About to begin the process of building a new custom home. Please help me brainstorm ideas on where to cut costs and where to splurge. I realize you have no idea about my family's goals, interest, tastes, etc. So, please give your opinion based on well...your opinion.

In your past projects, what do you wish you would have done differently? What should you have splurged more on and what should you have gone to a lower cost / quality on?

Specifically in the areas of:

Flooring
Windows (efficiency, etc)
A/C and Insulation (we're building in South Texas)
Master bed / bath layout & features
Roof

and anything else you can think of. Thanks in advance,

If you ever think you might need a plug here or l/v there. Do it now. Even if you never use it. A lot easier to do it now then later.

If you have kids or entertain a lot get two dishwashers. Worked for a women that had two when I was in HS and really didn't appreciate of how awesome it was until I had kids.

If you have kids or entertain a lot get two dishwashers. Worked for a women that had two when I was in HS and really didn't appreciate of how awesome it was until I had kids.

Without knowing your interests and hobbies here is a quick list I would want

• Extra 110V non gfci outlets in the garage (walls and a couple in the ceiling)
• 220V outlet(s) in the garage
• Urinal in the garage
• Wash basin in the garage (hot and cold water)
• Extra 6 ft of width in the garage for workbenches/compressors/etc.
• Ceiling fan or mini split system AC in the garage
• hidden cutout somewhere in the interior to put a gun safe behind a hinged bookshelf (or the like).

Ethernet connection, phone connection and cable outlet in every room. Two cables in places were you would want to put a TV (living room wall, kitchen area, etc.)

In the office, put multiple 2 gang outlets (4 total plugs) all on DIFFERENT circuits. A place for all the modems, routers, wireless things, with Ethernet connectionS (like 2-4) near it. With computers, monitors, routers and such, you can overdraw power in the office.

Single box with all phone, ethernet, cable connections. We have it in our guest closet. Can easily route internet to all rooms, cable/sat/antenna connections to the cable outlets in each room, etc.

Eave plugs. Outlets on the underside of your eaves. Allows you to plug in christmas lights that are all controlled from a switch in the entryway. Did this for several houses when I worked as an electrician. No more running of extension cords around the house and can change out the simple switch for a timer switch later so lights come on/off without you actually remembering.

Tubes in the wall for the phone/cable/ethernet connections. Allows you to later pull cables if a new technology comes (fiber lines, etc.) Essentially a plastic flexible tube.

Sink in the laundry room.

3rd car bay in garage. Back door in garage so you can change out air quickly inside garage (i can do this; essentially have a wind tunnel with one garage door open and the back door open. Useful when painting/staining wood).

Extra outlets/circuits in the garage for tools/woodworking/etc. At least one plug near the garage door, so you can plug in leaf blower/shop vac.

3-4 individual circuits for kitchen, besides appliances. Microwave on own circuit (I hate above stove ones, so mine is countertop), coffee pot, mixer, blender, etc. If my wife turns on the microwave and her one-cup coffee thing, it pops the circuit.

Gas everything. Tankless water heater.

Spray foam insulation. Not a fan of the radiant barrier, as that kills radio waves in the house (I refuse to pay for TV, so need TV antenna. Foil in attic = no TV signal. Also, radio is hard to pick up sometimes)

6" exterior walls (5.5" actually) instead of the 4" (3.5" actually) walls. More insulation. Essentially use a 2x6 for the walls instead of a 2x4.

Multiple lights/LED lighting in the attic area. Convert from the required one fixture (with one 100W bulb) to 6-8 fixtures (if going with a single bulb) or two to four 2-4 foot fluorescent fixtures.

Under counter lighting. Get LED lighting or wires to a switch for something.

Silestone (or equivalent) for counters. Looks like marble, but no issues with hot/cold, no cleaning/sealing issues. Essentially polished concrete (but decorative!). Can put pots straight from the stove on the surface and not mess it up.

If you want the SS look, make sure the fridge is magnetic. If not, none of your magnets will work on the fridge. Same goes for dishwasher (aunt (and others) have a magnet for the dishwasher if it is clean/dirty)

DO THIS REGARDLESS:
Minimum 12 AWG for all electrical lines. Do not let them put 14 AWG in the house. You will thank me later.


Those are all I can think of. Some I have in my current house and I like it. Others are what I wish it had.


~egon

Try not to have the front or back elevations facing east or west; you'll either have the front of your house blasted by the sun, or your back yard/porch entertaining area will be.

Covered porch area; front, back, side, or all of the above. A must if you can't control which direction the front and back will face.

