Our house (in the Heights in Houston) was flooded so we're building a custom house now and due to the suddenness of this I don't have as many ideas of crap that I want in the house. It's an 8,000 sq ft lot so I can't build a giant barndamonium in the backyard but I'm getting a big sink in the garage and a closet built around my gun safe in the office. I'm thinking about RJ45 run to a few rooms and maybe a media closet where HDMIs etc go to from the living room/game room TV.

It's a 3k sq ft house so can't go too crazy, but what are some ideas folks that have been down this path would recommend?

We were going to do the built in vacuum but I'm not sure it's worth it when there will be zero carpet in the whole house. The baseboard vacuum slot is cool but not sure it's worth the cost when my wife already has the fancy handheld Dyson thing.

If you end up with a crawlspace to elevate the place out of the flood zone, encapsulate it now instead of retrofitting it later.

Put data/tv/hdmi in conduit so you can upgrade later. Do put in a media closet that everything runs back to.

Urinal in master bath for yourself.

Hot water hose bibb on exterior of house, probably near garage.

Looped hot water system with circulating pump if it's in the budget.

Corps_Ag12 said:

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Put data/tv/hdmi in conduit so you can upgrade later. Do put in a media closet that everything runs back to.

Urinal in master bath for yourself.

Hot water hose bibb on exterior of house, probably near garage.

Looped hot water system with circulating pump if it's in the budget.

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I'm thinking the media closet is a must even if I mostly use smart TV/Firestick/Chromecast.

Lol I wanted a urinal in the garage (also plan on home brewing/drinking in there) but my wife said she won't clean it.

Outdoor kitchen is stubbed out on the patio.

I like your style.

We did a hot water hose bib and there really isn't any additional cost to do this if you just include it in the plans. My only issue with it was that it took a long time to get hot water to it because it was far from the hot water heater. I always wondered if the contractor put insulation around the pipe between the hot water heater and the exterior hose bib.

If you have natgas available stub out for your outdoor kitchen AND run a gas line to your electric outdoor panel. Make sure your electrician prewires the panel for a standby generator. If you have any desire for a pool add in an outdoor bathroom and a separate access to it via your master suite.
Add in a separate AC unit for your master suite , a mini split is a great option.

Some great ideas. For the garage you need extra space to store your future brewing equipment. A standard 2 car garage isn't enough. I'd put a 6-8' extension on the back so you have places for fermentation fridges, a chest freezer kegerator, and dry storage. When I rebuilt my garage we ran hot and cold water to a 3 basin sink. This was specifically for brewing so you can have a bin full of cleaning solution, a bin for sanitizing and then a dirty side for rinsing etc... I'd go to a restaurant store and buy a commercial three basin stainless sink, you can buy them at auction, new, for $100-120.

Next is power for the garage. As stated before, upgrade your panel, and have a cut switch to run a standby generator. Depending how large you want the generator to be will determine how may circuits you can run. Ideally you want at a minimum your kitchen fridge and you A/V system so you can keep up with the news. Sounds dumb, but I'd also run a TV antenna line (coax) from your attic on down. That way you have a backup plan to be informed. If you want to run your whole house or AC, then you'll probably need a built in generator with a natural gas feed. This takes some planning and thought.

As for power to the garage put in a 20A 110v outlet every 5', except around the sink. Might as well run 2 60A, 220v outlets as well, this will def help with future sale as your garage with an extension and enough power will become more attractive to a hobbyist. Also, lots and lots of LED lights to illuminate the garage, have them on different switches. And hell, if you plan to spend time in the garage, run power/lines for a TV. My garage is my brewery and I have a 40" tv with surround sound. So power, water (make sure you add a hose bib to the front and rear of the garage too), lights, outlets. Also epoxy the floor.

Urinal is an awesome idea, wife gave the green light for me to do that, but we couldn't figure out where to put one so it died. Matters little anyway as I just go mark my territory in the back yard while starting at the dogs "MINE".

For inside the house the media closet, put in a big gas range, double ovens, if you have a walk in pantry put 2 outlets in there and some table top space for small appliances. It's easy to go crazy in the kitchen. Under cabinet lighting. Cook book storage (could be in pantry), if you wife bakes, install a mixer lift.

Wet bar. Do it.

radiant heating pipes embedded in concrete floors throughout house (with manifold).
stained concrete floor finish everywhere above is installed.
concrete and steel "panic room"/walk-in gun safe with perhaps the electronics rack inside, too.
power wired to eaves for security cameras, christmas lights
lots of outdoor outlets, with one specifically for the outdoor/landscape lighting transformer
water catchment?

FYI POE is by far the easiest way to go with IP Security Cameras. Cat 5/6 is super easy to run.

This times 1000000

Think about wifi access point placement in the home and add in cat 5/power where you want/need them to be.

Floor electrical outlets in living room, depending on configuration of space.

Floor drain in mud room for easy cleaning.

Insulate interior walls for sound damping purposes. Really wish we had done this.

