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

[mitchjav]

For those who have worked with a builder on a new construction house (we're doing this right now in a 55+ development), just curious on

- what options you regret not having included? (and those you did include and really love)

- what options did you include that you could've lived without.

Thanks,
Mitch

 

[pb4uski]

It wasn't until my propane grill tank ran out of propane the summer following our build that I myself for not thinking to run a propane line to the corner of my deck where the propane grill is. (No natural gas in our rural area.) The cost would have been minimal.

Also, we previously had propane in the camp that we demolished so I just moved forward with propane since we already had a propane clothes dryer and we desired gas for our stovetop. I never thought to consider using fuel oil for heating and hot water... just went with propane since it was the path of least resistance.

Since we were lakefront and were restricted to our ~1,000 sf footprint, space was a design constraint... we ended up using a lot of pocket doors and I actually like them.

The other thing that we did that was unique is we attached 3/4" thick strapping horizontally to the outside walls and then wall sheathing on top of the strapping. Then when we sprayfoamed the walls from the inside the foam oozed into the gaps between the studs and the strapping resulting in a very strong wall with minimal thermal bridging.

We also ended up using an on-demand propane hot water heater for not only domestic hot water but also for heating the radiant slab on the walkout level and hot water baseboard heat on the main level.

DW insisted on a spa tub in one of the bathrooms and IMO it has been a total waste... the hot tub features rarely get used. Another questionable decision was to use attic trusses above the master bedroom suite... at the time DW thought she would use that space for hobbies but the access via a pulldown stairway was too cumbersome so we have converted it to off-season storage. The one good thing is that I ran coax to that attic and was ultimately able to use it to connect an attic OTA antenna to the rest of the house.

 

[Sniggle]

- I wish I had upgraded to the concrete siding boards...vinyl siding makes a racket in the wind
- I wish I had made the garage 4 feet deeper, so I could more easily work in it even with the cars in the garage. We did make it 4 feet wider, which makes it much better when 2 cars are parked.
- Wish I had ditch the tub in the master bedroom and gone with a large walk-in doorless shower.
- Wish I had increased the size of the walk-in closet...wife's biggest complaint for 15 years, and rightfully so.
- Wish I had the builder put the heat pumps away from the master bedroom side of the house
- Wish the thermostat was placed to better reflect the temperature of the occupied areas of the house

The DW and I will probably be building in a few years, so i will watch this thread for ideas

 

[pb4uski]

- I wish I had upgraded to the concrete siding boards...vinyl siding makes a racket in the wind...

We went with vinyl siding, but upgraded to the faux cedar shake vinyl siding... the panels are much thicker than clapboard vinyl siding... I would guess 3-4 times the thickness... and we get no noise in the wind at all.

 

[mryeh17]

Glad we put in more outlets, especially in the kitchen and garage. Added a 220V outlet in the garage, haven't used it yet. Glad we put hose bibs on all 4 exterior walls, use one almost every day here in TX.

 

[pb4uski]

One thing that we did in our winter home kitchen renovation was drawers rather than cupboards for most of the base cabinets... much easier to access pots and pans and the like in drawers vs opening doors and sliding out a shelf.

Also, LED underlighting on the wall cabinets was a useful addition.

 

[skipro33]