Deep garage, at least 24 feet if you can.

At least 2 downstairs bedrooms if building a 2-story, and make a bedroom and bathroom wheelchair accessible.

Second the Silestone/quartz countertop recommendation. I have thoroughly enjoyed mine. No sealing, can set stuff straight out of the oven on it.

If just one dishwasher, get one that has two drawers/compartments. Research reviews on brands--there are some you want to avoid.

Build in a generator, I think already mentioned.

Don't do a built-in that limits TV size..our biggest regret in our family room.

More info since you guys have had great ideas...

The plan is for a two story. I've been researching some on building an energy efficient house but actually save money in the process. The 2x6 / 24 in on center was one area that looked like it would save abotu 10% of wood use and also allow for much more insulation in the walls.

Glad some of you mentioned the electrical outlets and such. It's way over my head right now but will pass along to builder.

Love the two dishwasher idea. I left the house with a clean dishwasher and another load in the sink waiting for an unload.

I built my previous house (and unfortunately had to sell it) and agree strongly with the tankless gas water heater and the all-tile master shower with no door. Those are the two things I miss most about my old house.

I also highly recommend HW floors. I love them...even in the kitchen and bedrooms. If you go with tile, I would strongly recommend talking to your contractor about a liquid membrane to help prevent any cracks in the tiles due to foundation settling.

Solid HW cabinetry. The house I built had all hardwood cabinets (alder). They were nothing fancy in terms of the design of the doors and the finish, but they were solid and very durable. The house I have now (a spec home) supposedly has high-end cabinetry (Kent Moore), but there is too much veneer and particle board for my preference (the bases are solid, but the doors are particle/pressed board). Also, the cabinets are painted cream with that brown "glaze" over them...looks great from far away but not so great up close. The glaze chips off way too easily (and I've only been in the house a little over a year). I can see why the "glazed" look is so popular, but it's just not durable IMO. They also don't have self-closing (or easy-close) drawers and doors, and I'm realizing how much I miss that, too.

I would also avoid a jetted tub. I've had two houses with and one without. I didn't miss it in the one that didn't have it, and after a few years, the jets just get gross and are difficult to clean. They can also have electrical issues.

The three things my current house has that I wish my previous one had are real stairs to the attic space (no pull-down), an oversized laundry room (big enough for an extra refrigerator, even though that's not what I use the space for) and the nice coating on the garage floor. My builder priced out the coating when I built the previous house, though, and it was very $$.

What is the benefit of a shower with no door?

You don't have any glass to clean!!!

I spray and squeegee my glass shower door every day to prevent soap scum build up. And I'm teaching my son to do the same. Not necessary if you don't have a door (I also spray down my tile, but tile doesn't get that same build-up like glass does).

It also makes the master bath feel very high-end and spa-like. In order to go the no-door route, you typically end up with a bigger shower, too.

The no door shower was one of the first things on our "Had to Have" list when we started touring model homes. It's such a genius idea. We never could keep our shower door clean and it makes the whole bathroom look dirty.

I can't reiterate enough the importance of not only outlets in the garage, but make sure you have multiple circuits and enough amperage to actually utilize the tools you have/may every want to own in the future.

Deck any attic access space you think you'll need during construction - not easy getting plywood through the drop-down access door.

Pre-wire for surround sound, and run twice as much cat5/5e/6 as you think you'll need. A central wiring closet would be awesome.

Insulated garage doors if they face east/west. My garage is an oven. If garage is detached, add a door on the back side as well for air flow.

Garage door openers - run wires for controls to inside the house.

Gas appliances, always. Make sure you're vent over the stove actually goes outside.

Of all the features we got with our current house, the sink in the laundry room has been the best.

Paint brushes, nasty pet stuff, nasty anything goes straight to that sink.

A silly pet peeve of mine, but place garage attive entries away from the walls. (Blocks off wall space for work bench)

Also, especially is in north texas, even if you dont want it now, see if you can do a section of the garage as rebar instead of post tension incase you (or yiur wife) ever wants a storm shelter.

Better yet, if thats up your allwy, see if the builder offers reinforced rooms or closets for the same purpose.

(Talked my wife out of an expensive and space consuming renovation to our existing home, but if we ever build, I know shell at least want to price our options)

Edit: jusy saw you said south texas. Never mind.

Where to splurge:

Foundation. Get it designed right, have it built right. This includes getting the subgrade overexcavated and engineered fill brought in, then compacted to 95% standard proctor.

Laundry room - build it large enough ypu can comfortably work in it. I would make all laundry rooms a minimum 10' x 10' if it were up to me. Include a sink and counter space and cabinets as well.