AlaskanAg99 said:

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Some great ideas. For the garage you need extra space to store your future brewing equipment. A standard 2 car garage isn't enough. I'd put a 6-8' extension on the back so you have places for fermentation fridges, a chest freezer kegerator, and dry storage. When I rebuilt my garage we ran hot and cold water to a 3 basin sink. This was specifically for brewing so you can have a bin full of cleaning solution, a bin for sanitizing and then a dirty side for rinsing etc... I'd go to a restaurant store and buy a commercial three basin stainless sink, you can buy them at auction, new, for $100-$120.

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Oh lawd, I hope my husband never sees this!

Here's a couple of previous threads regarding the same topic...no need to reinvent the wheel!

Home building tips??

Building New Home - Gimme Ideas

Safe room with vault door.

My '70 longbed fit in the garage at my first house (built in 2001) by about... 6 inches maybe. And if you closed the door and got out on the driver's side trapped unless you go back through the truck and slide across the seat to the other side!

JSKolache said:

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a garage that will fit a modern 1/2 ton truck would be nice. Have seen one of those in years....

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I can put my Tundra in with 5' to spare. So thankful the guy that built my house was a car guy and added the extra space.

For media closet, see any issue with just having this at the back of my media room?

coolerguy12 said:

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Sink in the garage is awesome.
I told my wife I want to install a vacuum system under the stairs so that when we sweep I can just push everything up to the baseboard, open a hatch, flip a switch and it's all gone. I hate trying to get all the dust bunnies in the dust pan and then slowly walk over to the trash can while half of it floats away.

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A sink in the bedroom would be reda$$ - that way you want have to walk too far to use the head.

drumboy said:

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Corps_Ag12 said:

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Put data/tv/hdmi in conduit so you can upgrade later. Do put in a media closet that everything runs back to.

Urinal in master bath for yourself.

Hot water hose bibb on exterior of house, probably near garage.

Looped hot water system with circulating pump if it's in the budget.

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I'm thinking the media closet is a must even if I mostly use smart TV/Firestick/Chromecast.

Lol I wanted a urinal in the garage (also plan on home brewing/drinking in there) but my wife said she won't clean it.

Outdoor kitchen is stubbed out on the patio.

I like your style.

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I have hose bib in garage, and am in the process of having a plumber give me hot water as well (I have a basement, so this is a very easy add on.)
Don't just put a hot hose bib. Make it like a faucet, so you can mix hot/cold and get your desired temp. You aren't going to want to only have either cold or scalding hot.

If you're going to homebrew, get a dedicated receptacle (if not 2) in garage for your future kegerator/chest freezer and/or fermentation fridge. If possible, have a recessed spot for these. Definitely plumb in for a nice big SS shop sink with a drainboard.

JSKolache said:

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a garage that will fit a modern 1/2 ton truck would be nice. Have seen one of those in years....

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My house is a 5 year old tract home and has a 21' deep garage, and it's the same for every garage in the surrounding area. I fit my short bed f150 easily; A 6.5' bed would have about 3" on either side to spare.

AlaskanAg99 said:

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Some great ideas. For the garage you need extra space to store your future brewing equipment. A standard 2 car garage isn't enough. I'd put a 6-8' extension on the back so you have places for fermentation fridges, a chest freezer kegerator, and dry storage.

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Better yet, just build a third slot, because while you may just start with a few buckets and pots and a fridge, before you know it your brew area looks like this:



and you'll be wishing you just had a third slot!

Then what isn't pictured is the area in the basement where I store all my grain, grain mill, a couple cabinets for parts and supplies, another wire rack for more parts and supplies, hose storage, carboys and kegs not in use. So yeh, make sure you have an area for that too.


Don't let this be a deterrent to getting into the hobby, but also, don't pretend like it won't happen

Haven't seen it posted, but something my wife and I want in our next house is a built in coffee/espresso machine. She hates clutter and appliances out on the countertops but that's something we use daily.

As an fyi even if you have no carpet the vacuum system is nice. We had hardwood everywhere and still had it installed along with the toe kick dust pans. One in the master bath so when the wife cuts my hair we have a place to sweep it and one in the kitchen area. If you have dogs it is a must as well. It also keeps that vacuum dust bag smell out of the house.

From a female perspective. Small access door from garage to pantry for easy grocery drop off. I'm big on electrical outlet ideas such as outlets in pantry for small appliances, recessed outlets for any rooms with furniture so it can be flush to wall, outlet strip underneath kitchen cabinets (behind cabinet lighting) so it leaves backsplash clean, outlets in bathroom drawers so cabinets remain free of clutter. Laundry room that backs up either to Master closet or Master bath where you can have small access door /laundry drop off that you can get clothes out of from laundry room. Recessed dryer vent so dryer can be flush to wall. Trash and recycling chutes in the kitchen that lead to bins in the garage or outside.

I've got many urinals all over my place!

I lost my front yard urinal when we moved from 200 acres to 20. My next move is to 1400 acres where the urinal is open all day everyday.