Included and really benefitted from;
Everything built ADA compliant. Doorways 33" wide, hallways big enough so EMT can bring in a gurney, counter tops handicap accessible, showers, tall toilet 15", etc. I don't want to have to struggle or modify or worse, move if me or DW have any health reasons to have to.
LOTS of AC outlets. Can't have too many. Just can not.
Laundry room indoors, not in garage. OMG! From the xtra storage to the convenience, it's one of the best things we did.
A pantry in the kitchen. So nice to store the supplies of food and appliances in the same room you'll use them. From instapot, air fryer, George Forman grill, rotisserie, waffle maker, food processor, vacuum sealer, etc. Got 'em all and all within a couple steps of setting out and using them.
Master bedroom opposite side of house from guest bedrooms
Guest bedroom side of house has it's own entry
9' ceilings are great. Every room feels larger
Granite counter tops in kitchen and bathrooms
Shower heads in bathrooms at least 7' high on the wall. Why do they mount them so low to begin with?!
French doors leading out to patio. Sliders are awful after having these.
Bifold doors for guest bedroom closets, not sliders. Now when I open a closet, I see the whole thing, not just half like sliders.
Master bedroom closet is actually a vault. It has a vault/safe style door that is skinned over to look like a regular door. I use it to lock up my guns, jewelry, cash and other theft prone items. No one can tell other than the door is a little heavier to open and close. We don't lock it with just us in the house, but do when guests come over, especially the grand kids. Home burglaries while we are gone are less likely to take the 'good stuff'.
Jack and Jill bathroom counter tops. Ours are on opposite sides of the bathroom, so I don't have to even look at her 'special effects' department. (I swear it takes her longer to put on her face than the makeup for that wookie in Star Wars movie)
Framless glass shower enclosure with clear glass. This makes the bathroom seem twice as large.
Touchless faucet in the kitchen. So much more so in virus age. Stays clean!
Bathroom has a door instead of a window out to the hot tub. Easy to go from tub to shower to rinse off without going through the house.
Dutch door for laundry room to outside. It's great to open the top half to let in fresh air.
Deep window sill over kitchen sink. Our splashing keeps the glass cleaner and it's great for placing plants.
Coffee station in kitchen. It's a dedicated area next to the stove with the microwave mounted above it. It's something we use every day.
TV room separate from the main living room. We love visiting friends and family in the living room while someone else can watch TV, sports event for example, without disturbing conversation.
We love our propane fire place. Very easy to light off, provides heat and it makes the house feel more like a home. Cozy.
Cast iron tubs in bathrooms. Cast iron holds in the heat where fiberglass won't.
Picture windows with smaller sections under to open for fresh air. Most windows are 50/50 sliders so half the window is covered with view blocking screens. Our windows are solid with the lower 1/4 a slider. It's enough vent to let in fresh air and less than a foot off the floor so they don't block the views.
Ceiling fans with lights in each bedroom with remote controls so you can adjust from bed.
Cable for a big screen TV in the bedroom. When DW and I want to watch different programs, makes it easy. Love having the TV in the bedroom when sick or just cause!
Fire place has a raised hearth to sit on, not at floor level. So nice it sit on the raised hearth and enjoy the fire's warmth.
Bay window in dining room. My wife wanted a bay window to place the Christmas tree so it can be seen from the front yard.
Built in long term storage in the attic. We have one of those attics you can stand up in and really use for storage.

Outdoors;
plenty of hose bibs. Both on the porch and past the porch and at the lawn or flower beds.
Wrap around porch. I love sitting outside even when it's raining or extra sunny. The wrap around porch assures me a place that is either shady or sunny no matte what the time of day or time of year.
I placed several PVC pipes under the driveway for possible future needs to run power or water. It was cheap to throw a few down before the concrete was poured.
I installed outlets under the eves at each corner of the house. These are used for two purposes; first and motion sensing security lights. Second is for a switched outlet for Christmas lights. It's so easy to string lights and have a switch at the front door to turn them on and off. No extension cords draped and laying around.
Ran wire for powering our gate along with wires for remote camera at the gate. Motion lights at the gate too.
Parking for an RV, but more than that, I had plumber install a cleanout so I can hook the RV black/gray water hose to dump my own tanks. Installed an AC outlet for the RV as well. In fact I added a second set so when we have RV visitors, they have full hookups.
I oriented the house so as to take advantage of solar. One roof faces the optimal direction for solar panels and the roof angle is optimized for solar collection; 22.3 degrees facing 178 degrees from north. I prewired that area for solar. Easy to do during new home construction, quite a bit more to add on later.

As far as things we built but either don't use or wish we didn't, I can't think of any.

As far as things I wish I would have added but didn't.
Bigger master bedroom.
Bigger garage. Mine is 25x 25 with two 9' wide doors 8' tall. Great for two cars, but tight for two cars and work bench space.
Plumbing for propane at the BBQ and the generator. I added later, but it wasn't cheap. I now have unlimited propane for the BBQ and for the whole house generator. We have several power outages every year and the propane is great since they usually last days.

 

[pjigar]

Some of the rules of thumb:
* Have twice as many garages as you think you need.
* Spend extra money on things that can't be done later without ripping things out.
* You can have never too many lights or outlets.
* Add drain+water stubs for strategic future expansions: outdoor shower, wet bar, outdoor kitchen, extra bath, etc.


