Regret having a sink in the kitchen island. Sink is great but the under counter vent means there is always an odor. Plumber has changed the vent cap twice but to no avail.

Conduit everywhere you want data or entertainment. We have been in thousands of homes and very few do this right. Almost all of them end up with too many, too few, or the wrong type of cabling where they need it.

This includes the "home run" to the outside of the house. $10 worth of conduit makes bringing new services into your house future-proof. In many cases, we have had to drill giant holes in someone's house to run fiber optic cabling.

Keep in mind the difference if you are building a for now house or a forever house. If this is a forever house, you like ME and my parents will age.

All that trendy counter height stuff will be worthless because I can no longer after my broken hip (and I am short to add to it) climb onto tall stools. Even my current apartment has a totally for me useless kitchen counter height breakfast area.

Second, have walk in showers available. Tubs even the fancy ones with all the jets become difficult to step into. I could not find an apartment with a shower at all that would also take a large dog, but I am afraid every time I step over the tub to shower that way. I quit taking baths when I was a young adult, yet houses seem to always have more tubs than showers.

I know the trend is for two story homes, but make sure that one bedroom that could become a master bedroom and one bath are on the first floor.

Have all doors at with width to take a walker or wheelchair. This is NOT expensive when the house is built, might even help with resale, and is sometimes impossible after a house is finished.

Amen to all the utility room information. It should be large enough for a folding area, an hanging up area, and honestly a second fridge and/or freezer. If it is downstairs see if the builder can make you an old school laundry shoot or even better a dumb waiter like lift that lets you take towels and things to the second floor. I would not put the laundry on the second floor in case you ever have a plumbing or overflow issue. I have fallen down the stairs or up the stairs more than once carrying a basket of laundry.

I did NOT like the built in the wall vacuum. I prefer my dyson to anything I have ever used.

I also LOVED that my house in Laredo had exterior lighting under the eaves AND spots on all the corners. These were controlled by switches in the upstairs master bedroom. It made me feel really secure when at home alone or with just the kids. If I heard any strange sound, I simply flipped on those lights and it was almost as bright as a football field. Better to me than even a security system.

Aquin said:

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Had a couple of additional comments.
1. Specify that the 2X4 that touches the slab be treated lumber. It is the wood that is most likely to come in contact with moisture.
2. A lot of builders use Hardee board on the exteriors. That is good because it does not rot. However, the facia looks thin and cheap to me. I used a full cut 2X6 made of cedar for the facia board. It gives you some mass and looks substantial. Plus being cedar and in the air it will not rot.

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Hardee board isn't just for "non-rotting" purposes, it also is fire-resistant.

Cedar on the other hand, while attractive, is very flammable, and WILL start rotting. My parents had to replace the siding on their garage because of this.

ro828 said:

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2. We put up wooden fencing instead of chain link. Why didn't God intervene and stop us?

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What's wrong with wooden fencing? I mean, there's nothing wrong with chain link, but a wooden fence tends to be more attractive and adds more visual block.

Have had ours for 9 years in the island have never had a problem with odor