My wife and I(more me than her) have been in the planning stages of building a new home since June or so. We are finally contracting on a house this week. Looking for any tips or advice on stuff I should include, things you did and are glad you did, things you did and regret doing, etc... I had/have a big thread on Garagejournal and got a ton of great advice there. I will eventually build a 30x40x12 shop on the property and we will be also doing a pool at some point.
This is the floor plan we chose from the builder as a point of reference. It sits on 1 acre with no HOA.
We will be removing the door from the master bath to the laundry and eliminating the small linen closet that sticks out into the bathroom. We had thought about making the walk in closet bigger, but the fee to do it was stupid($2500 at least was the estimate just to move that wall)...dumb... its free to remove the door and the linen closet so we are going to do that and figure out later what to do with the added space.
I will try to post a run down of things already on the list:
3rd garage bay
media room
full bath off of "bedroom 4"
turning "bedroom 3" into a study
doing concrete only on the "optional covered patio area". Will be putting my hot tub there and the builder will be wiring for it. The "covered" part was ridiculously priced, the concrete only was reasonable.
upgraded electrical to 400amp with 2 panels and a Generac ATS wired into the main panel
-4x dedicated outlets in the soffits for Christmas lights
-1x dedicated 110v/20a circuit in garage for 4 post lift
-dedicated circuit and switch in landscape bed(just a stub out)
-50 amp circuit for hot tub
-50 amp circuit stub out for pool
Spray foam(open cell) the attic(underside of the roof deck/rafters)
Commercial style gas cook top and hood
-Builder is offering Kitchenaid 36" 6 burner gas range top and Zephyr Tornado 1 hood insert. I wanted different stuff but this was the best they offered. End of the day it will work for us. I wanted Wolf or Bluestar cooktop and a more powerful hood(this one is 600cfm, I wanted 1200). Rest of kitchen is top line Whirlpool electric.
250+ gallon propane tank(no gas on the property so a tank is the only way for me to get gas). Going for bigger than 250 gallon, but they had to research the larger tank price. Will be running gas cook top, outdoor grill and Generac generator only. If builder doesnt install the tank, they will not run any gas lines in the house.
Stuff we are planning, but have no definite pricing for(have "estimated" pricing only):
-full wall from game room to theater room. Still trying to decide on a door, thinking a solid core pocket door, although I understand its not the best choice. Trying not to impinge on the theater room since they will only do an inside swing door and I plan to put speakers on the wall the door would swing into.
-adding a window or two into the living room wall to make it a full wall of windows.
-swapping the swing door in the nook out to a slider(would like to get a triple slider panel if the cost isnt out of line).
-will likely insulate the garage(they finish the interior of the garage so needs to be insulated by the builder).
-high clearance/lift door tracks with liftmaster 8500 openers.
I am planning a full Ubiquiti wifi/camera network. I get 5 runs of Cat6 from the builder. I need at least 10 runs if not 12. Their price is stupid(like 150 per run) so I will run it after the fact myself. Im going to run 4(or 5) NanoHD AP's in the house/back patio/garage. Ive got 6 camera placements planned. I have the plan to run fiber out to the shop between the two switches then run another AP and 3 or 4 cameras out at the shop. I will also be wiring the theater room after the fact as they want way to much money to wire it the way I want($1000+ and I can do it for around 200 bucks).
I have a few other miscellaneous things on the list like extra hose spigots and a few AC outlets in certain places in the house. The builder builds a really nice house so some things on my big list of stuff I started with got removed from the list because they are already included.
We havent decided on much on interior finish out because we decided to spend our money on the physical structure and stuff that wasnt easily changed. We have a decent chunk of change we can spend in the design center. I think our biggest want is wood floors in the entry/living room. I gave the dimensions to my buddy whose dad does wood floors and I have a price from him to do it after the fact. We will see what the builder wants. Im guessing his price is 75% less than what the builder will want. Might do upgraded carpet in the bedrooms. Have a few pendant lights and undercabinet lights on the list and maybe an upgraded sink. The standard finish out in the kitchen and bathrooms is pretty nice(granite and quartz options). We may do upgraded tile and a few things in the master bathroom(the shower is full tile including the pan).