If you in south then I can give some specific ideas later. Specific ideas are always local. For example, we don't even know what radiant heat is but but we know what radiant barrier is!

 

[Animorph]

We last did this in 1991, so I don't know what the latest trendy stuff might be.

One thing we both enjoyed and regretted was adding a glass brick "window" feature in the garage. It brightens up the garage very nicely. The regret is that we didn't do the same for two bathrooms. We now have motion lights that automatically turn on when we enter the rooms, but the natural light would be nice.

Glass fronts on some of the kitchen cabinets has been handy. The double oven has been useful but usually not critical. We got a big built-in fridge/freezer, but wish the freezer was twice as big.

We had natural gas available to us, so we have a gas stove, water heater, dryer, and BBQ. That was actually a good thing a few years ago when we needed to install the electric car charger. We had enough electric power to spare. These days I think all electric with solar power would be the way to go. Solar will be easier if you have HVAC units with low starting currents (the variable speed compressor types). There's probably things you can do to support a solar installation, or to do it now. A Tesla solar roof would be my ideal. You would save by not installing a normal roof before installing solar.

We can never have enough AC outlets.

We used Low-E glass for all our windows and added extra insulation all around. Our electric bills are way below the other neighbors I've heard from. Can't go too wrong there. We also installed a load controller during the build, which keeps our peak power usage nice and low without being too intrusive. Other features might work better in your area, but think about what might reduce your monthly bills.

We created a little closet under the stairs that would otherwise have been simply walled in. Fitted out as a darkroom, but now of course it is more of a storage room.

As an electrical engineer I would have liked to have a way to run ethernet cables instead of having to depend on a mesh Wi-Fi system. We never really used the standard intercom wiring from that period. Some I used for phone service (no longer necessary anymore) and some for old Apple networking. But pretty much all outdated now, as expected. We had cable TV wiring, which we use, but I had to add an outdoor TV antenna and run the cable inside to our electronics. Things like security camera wiring might be useful these days, even if it's just powered ethernet cabling.

I did manage to talk DW out of building a big built-in entertainment center to frame the TV. We use a 106" front projection screen for our normal TV now. I would have regretted being stuck with space for only a 30" TV because that was what was practical at the time.

Mostly we just tried to think of how we would live in the house, and predict the future. In general the future has been kind enough to supply solutions to the things we didn't guess right about.

 

[jdunc31]

As pjigar states---we were very happy with paying for things upfront that would become prohibitively expensive later.

So for us:

*Extended the garage to a oversized 3 car instead of regular 2 car

*Depending on your location, but for us we had the basement poured 2 feet higher to accommodate a much easier/nicer finished basement later on (note that one was the "best" upgrade as later when we did finish the basement this made things so much easier!)

*Extra rough in's for plumbing wherever you could imagine future expansions

*Irrigation system for the yard before a yard is there---could be worthwhile to bring someone in to help plan future landscaping as well

Most other things you can replace/upgrade as you go but you cannot (easily) change the build or foundation later on....

 

[Animorph]

Oh yeah, we sunk the floor a few inches under the washer and dryer and added a drain at the bottom. No disasters there yet, but we have had leaks that were easily handled. Seems easy enough, but not something I see often.

We did avoid getting the poly plastic water pipes, which have caused some major damage in our area. Super glad we stayed with the known quantity there, though I'm usually up for new things.

 

[skipro33]

I wanted to add;
Our refrigerator in the kitchen is on the wall with the garage on the other side. I built that wall recessed into the garage so that the fridge is flush with the counter tops. It was only a few inches into the garage to do this, but boy did it make the kitchen nicer and I didn't have to pay extra for a counter-deep fridge. Size the space for the largest fridge you might think you'll need for the future too.

We put in a spout for water to fill large pots at the stove. We never use that. It does look nice though. People always comment on it, so I'm glad we have it, just don't use it.

 

[Gumby]

We have a very old house (circa 1857), but we did put on a kitchen addition 15 yrs ago, so I can tell you about that.

Things I regret:

1. I wish we had two completely separate sinks, one for food prep and one for dishes.

2. I wish we had gotten the 40" wide refrigerator and a separate freezer. We never have sufficient room in the fridge or the freezer.

