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Also he is in NH. Roof trusses are not that popular in New England. Any good old Yankee is going to want ridge beams and beefy rafters. Plus it is a lot of fun to figure out how to cut those bird mouth's on the tails within a 1/64" fit up tolerance. Show your stuff.
Too much snow in Yankee Land. Murphy's Laws also work against trusses, something will go wrong in the life of the house. I never would use them. Not the better mousetrap.
Stick framing a house gets expensive when you start dealing with a more complex home. 85-90% of the homes built in Colorado are done with engineered trusses, in the many years of Designing homes I have never seen any problems with the trusses. There are some areas of Colorado where you have very high winds (on top of the mountain peaks) and huge snow loads, never had a problem.
One builder quoted me roughly $110-140 per sf. I've seen the houses he builds and they are quality homes and respected in the area. That said he did note that $140 would get me much nicer windows, better insulation materials, etc. I will draw up a full list of these concerns. If folks have more, keep them coming. Does it make sense to skip the chimney and just do a built in gas fireplace?
I second the additional wiring. If you are going to have wires pulled, have all wires pulled to any box that might need them. It's a lot easier to pop off the cover and pull out a cat5 cable that's tucked in the box when you decide you really did want a laptop in the kitchen than it is to pull the wire or fight with wireless. Wireless is great, but why pay for a high speed connection then force yourself to use a slow connect just because you're in an area without a plug?
Hardi Plank siding. Composite decking.
Heated driveway. We talked about it and passed. Dumb. Our drive faces north and slopes down. Doesn't see the sun all winter. Mrs. Tek has fallen on it twice and I hate to clear it. Dangerous. I've driven up it in winter only to stop short and slide back down sideways, narrowly missing the Saab parked there.
I agree with a backup sump pump. I just added a water-powered backup and now feel more comfortable when we go on vacation. We had one fail on a Sunday night right before leaving for a week. Good thing Menards was open.
We put in CAT5 cable and never use it. Everything is wireless now.
Those heated driveways do not make sense to me. All that water has to go somewhere and re-freeze. Do you really want a huge pactch of ice at the end of your driveway? I wonder if people get sued when soemone slides into something on that ice. Maybe I just do not understand how they work.
We put in CAT5 cable and never use it. Everything is wireless now.
Those heated driveways do not make sense to me. All that water has to go somewhere and re-freeze. Do you really want a huge pactch of ice at the end of your driveway? I wonder if people get sued when soemone slides into something on that ice. Maybe I just do not understand how they work.
Well in our case it would end up in the street, where it's always a solid frozen pond anyway, so it makes no difference.
Just because you don't use the cat5 doesn't mean the person buying your house won't. I installed cat5 to get rid of wireless. Wireless ir slow and I pay for a high speed connection.
Well in our case it would end up in the street, where it's always a solid frozen pond anyway, so it makes no difference.
Just because you don't use the cat5 doesn't mean the person buying your house won't. I installed cat5 to get rid of wireless. Wireless ir slow and I pay for a high speed connection.
OUR wireless is very fast. I rarely notice the difference between it and the one hardwired computer. The exception is streaming video or audio. otehrwise I cannot see a difference. My son uses wireless for his X-box fgames that he plays with others connected to the web and that includes audio. He has no problems wihtthe speed either.
On the other hand the cost of putting in CAT 5 while doing th eother wiring is nothing, so if someone actually still uses it, then why not put it in? .
One builder quoted me roughly $110-140 per sf. I've seen the houses he builds and they are quality homes and respected in the area. That said he did note that $140 would get me much nicer windows, better insulation materials, etc. I will draw up a full list of these concerns. If folks have more, keep them coming. Does it make sense to skip the chimney and just do a built in gas fireplace?
Well, my thought is that either you or the guy you eventaually sell on to will want to burn wood, for atmosphere and as a backup heat source that always works even if the power does not, if not as a main source of heat. The time to put in a real chimney is in original construction IMHO.
To me the gas fireplace is just no good, I would be more likely to buy a house with no fireplace at all than one with a gas unit.
But I'm probably not typical of the buyers in your town.
I definitely agree with Cosmo on uprating the concrete in the basement, it costs very little to add rebar, fiber-mesh, and a higher content (sack) of cement. You get only one shot at making a concrete floor or foundation strong. Go overboard. In your market you will find people who are willing and able to pay you more for such on resale. Speaking of resale keep some pictures, receipts to document stuff that won't show when the shack is fully assembled.
On the roof, again don't skimp, you get A LOT of snow up there, at least sometmes you do, I personally like a metal roof a lot, nice sound when it rains, it won't burn, and if done right just about won't leak. You want plenty of pitch, avoid elaborate designs with lots of joints, and serious strength in the rafters. IMHO anyway.
Last edited by M3 Mitch; 06-30-2009 at 03:18 PM..
Reason: concrete, roof
Basement I would always prefer poured / formed concrete with 16" walls. If the foundation is suspect, the game is over before it starts.
I'm always suspect to nuclear annihilation! That 16" might help- specially when it's underground!
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