So my list, I think is pretty thorough, but still looking for advice and ideas on things I am not thinking through or might have missed or whatever.
This is the floor plan we chose from the builder as a point of reference. It sits on 1 acre with no HOA.
We will be removing the door from the master bath to the laundry and eliminating the small linen closet that sticks out into the bathroom. We had thought about making the walk in closet bigger, but the fee to do it was stupid($2500 at least was the estimate just to move that wall)...dumb... its free to remove the door and the linen closet so we are going to do that and figure out later what to do with the added space.
I will try to post a run down of things already on the list:
3rd garage bay
media room
full bath off of "bedroom 4"
turning "bedroom 3" into a study
doing concrete only on the "optional covered patio area". Will be putting my hot tub there and the builder will be wiring for it. The "covered" part was ridiculously priced, the concrete only was reasonable.
upgraded electrical to 400amp with 2 panels and a Generac ATS wired into the main panel
-4x dedicated outlets in the soffits for Christmas lights
-1x dedicated 110v/20a circuit in garage for 4 post lift
-dedicated circuit and switch in landscape bed(just a stub out)
-50 amp circuit for hot tub
-50 amp circuit stub out for pool
Spray foam(open cell) the attic(underside of the roof deck/rafters)
Commercial style gas cook top and hood
-Builder is offering Kitchenaid 36" 6 burner gas range top and Zephyr Tornado 1 hood insert. I wanted different stuff but this was the best they offered. End of the day it will work for us. I wanted Wolf or Bluestar cooktop and a more powerful hood(this one is 600cfm, I wanted 1200). Rest of kitchen is top line Whirlpool electric.
250+ gallon propane tank(no gas on the property so a tank is the only way for me to get gas). Going for bigger than 250 gallon, but they had to research the larger tank price. Will be running gas cook top, outdoor grill and Generac generator only. If builder doesnt install the tank, they will not run any gas lines in the house.
Stuff we are planning, but have no definite pricing for(have "estimated" pricing only):
-full wall from game room to theater room. Still trying to decide on a door, thinking a solid core pocket door, although I understand its not the best choice. Trying not to impinge on the theater room since they will only do an inside swing door and I plan to put speakers on the wall the door would swing into.
-adding a window or two into the living room wall to make it a full wall of windows.
-swapping the swing door in the nook out to a slider(would like to get a triple slider panel if the cost isnt out of line).
-will likely insulate the garage(they finish the interior of the garage so needs to be insulated by the builder).
-high clearance/lift door tracks with liftmaster 8500 openers.
I am planning a full Ubiquiti wifi/camera network. I get 5 runs of Cat6 from the builder. I need at least 10 runs if not 12. Their price is stupid(like 150 per run) so I will run it after the fact myself. Im going to run 4(or 5) NanoHD AP's in the house/back patio/garage. Ive got 6 camera placements planned. I have the plan to run fiber out to the shop between the two switches then run another AP and 3 or 4 cameras out at the shop. I will also be wiring the theater room after the fact as they want way to much money to wire it the way I want($1000+ and I can do it for around 200 bucks).
I have a few other miscellaneous things on the list like extra hose spigots and a few AC outlets in certain places in the house. The builder builds a really nice house so some things on my big list of stuff I started with got removed from the list because they are already included.
We havent decided on much on interior finish out because we decided to spend our money on the physical structure and stuff that wasnt easily changed. We have a decent chunk of change we can spend in the design center. I think our biggest want is wood floors in the entry/living room. I gave the dimensions to my buddy whose dad does wood floors and I have a price from him to do it after the fact. We will see what the builder wants. Im guessing his price is 75% less than what the builder will want. Might do upgraded carpet in the bedrooms. Have a few pendant lights and undercabinet lights on the list and maybe an upgraded sink. The standard finish out in the kitchen and bathrooms is pretty nice(granite and quartz options). We may do upgraded tile and a few things in the master bathroom(the shower is full tile including the pan).
So my list, I think is pretty thorough, but still looking for advice and ideas on things I am not thinking through or might have missed or whatever.