3. I wish we had gone with the six-burner gas stovetop instead of four burners and a grill in the middle. We have a gas grill right out on the porch by the back door and, consequently, never use the one in the stovetop. It's also a bear to clean.

4. I wish we had about 1" more of overlap on the granite counter top, to make it easier to clamp on the pasta roller and meat grinder.

5. I wish we had gotten the undercabinet lights.

6. We have a matching built-in desk in the kitchen - they called it a "recipe station." Since the young wife uses her tablet to look up recipes, the desk mostly just collects junk. I would gladly trade it for a freezer.


Things I appreciate:

1. Having a 4 ft. by 9 ft. island without anything on it but a granite top (i.e. - no sink or stove in the island) has been great. The young wife sometimes uses all 36 sqft. when she is cooking. We also use it as a folding table for the laundry and a cutting table for sewing.

2. It was also smart to have full cabinetry under the island to hold all the cooking equipment.

3. I was skeptical about the "pot filler" spigot behind the stove top, but it really is handy to have.

4. The 36" double electric wall ovens have been great.

5. We elected to skip the plate warmer under the ovens and, as far as I can tell, have never missed it.

6. It was smart to build a separate pantry (the cabinetry and countertops match the kitchen), since it and all the kitchen cabinets are full and I don't know where we would otherwise put all that stuff. If anything, I would have made it larger.

7. Just having what is essentially an extra large closet with bifold doors was quite enough to hold the washer and dryer. We have cabinets built in above them to hold the soap, bleach and such. We were originally thinking of a separate laundry room, but it is unnecessary.

8. We put a coat closet between the back entry door and the kitchen proper and tiled the floor from the back door to where the closet ends, so we can take off our shoes and not track dirt onto the maple floors in the kitchen. We also put a bathroom right by the back door across from the coat closet, so you can come in and use it without having to take your shoes off.

 

[iloveyoga]

3 car garage instead of 2+. Like others, I did not need the bubble tub in my master. Other than that, we have been very happy in our house for 28 years. It was our third house, so we know what we did not want, which helped.

 

[Aerides]

We remodeled about 12 years ago if that counts. Some things I would have done differently, and some we were limited on by the original construction (and this is S Fla, so your climate may vary):

Ceiling fans or access for them in every room (the roof over the smaller bedrooms/office make them impossible)

Lighting - more is better for more options - sconces, overhead, etc., all LED, dimmable everywhere, even if you don't know if you'll ever use it. Look at interior designer pages for ideas as you won't even know what you want until you see it.

Bathrooms - Go for actual nice big mirrors vs. built in mirror-on-the-walls. Mirror glass ages. It's a PITA to remove vs just getting a nice new mirror in 10 years.

Closet, especially master, make it walk in and oversized. I also want a nice seating nook of some sort in the master bedroom.

A half-bath/powder room (i will die on that hill when I move again)

In-house laundry (mine is in the garage I hate that)

Oh and for new construction I'd pay particular attention to the plans on the houses on either side of you, and what limits the builder imposes on them. You do not want to end up with a SW facing patio and then get a neighbor with a SE one who waves at you every time you go outside.

 

[Music Lover]

If you have access to the house after framing, wiring, and plumbing is done but before the insulation and drywall stage take pictures of every single wall in every room so you have a record where things are in case you have to open a wall in the future.

Make sure blocking is in place for future grab bars.

Consider insulating some or all interior walls to reduce sound transfer between rooms. 5/8" drywall instead of 1/2" also helps reduce sound transfer.

 

[savory]

One thing that we did in our winter home kitchen renovation was drawers rather than cupboards for most of the base cabinets... much easier to access pots and pans and the like in drawers vs opening doors and sliding out a shelf.

We just upgraded our kitchen and we enjoy the drawers. So much easier to get stuff. We also have a large spice drawer so each spice bottle is easy to see and reach.

Our garbage drawer is a pullout in the middle of the prep counter. So crumbs and such are wiped directly into the garbage can. We have a second sink for food prep on other end of kitchen counter so one person can be washing dishes while the cook is making more dirty.


The corner cabinet is a pullout with two shelves vs a lazy susan. When the cabinet door is opened, the 1st metal shelf can be pulled straight out. Then it is moved over to one side and the second shelf is in front of the door and can be pulled out from inside the cabinet. Adds lots of easy to get to storage, especially for things not used often.

