches above standard. I was told that standard height was the length of a contractor hammer. Our

Why? I think the usual height is a nice balance between plugs and cords that head to the floor (eg, floor lamp) and to a table. I also think receptacles four inches higher would look "weird" to most American eyes.

 

[Canoeboy]

Recently rebuilt a 1970’s ranch, down to the studs. Essentially a new build.

Things I would do again:

OUTSIDE
- standing seam metal roof. Leaves and pine needles slide off easily and it will last beyond my lifespan. About 3x price of asphalt shingles.
- 99% of outside trim is white PVC board - zero maintenance.
- high end composite maintenance free siding (Everlast brand).
- huge lakeside deck with 1/3rd under cover
- lots of glass on lakeside of house, minimal toward the street.
- multiple switched outlets outside for seasonal/holiday lighting
- added gable overhangs
- all vents (plumbing, vents, heating) out the sides or in soffit eaves. No holes in roof.
- whole house generator.
- parking spot with electric for camper
- freeze proof water hydrants (3) around the yard. None on side of house.

INSIDE
- one level open concept living for DW and myself so we can enjoy and age in place. Downstairs walkout level for guests, kids, storage, etc. Double wide open stairway to lower level (so it does not feel like going to a basement)
- kept it simple on the main level - master suite with walk in closet, laundry/pantry, open kitchen/dining/living, and half bath is all we needed.
- minimum 34” doorways and space to maneuver a wheel chair if ever needed.
- wood blocking in place for attaching grab bars in all bathrooms.
- walk in shower 36”x60” with “shower tower”
- no carpet. Wood and tile floors.
- “1 spray foam in walls, then packed insulation - better soundproofing.
- overkill on number of LED flush ceiling lights, especially in the kitchen. Most lighting is on dimers. You can dim lights if too bright, but not vice versa.
- radiant electric floor heat in bathrooms.
- gas fireplace
- Ethernet hardwired to TV and guest (kids) rooms
- large kitchen with pull out drawers in lower and pantry cabinets
- dedicated circuits for each - microwave, refrigerator, beverage center. Additional 3 other dedicated outlet circuits in kitchen.

WISH:
- we would have considered a cathedral ceiling in living room.
- built an attached garage
- figured out how to place the powder room (half bath) in a less conspicuous place.
- we could have spent less to get what we wanted

 

[rayvt]

Good things:
Heated tile floors in the master bathroom and kitchen.
Every outside electrical outlet is a GFCI, not daisy-chained.
An outlet on the deck/patio every 8-10 feet. You *never* have enough outlets, and you don't know where you will want another one.
Have at least one outlet on the deck that is controlled by switch inside.
If you have a raised desk, at least one outlet under the deck, preferably at the outside edge.
Outlets in the garage near the door, one on each side. And one or two on each wall, spread apart.

In the room(s) where you expect to have computer(s), quad plugs instead of duplex. Alternating outlets on 2 different circuit breakers.

Whole house fan(s). Several QuietCool fans.

Sonotube skylight(s). Great for interior rooms & hallways that don't have a window.

Single story house!

12 ga wiring, not 14 ga.

Recirculating hot water.
3/4" copper plumbing lines, not 1/2". Especially the runs for the bathtubs & showers.

Seperate outlet on dedicated breaker for refig and/or freezer(s) in the garage.

In bedrooms & front room, one plug of _every_ duplex socket is switched (all controlled by one switch). On all ours, top socket of the duplexes and top left of the quads is switched.
Quad outlet at each side of the bed.

Hose bibs on each side of the house.

Range hood exhausting to outside

No-maintenance soffit & facia & siding. I told the builder "NOTHING on the exterior that needs to be painted. No exposed wood."

If possible, a LARGE pantry. Ours is 8'x10' and the wife loves it...and all her friends are jealous. Lined with Sam's Club free-standing industrial shelfs.

Full extension drawer slides. They cost $10 more and are worth every penny.

Anderson windows. Pella would be okay, too. Do not let your builder put in builder grade windows.

In-house central vacuum.

Separate small "toilet room" in the master bathroom. With a small corner sink.

Pick one room that will or can be a media/movie room. Run wires for ceiling mounted projector, 5.1 audio system, one wall set up for movie screen (we have a 110" screen) and center speaker above the screen.
We ran 3-condictor cable component video wire from player to projector. Then had to re-wire it for HDMI when HDMI replaced component video.
So arrange things so you can easily pull new wires when HDMI becomes obsolete.

Things I wish I had done:
Made the garage 4' longer and 3' wider.
Put in propane cooktop instead of electric. (No natural gas here.)

Run CAT6 wires to every room. But that will probably be obsolete in 10 years. See below about TV coax.

Things I wish I hadn't done:
Phone outlets in every room. All but one of our house phones are cordless.
Coax TV outlets in every room. Technology has changed, now everything is WIFI and HDMI.

 

[KarenF]

You can upgrade your thermostat to a Nest or Ecobee and add other room sensors to fix that issue easy peezy.

 

[Raygun99]

I too ran coax/cat 5 bundles to every room. Glad I did. I still use a Digital Antenna in attic for rooms that I don't use cable. The coax still comes in handy for that distribution. Lots more flexibility to have them.

Ran ethernet to multiple points outside and I can power my security cameras hard wire. Beter reliability.

Wish? I have owned several houses and have never convinced DW to install a urinal in the bathroom . )