Hose bibs on the exterior. Go outside and walk arojnd and any place you think to yourself "I will never need a water hose here", put one there.

Soft water loop. Put one in where you can easily install a filtration system. I would reccomend the garage so it is protected.

Water heater. NEVER, EVER put it in the attic. Any builder that wants to put it there, kick them in the junk. Then kick them in the junk again. Put it in the garage or the utility room.


Insulaton. Seriously, insulate right. And insulate all bathroom walls and the master bedroom walls, even interior. You will really appreciate the sound dampening later down the road.

As builts - take pictures of the framinf, electrical and plumbing as it goes in on each wall. Make the builder provide drawings with measurements. You will love yourself later.

Circuits - make the electrician label the circuits in the breaker bos so that you know which breaker does what. If it were me, i would pay more to have each ourlet and switch labeled as well. You dont realize how handy this is until you are flipping just about every breaker tryingntobfind the rightbone 7 years from now when workingnon some project. And get as big a panel as you can so youbhave as much spare electrical space as possible.

Where not to splurge:

Window trim, paint, finishes that you will limely change every 5 years anyway.

Regarding the foundation splurge...any idea how much extra that would cost? What about using fly ash in the cement? I have seen lots of LEED building articles that reference it.

Our living room/kitchen/dining room is one large room with 3 entrances - one from the master suite, one from the foyer and one from the hallway to the bedrooms - so we have 3 light switches to turn on the lights I the living room. Basically, a switch to turn on the main lights in the room from any way you can enter it.

I wish we would have a put a door from the garage into the backyard. One so you don't have to go to the front of the garage when in the backyard and also to get some air movement in there.

The plugs in the eaves are genius...we have them and it looks so much neater for Christmas lights.

Plugs, plugs, plugs.

I put a window over the oversized tub in the master bath that can be opened. Most are glass block or a decorative window. After 2 showers in the mornings, it gets steamy in there. Now I can open the window over the tub to help cool it off (fall, winter and spring). Summer we just deal with it.

We're pre-wired for surround sound and have speakers on the back porch. We ran a gas line on the back porch so if we ever want to add on or install the outdoor kitchen, it's all there. The TV plug is there too (just no TV yet).

We actually toured a house that had a stackable washer/dryer tucked away in a master bath, and another set in the utility room. If you have several kids or are involved in sports, it might be worth it to have 2 sets. I know several families that do and they love it.

My parents splurged on their windows and they can open from the bottom or tilt open from the top. Opening from the top allows the warmer air to escape. My dad doesn't like to run the AC when he can just open a window (they live in the country).

If you're putting in a pool, I'd strongly recommend some sort of bathroom outside so you don't have wet folks walking through your house.

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Regarding the foundation splurge...any idea how much extra that would cost? What about using fly ash in the cement? I have seen lots of LEED building articles that reference it.

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Depends - but a good engineering survey and design recommendation will run a few thousand. The additional work on the subgrade will run a few thousand more.

Yes, it sounds like a lot. But in the grand scheme of things, a few thousand spent up front on a much improved foundation design over the standard builder's design (your engineering price should also come with inspection services as well) is a drop in the bucket compared to levelling costs 10 years down the road.

As far as fly ash, that's an admixture that is used in concrete mix designs - usually to lighten the design weight up without really sacrificing strength. It is fairly standard these days in mix designs. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw a structural design that didn't have it. And pay for a 3500 psi mix over the standard 3000 mix.

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Foundation. Get it designed right, have it built right. This includes getting the subgrade overexcavated and engineered fill brought in, then compacted to 95% standard proctor.

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Start by having a geotech report prepared for the site. That will tell you, or really your structural engineer, what the site will bear and what needs to be done to it. If you get a structural guy to design any foundation without a geotech report, he's a fool.

LEED, and I say this as a legacy LEED AP, is a gigantic crock of sht.

You won't get away with non-GFCI receptacles in the garage, at least not at first, because it's a code requirement. You'll generally have a GFCI in the garage that picks up the front and back outside receps. Add another circuit or two feeding nothing but garage receptacles. Once the house is yours, you can swap out the upstream GFCI for the garage-only receps. You still want GFCI protection for the outdoor ones.

Have the electrician label the inside of the coverplate with the circuit number. Or label drawing of the house with the circuits. It shouldn't cost you more than a case of beer.

Add a surge suppressor at your service equipment/main panel.