 

[skipro33]

If you have access to the house after framing, wiring, and plumbing is done but before the insulation and drywall stage take pictures of every single wall in every room so you have a record where things are in case you have to open a wall in the future.

Make sure blocking is in place for future grab bars.

Consider insulating some or all interior walls to reduce sound transfer between rooms. 5/8" drywall instead of 1/2" also helps reduce sound transfer.

We did those things too! Photos and a video before it was insulated and sheet rocked. We insulated all walls and even the floor/ceiling between story 1 and 2 as well as ceiling above story 2 and attic roof. The main house stays much more comfortable with less heat/cooling than others.
For sound deadening between rooms, I used 2x6 top and bottom plates, then 2x4's vertical but every other one is offset between inside wall and outside wall. This leaves a zig-zag for insulation to fill instead of 16" voids. Because the sound doesn't have a solid 2x4 to transmit noise, it's extremely quiet. Other than the cost of the 2x6's, it wasn't any more expensive. I learned this trick while working in a recording studio. They do this to keep sounds in the booth. Along with sheetrock, I used OSB. The advantage is I never have to find a stud to mount a picture or otherwise need to find such stud. The sheer strength of the OSB allowed me some pretty impressive spans for rooms without beams to clutter things up.

 

[pjigar]

This is our 4th house and we knew exactly we wanted and not wanted. We gutted down a small existing house and rebuilt so some things were done to save space and other constraints.
* No tub in any bath! Framelss shower with nooks. Walk-in shower without a ledge in master.
* Single vanity to save space.
* Large walk-in master closet with cabinets and drawers.
* Two pantries! We never have enough space!
* Two fridges in garage. One in kitchen.
* Air tight walls, foam seal every hole/crack before drywall. Double insulation in ceiling.
* Radiant barrier in attic before drywall so you can cover all the way to outside walls.
* Proper attic ventilation with thermal exhaust fan.
* Individual ductless ACs for every bedroom. Open kitchen and living gets two units. Between super efficient ACs, insulation and 10KW solar, our utility bill is zero.
* Large island with cabinets on both sides. Other side has dining over hang.
* Pot filler.
* Fan in every living space.
* 36 inch burner with outside exhaust. This one can't be done without redoing kitchen.
* Large door opening all the way to master closet.
* Blocking for hang bars and seat in master shower.
* Ceiling heater in every bath. DW always feel cold in bathrooms.
* Motion activated lights in every closet and bath.

 

[W2R]

I have never built or remodeled a home. But some great ideas are presented in previous posts on this thread! Most of the ideas in this post were mentioned before.

I love the idea of a bigger-than-normal garage. My detached garage is big, and even though I only have one vehicle I love the fact that there is lots of room on all sides. It has a built in work-bench+cabinets area at the back with tons of storage and two extra rooms for overflow storage. This would be a dream come true for some hobbyists, although I have never used it.

What made my Dream Home my Dream Home, other than its location next door to Frank's house, is the feature Skipro33 mentioned:

Everything built ADA compliant. Doorways 33" wide, hallways big enough so EMT can bring in a gurney, counter tops handicap accessible, showers, tall toilet 15", etc. I don't want to have to struggle or modify or worse, move if me or DW have any health reasons to have to.

Great for aging in place. Along these same lines, I love having lower light fixtures that I can reach without a ladder (in my case, it's ceiling fans with light kits but anyway they are low enough that I can replace burned out bulbs without even using a step stool). Also, no steps and a wheelchair could roll from my back door down a very gentle slope into the garage.

I think a fairly large laundry room would be a big "plus". If my Dream Home has a flaw, it would be that the laundry room is too narrow.

I have more closets and kitchen cabinets than I have stuff to put in them. This has never been the case for me before! I love it. So put in lots of extra storage. Deep drawers instead of the lower kitchen cabinets are great to have.

I have a large, four foot high mail slot to the right of my front door, instead of a mailbox. Inside, I put a table under it and whatever mail I get falls on the table. This way I don't really have to check the mail every day and whatever I get is safely inside my house.

 

[Ronstar]

I did most of the work when we built our house 26 years ago, and I put in almost everything that I thought we needed back then. But we should have had:

Maintenance free soffit and fascia
Bigger detached workshop/garage
Conduit from basement to attic to make future electrical changes easier
Floor drain in garage
Bigger kitchen for resale value with an island and island seating
More of an open concept
Should have designed and built the house with a front load attached garage instead of side load.


