We are soon starting with a home designer on a new house. Please give me your novel/clever design ideas, things you wish you would have known or done differently, and any general recommendations. Thanks!

Check the home improvement board. There is a thread on there about ideas during Home building.

Now I see you started one there too.

Good thread here:
https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/2910270

Thanks!

18 ft garage door
Make it a least 24 ft deep finished inside

If you're a gun guy, try to find a good spot for a dedicated gun room to put a safe in. An 8'x6' space is all that's needed (as a minimum). That fits a nice sized gun safe, and gives rooms for shelving/storage of other items.

Preferably, you'd find a good natural place to hide the room (i.e. in a walk in closet), with a hidden door access point.

Having lived in a few houses, I have a recommendation. I learned that I prefer all doors that open to the outside to open to a porch or overhang. I don't like exterior doors to only have the eave for protection. You can't open them easily when it rains without getting wet. Are there little things that have bothered you in your past homes? If so, here is your chance.

If your living room is laid out where furniture won't be on a wall, make sure you have a couple floor plugs so you can have lamps on endtables and/or phone and tablet charging while on the couch.

Run Cat5 or Cat6 or whatever the latest standard is throughout the house and in the main tv areas. HDMI can also be run via Cat5/Cat6 so keep that in mind.

More outlets > less outlets in rooms where you'll be spending a lot of time.

Avoid built ins/nooks for TVs on the wall in the living room. You never know how TV tech/sizes will change and there are so many houses where the TV size is limited because of a build in or a wall nook. Also run power up high on the wall so you can hide the cords if you decide to wall mount.

Thank you for all the suggestions!

Conduit, conduit, conduit. Plus string or something inside it to pull wire through. And do it bigger than you think you'll need, the cable may be a small diameter but you have to get the end through as well.

Don't go anywhere near minimum specs for your floor joists. The place will be a whole lot quieter and solid as a result.

A few things we did that we're still very happy with 8 years later.

In no particular order:

1. Run a sidewalk from our driveway (front swing drive) all the way down the side of the house to the back patio. Great for moving things from front yard to back yard and vice versa.

2. Recirculating hot water. We prefer this to on-demand. With recirc and two 50 gallon water heaters tied together, the 2 of us have never approached running out of hot water. put the pump on a timer and we have hot water within 3 seconds pretty much anywhere in the house.

3. Large covered patio. Our builder at the time was very good about adding covered patios at $X per square foot covered. From what I understand X has grown significantly only the past few years. Of course building in 2010 was different - builders were just happy to have business.

4. Gas line to back porch.

5. Gas line to front porch for a gas lantern. It sets the home apart from all the others in our neighborhood and is our nod to NOLA, where my wife's family still lives.

6. Make sure your garage is big enough to fit a truck, even if you don't plan to have one.

7. What's been said about conduit and pre-wiring. We did a lot, and in hindsight I wish we did twice as much.

Outlets, Outlets, Outlets.

All corners of outside, floor in living room, where you think you are going to put Christmas tree, etc.

Another big one is outlets in the soffit, makes Christmas lights much easier.

Attic access with real stairs.

Central Vacuum.

Just plug a hose into the wall when it's time to clean. They also make toe kicks that go into your baseboards, just sweep the mess to the wall and away it goes. All of the noise is out with the main unit or in the attic.

1 - More than two (2) electrical outlets at your kitchen counter level
2 - floor outlets in living areas
3 - water softner (i don't care where you build I would still want one)
4 - no cheap basic aluminum windows (upgrade these)
5 - plenty of insulation (walls and ceiling)
6 - have builder build your outdoor kitchen or at least have the hook up done (learned it's cheaper than hiring someone to do it later)
7 - pay attention when they are framing for bowed wood (drywall looks like crap if you don't make them redo it)
8 - more than two (2) electrical outlets in your garage as well
9 - tankless water heaters


I will keep thinking and add more later.

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4 - no cheap basic aluminum windows (upgrade these)

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This X a billion.

When my wife and I started interviewing architects and builders, we toured a lot of homes. I was always surprised to be in a 1-3 million dollar house, with builder grade windows. Like it was an afterthought. "Hey ignore all my crappy windows and look at this awesome tile/countertop/flooring/huge fireplace!" Umm - but you have a ton of glass and it all looks like shat because you refused to spend money on windows.

Now, that said - the good stuff aint cheap. We just went down this road, getting pricing that was sky high (Kolbe), on down to everyone else. We knew we couldn't afford steel, but we quickly learned that theres a bunch of stuff in the middle. We settled on Marvin Wood-Ultrex, but even that required a $50,000 window budget.