Laundry room - cabinets and sink. Extra GFI & dedicated space for a deep freezer.
Love the idea of real steps to the attic. A friend just added on to their house and did this to the attic space above the garage.
Outdoor covered patio with power and tv outlet.
More than 2 car garage especially if you have kids. One whole bay of our 4 car is power wheels, bikes, scooters, etc.
An AV closet - centrally located to put all of your electronics. You'll get better wifi coverage in the house, and if you wire it right you can get away without having a set top box on every tv.
Kitchen - Get a deep one well sink. It's much easier to wash big casserole dishes and the like than in a divided sink. A smaller prep sink would be nice to have too. For me, drawers work better than open cabinets, it's much easier to keep gagets organized.

One thing about the foundation:

Get piers if you have active soils (goes with the geotech report). Parent's neighbor's house was a gentleman from our church. Built in the early 90's in west Houston. Spent $3k or so on piers for the house (was a civil guy). House is still level after all the years. Parents actually looked into buying it when he had to move, but right before the oil bust. Funny we ended up next door to it.

3 or so years ago parents finally leveled their house after 2-3 droughts, 2 chinese tallow trees and poor soil prep work. ~$30k in work.

The $3k in prep work I think pays off. Immensely.

~egon

I haven't seen it mentioned in this thread but it has been in others...put a floor drain in your utility room. If/when you have a supply hose from the wall to your washing machine break, you'll be glad you have a drain instead of your front or back door being the drain.

great suggestions up above and I don't have a lot to add. However, the one item that has been a major improvement in our life is having a trash compactor.

With three kids, we generate a lot of trash. In the previous house we would struggle with only having trash pickup once a week. Now with a trash compactor we can actually skip a week and still have room in the trash can.

Hose bib close to the garage on the side of the house for washing cars, etc...

Under cabinet lights in the kitchen. Our current house doesn't have them but our last 2 houses did and we really miss them. Don't really need over cabinet lights for accent unless you like that kind of thing

Switch controlled plugs that are 1/2 hot for lamps.

receptacles in the eaves that are switch controlled for Christmas lights. We put the switch inside of the coat closet since you will rarely use it outside of holiday season.

conduits under sidewalks and driveways for landscape lighting

recess the area directly behind your refrigerator 4-6 more inches to accommodate extra large fridges. That way, they don't stick out into the area in front of your cabinets.

Receptacle at mantle level of the fireplace for lamps or Christmas decorations. Easily hidden by pictures or other fancy crap your wife will put up there.

if I think of more, I'll come back and add


also...if you have dogs, pre plan for a doggy door. We have an 8 foot glass door going to the backyard that I didn't want to change to 1/2 glass to allow for a doggy door, so I bought one that goes through the entire wall and brick/stone. It's 10" deep. I put it in myself in a location I didn't think would have electrical, plumbing, structural issues, etc... One thing I didn't think about was the "tubes in the wall" that our builder put in for pest control. I cut right through that sucker. I guess this one little area at the back of my house won't have the tubes for them to pump the pesticide through now.

Lots of good advice above. I don't get two dishwashers. I had three kids in my house and we ran the dishwasher a lot. But not enough that I'd want two of them. You use the same number of glasses and dishes no matter how many dishwashers you have. And none of the whizzy two drawer models have a good reputation for reliability. They also hold less than a good single.

We have a trash compactor. That is a great thing to have in a family. Take one trash can out instead of two every week.

Gutters.

No water heater in the attic!

Central wiring closet.

Wire for surround sound - but not ceiling speakers! They suck if you care about sound. If you don't care about sound - go ahead. If you know where your wall mount TVs will be embed the in-wall wiring now. Power, coax, CAT5, and HDMI.

If you put in a water softener or loop - make sure at least one outside house bib has softened water (for washing cars). Let the rest be hard water.

I had a new home built in 2006 in B-CS. I'm no expert, but here are a few things I learned in retrospect from my experience:

Decide where you want the thermostat and discuss with your builder to find a reasonably energy efficient location. Mine was put on a wall about a foot away from the door to the garage. Of course, every time I go out into the garage in the summer, the t-stat gets hit with a blast of 147 degree air and it makes the AC turn on.

Ditto on the avoiding marble. I have a marble-topped island in the kitchen.

A 4 bedroom will resale quicker than a 3 bedroom. I modified a 4 bedroom plan to be 3 bedroom + office by changing a closet in a guest bedroom into a built in bookshelf. with cabinets below. Wish now I had kept the closet and just used the room as I intended. In general, beware of re-purposing a room into a single purpose room with anything other than furniture and paint. And never put up wallpaper.