Things that we put in but don’t need:
Separate patio and deck
Multiple lower level exterior doors.
Whirlpool bath in master bathroom
Don’t need separate Living and family rooms.
Have separate dining room, but we only use it once a year.
We made our attached garage 3 car double deep. Should have made a smaller attached garage and bigger detached.

 

[mountainsoft]

36" wide doorways throughout the house. It's a very minimal cost difference when building, but it's easier to move things in and out of rooms, and you'll be prepared if you should ever have mobility issues (wheelchair or walker for instance).

Along those lines, we also have a curbless shower in our master bath, and have blocking inside the walls in case we ever need to install grab bars.

If you have a crawlspace or attic, install conduit and empty wall boxes into the accessible space. I installed double-gang boxes with short conduit runs to our crawlspace. I have fished up cable TV, phone lines, ethernet cables, and more over the years. It's super easy to change things out as needs and/or technology changes without tearing walls apart. You can get keystone jacks and face plates for just about any connection. I only did one of these in each room. If I were doing it over I would do at least two per room and use 4-gang boxes instead of two gang. Just install blank cover plates until you need them.

In our living room I ran 12/3 cable to every outlet and connected the red wire to a wall switch. Now I can easily convert any outlet in the living room to a switched outlet for a lamp, Christmas tree, etc. by connecting the red wire to the outlet instead of the black wire. If you want to get fancy, you could even wire the top outlet as switched and the bottom outlet always on.

We only have a two car garage, but it's a nice 24'x28' size. We rarely park a car in there, but it gives me plenty of room for a woodworking shop. I placed electrical outlets every four feet in the garage, but would probably go every 32 inches if I had to do over again.

 

[Bamaman]

Thank you all for the great thought and ideas that you've put into your homes.

After my wife and I had separate homes built on a slab, we put the households together and have since either had basement or crawl space homes. It makes electrical additions/changes so much easier. And plumbing is so much easier to deal with too.

We moved into our present home a year ago, and have a triple car garage. But most homes in our area also have an outside garage or large she-shed to put lawn mowers and other bulky items in.

Putting in dedicated wall outlets in the garage is needed for a second refrigerator and/or deep freezer. If someone has a shop with an air compressor, they should consider plumbing the garage for air. And a 220 outlet is often needed for that compressor or even a welder. We were fortunate to have bought a home with 500 feet of 6' wood fence which saved us big $ when installing a fiberglass pool this Summer.

Instead of a wood deck on the back of our screen porch, we had a huge concrete deck poured for the same cost. It's really nice to have concrete sidewalks poured all around the house--something I didn't do.

 

[Masquernom]

- I wish I had upgraded to the concrete siding boards...vinyl siding makes a racket in the wind
- I wish I had made the garage 4 feet deeper, so I could more easily work in it even with the cars in the garage. We did make it 4 feet wider, which makes it much better when 2 cars are parked.
- Wish I had ditch the tub in the master bedroom and gone with a large walk-in doorless shower.
- Wish I had increased the size of the walk-in closet...wife's biggest complaint for 15 years, and rightfully so.
- Wish I had the builder put the heat pumps away from the master bedroom side of the house
- Wish the thermostat was placed to better reflect the temperature of the occupied areas of the house

The DW and I will probably be building in a few years, so i will watch this thread for ideas

Our house has a remote sensor wired to the thermostat. It senses the temperature further back in the house from where the main thermostat is mounted. You may be able to add that to your home if it's a problem. I think the most modern thermostats can actually take two remote readings and average them for control.

 

[Amethyst]

We are re-doing the kitchen, and got the same assertion from the cabinet people - I figure there must be more money in drawers than in pull-outs.

I prefer a mix of pull-outs and drawers. I find it easier to put taller items in a pull-out, versus a 9-inch drawer. And I never found opening a door and sliding out a shelf difficult, even though the cabinet salesman kept trying to persuade me that I should.

One thing that we did in our winter home kitchen renovation was drawers rather than cupboards for most of the base cabinets... much easier to access pots and pans and the like in drawers vs opening doors and sliding out a shelf.

Also, LED underlighting on the wall cabinets was a useful addition.