All this to say - don't forget windows! Do some research and buy something that looks decent and performs well. I'll never forget the million dollar home with crappy vinyl windows in it.

Another I wish I'd done - hate that I didn't do.

It was a minor upgrade to put solid core doors throughout the interior. The cost was significantly less than after-market.

I curse myself on a regular basis for not doing this upgrade. Solid core door insulate sound better, feel better when opening /closing, and you can show you're pissed by slamming them. Hollow core doors "wooossshh" shut on an angry slam

Also hollow doors have crappy sound when closed over wood/tile.

When I'm in a home with solid doors, right or wrong, it just feels like its probably a better built home in the parts you can't see.

PFG said:

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Quote:

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4 - no cheap basic aluminum windows (upgrade these)

---

This X a billion.

When my wife and I started interviewing architects and builders, we toured a lot of homes. I was always surprised to be in a 1-3 million dollar house, with builder grade windows. Like it was an afterthought. "Hey ignore all my crappy windows and look at this awesome tile/countertop/flooring/huge fireplace!" Umm - but you have a ton of glass and it all looks like shat because you refused to spend money on windows.

Now, that said - the good stuff aint cheap. We just went down this road, getting pricing that was sky high (Kolbe), on down to everyone else. We knew we couldn't afford steel, but we quickly learned that theres a bunch of stuff in the middle. We settled on Marvin Wood-Ultrex, but even that required a $50,000 window budget.

All this to say - don't forget windows! Do some research and buy something that looks decent and performs well. I'll never forget the million dollar home with crappy vinyl windows in it.

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I've also noticed with having these windows that when running heat and it is really cold outside the condensation builds up really bad on the inside and floods your interior window sills. They bring a lot of mess during the winter.

PFG said:

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Quote:

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4 - no cheap basic aluminum windows (upgrade these)

---

This X a billion.

When my wife and I started interviewing architects and builders, we toured a lot of homes. I was always surprised to be in a 1-3 million dollar house, with builder grade windows. Like it was an afterthought. "Hey ignore all my crappy windows and look at this awesome tile/countertop/flooring/huge fireplace!" Umm - but you have a ton of glass and it all looks like shat because you refused to spend money on windows.

Now, that said - the good stuff aint cheap. We just went down this road, getting pricing that was sky high (Kolbe), on down to everyone else. We knew we couldn't afford steel, but we quickly learned that theres a bunch of stuff in the middle. We settled on Marvin Wood-Ultrex, but even that required a $50,000 window budget.

All this to say - don't forget windows! Do some research and buy something that looks decent and performs well. I'll never forget the million dollar home with crappy vinyl windows in it.

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Is vinyl the way to go?

Braxton.Sherrill said:

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Outlets, Outlets, Outlets.

All corners of outside, floor in living room, where you think you are going to put Christmas tree, etc.

Another big one is outlets in the soffit, makes Christmas lights much easier.

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I saw one person who didn't like clutter put outlets in their pantry. That way, she didn't have a toaster, coffee maker, etc laying out.

One thing I would do is make sure you have a vent in your pantry. We do not, and in the summer, the pantry gets pretty hot, which messes with the food.

TamuKid said:

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PFG said:

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Quote:

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4 - no cheap basic aluminum windows (upgrade these)

---

This X a billion.

When my wife and I started interviewing architects and builders, we toured a lot of homes. I was always surprised to be in a 1-3 million dollar house, with builder grade windows. Like it was an afterthought. "Hey ignore all my crappy windows and look at this awesome tile/countertop/flooring/huge fireplace!" Umm - but you have a ton of glass and it all looks like shat because you refused to spend money on windows.

Now, that said - the good stuff aint cheap. We just went down this road, getting pricing that was sky high (Kolbe), on down to everyone else. We knew we couldn't afford steel, but we quickly learned that theres a bunch of stuff in the middle. We settled on Marvin Wood-Ultrex, but even that required a $50,000 window budget.

All this to say - don't forget windows! Do some research and buy something that looks decent and performs well. I'll never forget the million dollar home with crappy vinyl windows in it.

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Is vinyl the way to go?

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Depends where you are located.

Use this for reference

http://www.efficientwindows.org/index.php

Saw a house that had been remodeled that turned the old galley kitchen into a cross between prep area and butlers pantry. It was pretty awesome, all of the stuff like toaster, blender, coffee etc were all in there. It left the Kitchen very clean looking.