Put a lot of thought into how you want the lot landscaped. My landscape sub cut corners, did a poor job on many fronts and I have spent a lot of time and money in 8 years fixing his screw-ups. In particular, make sure he does a good job with grading away from the house, and grading the lot so the back yard drains properly. If you plan on a wood fence, use metal posts on the gate where water will presumably channel out of your back yard and out into the street. If you do shrubs and plants in beds under windows, try to use bubbler or drip irrigation rather than sprinklers on risers--you'll never have clean windows otherwise. I also went cheap and did fence line to fence line St. Augustine grass. Lots of time and money in mowing, weed eating, pre-emergent, pest control, fungus control, etc. Wish I had a lot less turfed area.

Think hard before you put an island in your kitchen. They look nice and can have some practical use, but make sure that you have enough room to maneuver around the dishwasher and that the island doesn't create a barrier to cabinets where you keep everyday dishes.

The "to island" or "not to island" discussion has come up as well. We have one now and it does get cramped when cooking on the range in the island and two of the kids need in the silverware drawer and fridge.

I have become fascinated with the wiring and outlet discussion. I love the tubes in the walls idea and central box. I have started to wonder about wireless in a two story house and the reception strength upstairs.

Thanks to all and please keep them coming. We're still a few weeks away from sitting down with the builder / architect.

-Gas connection to back patio
-connections for 2 dryers
-floor outlets
-secret passages
-space for freezer
-prewire for landscape lighting, dedicated switches

Lots of great suggestions mentioned above.

Haven't seen this one above for the laundry room. Install a drain under your W/D. If you ever have a hose burst or have a leak the water will drain straight from the laundry room and not flood a large portion of the home. This is especially a MUST if you put them upstairs (where some floor plans can generate huge amounts of laundry).
If you're going with front loaders, get you might prefer to have your cabinet guys build your pedestals. Much cheaper than the store bought models. If you go this route, they need to have openings on the top and holes in the drawers to catch leaks. Also, over reinforce them. Spin cycles generate A LOT of kinetic energy.
Have a 2 inch recess in the foundation under the W/D where the drain is. Any eventual leak will go straight through the pedestal and drawers and into a floor drain. The recess should be just smaller than your pedestals. Your flooring stops at the builtin or just under the pedestals and the recess can be left unfinished.


Here's a nice DIY thing my folks did in their new build and its beyond pure genius (in addition to much of what is listed above). Next to your Washer/Dryer...

• Have that nook designed with one side so that it's framed out with the broad side of the 2x4's parallel to the room.
  
• After the sheetrock is installed, go to the home center and buy a cheapo shower curtain rod and the longest drill bit (ship auger) you can find that has a diameter the same size as the diameter of the curtain rod.
• Strip the guts out of the rod so it's just two tubes that will telescope on one another.
• Drill a hole as deep into that those studs as your bit will go.
• Glue a decorative medallion to the wall around the hole.
• Glue the larger piece into the wall so the end is flush with the medallion
• Glue one of your cabinet knobs or drawer pulls into the end of the smaller rod section

You now have a great place to hang laundry as it comes out of the dryer. This is far nicer than having a rod permanently above the W/D and can be retracted into the wall when not in use. It's great if you don't dry some things 100% and like to let them air dry slightly. Finishing off with some air dry helps wrinkles fall out and I think it prevents some shrinkage as well.

-Space for built-in wine fridge (if that's your thing)
-Dimmers on light switches
-Platter storage slots in kitchen
-Drawers drawers drawers in kitchen
-Recycling space/bins in kitchen/pantry/utility
-Dog washing drain/shower head in utility
-Auto-start dehumidifier/fan in bathrooms
-hire a lighting professional to recommend placement of can lights

As for the kitchen, do as many drawers as you can for your lower cabinets...so much easier than rummaging through cabinets!

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As for the kitchen, do as many drawers as you can for your lower cabinets...so much easier than rummaging through cabinets!

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Completely agree with this, especially for the area under the cooktop (assuming you will have wall ovens and not a range). I had drawers under the cook top in my previous house and loved them. Unfortunately, I'm back to doors under the cooktop now.

Also, have the granite installers save the pieces of granite that they cut out for your sink and cooktop. You can then use this "waste" to have your tile installer make accent tiles for your backsplash. My builder's standard backsplash was a very basic one-tile design. I wanted something to accent the wall behind the cooktop, but those decorative tiles can be very expensive. The girl at the tile showroom suggested using the scrap granite and they arranged for it all. I would up with a very nice accent design that incorporated the granite tiles on the wall behind the cooktop at no extra cost!