New House Questions (zoned, costs, groceries)

[ScoPro]

Originally Posted by G Grasshopper

Also exterior electrical outlets.

This is VERY important.

If you like to put up lots of Christmas lights to outline your house, be sure and have at least two or three outlets under the eave sofits along the front, and another one low by the garage & one low by the entry.

Put at least two or three outlets in the garage where you might build a workbench, and a convenient 220 outlet (electric car recharging someday?)

Your fireplace mantel should have an outlet, and the rear porch/patio should have two.

Plus have an outlet mounted inside your attic.

Insulate all the garage walls & ceiling, then floor in a substantial part of the attic around a drop-down folding stair for excess storage.
If there is sufficient room in the garage (in a one story house) have the builder build a regular stairway into the attic.

[futurehouse]

That is a good insight on electrical outlets.

What about the patio door....full light/half light/6 light/9 lights...how to go about it?

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by futurehouse

That is a good insight on electrical outlets.

What about the patio door....full light/half light/6 light/9 lights...how to go about it?

Extra outlets in the garage would be excellent...wish I had more. Don't let them tell you the 1/4" spray-on stuff on the garage doors is 'insulation'. Go for a foam-filled door.

Patio door...full-light if the pup/kitty likes to look out. Otherwise, half-light with a really good glass. Just like the front door, try to keep the weather off the patio door; especially blowing rain. A bit more overhang on the patio, deck, porch, etc. can help with rain and sun. Nice to be able to pause on the way in and not stand in the rain. Also helps keep the water from splashing onto the door and surround.

Careful with any niches designed for the TV...our house missed by a year or two of having 'something' other than an entertainment niche that won't hold more than a 42" TV. (The full stone fireplace is very nice; but even DW would like a larger TV in the great room...something that will take a major bit of 're-do-ing' to pull off ).

If there is an actual room above the garage, do all you can to insulate the garage and the areas between the garage and living space(noise and thermal insulation).

Still plenty of Uba Tuba out there. We installed it over ten years ago in our Georgia house. Actually fairly classic looking; but the name bothers some folks. Beautiful stuff when the lights hit it. For cabinets, DW is an interior designer and even she can't name a color/wood/finish that isn't already outdated...that is, there's really nothing new under the sun. I'd stay away from the old builders' golden oak but not sure what you mean by 'brown' for yours. Whatever it is, it will be 'in-style' for a period and 'out-of-date' quicker than two shakes of a lamb's tail. Go with the most durable finish you can, whatever the color. Try to score some pull-outs in some of the cabs or a lazy Susan in the dead corners if you can.

While we're at it, spring for the radiant barrier decking for under the roof shingles...heck, a metal roof if the area allows it. Your deductible on a roof replacement is likely(not absolute) 1% of the home value. Whole BUNCH of roof replacements around Austin in the past two years .

Whew!

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by pbnj07

I've heard this mentioned a few times here and luckily our house has them (though we never thought about it while we were house shopping): Exterior hose faucets on all four sides of the house.

Plumb for a water softener, whether you have one initially or not. And make one, and only one, of the exterior faucets fed by softened water. Make this faucet the one where you might wash your car.

[hoffdano]

One more thing water related - don't put the water heater in the attic! Builders routinely do this and tell you it isn't a big deal.

It is a big deal in 5-10 years when the water heater fails.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

Just some other thoughts...don't let them put a halogen light anywhere except in the least used task fixtures. There are 'can' lights out there that are LED and cost close to the price of a 'normal' fixture that uses incandescent or CFL lamps. You'll save on energy and A/C costs forever. Buy the most efficient water heater you can. Put it in the garage, not the attic. Build in a 'loop' for a water softener if you aren't going to install one up front. Pay a couple hundred more dollars for insulated garage doors if there's any chance the sun can hit them. Buy the best bathroom exhaust fans you can; even consider an 'in-line' fan that can serve more than one room.
Off you go, now...build that house!!!

Originally Posted by hoffdano

Plumb for a water softener, whether you have one initially or not. And make one, and only one, of the exterior faucets fed by softened water. Make this faucet the one where you might wash your car.

Originally Posted by hoffdano

One more thing water related - don't put the water heater in the attic! Builders routinely do this and tell you it isn't a big deal.

.

Hey! No fair copying my paper!


Good idea on the faucet served by the water softener...ours is on the softener unit itself...easily accessed for car-washing, etc. NOT that I've washed our car at home for the past year+ !

[futurehouse]

Thank you....

"One more thing water related - don't put the water heater in the attic! Builders routinely do this and tell you it isn't a big deal.

It is a big deal in 5-10 years when the water heater fails."

Do you think the builder will easily agree to change the water heater's location to garage?

[RooCeleste]

Originally Posted by 10scoachrick

Extra outlets in the garage would be excellent...wish I had more. Don't let them tell you the 1/4" spray-on stuff on the garage doors is 'insulation'. Go for a foam-filled door.

Patio door...full-light if the pup/kitty likes to look out. Otherwise, half-light with a really good glass. Just like the front door, try to keep the weather off the patio door; especially blowing rain. A bit more overhang on the patio, deck, porch, etc. can help with rain and sun. Nice to be able to pause on the way in and not stand in the rain. Also helps keep the water from splashing onto the door and surround.

Careful with any niches designed for the TV...our house missed by a year or two of having 'something' other than an entertainment niche that won't hold more than a 42" TV. (The full stone fireplace is very nice; but even DW would like a larger TV in the great room...something that will take a major bit of 're-do-ing' to pull off ).

If there is an actual room above the garage, do all you can to insulate the garage and the areas between the garage and living space(noise and thermal insulation).

Still plenty of Uba Tuba out there. We installed it over ten years ago in our Georgia house. Actually fairly classic looking; but the name bothers some folks. Beautiful stuff when the lights hit it. For cabinets, DW is an interior designer and even she can't name a color/wood/finish that isn't already outdated...that is, there's really nothing new under the sun. I'd stay away from the old builders' golden oak but not sure what you mean by 'brown' for yours. Whatever it is, it will be 'in-style' for a period and 'out-of-date' quicker than two shakes of a lamb's tail. Go with the most durable finish you can, whatever the color. Try to score some pull-outs in some of the cabs or a lazy Susan in the dead corners if you can.

While we're at it, spring for the radiant barrier decking for under the roof shingles...heck, a metal roof if the area allows it. Your deductible on a roof replacement is likely(not absolute) 1% of the home value. Whole BUNCH of roof replacements around Austin in the past two years .

Whew!

I agree with CoachRick on the Ubatuba - not dated, still used, still in design magazines and decor television shows. I LOVE the dark granite over neutral brown colors. The name comes from the region of Brazil (Ubatuba) where it is mined, so that makes it kind of cool. If you don't like saying Ubatuba, call it Verde Butterfly - they're virtually the same! We have Ubatuba along with cherry cabinets that aren't the traditional pinky cherry color. They're stained paprika, which is more of a warm paprika-y color than the cooler pink that looks sometimes cheap and fake. We did a very neutral, yet not standard, backsplash with polished travertine in 6" squares on the diagonal with a row of straight at the bottom and little brown medallions on every other criss-cross. I liked the tumbled travertine but I really didn't want something so trendy in my kitchen. I put some around the back of my bathtub because that's an easy redo if I ever desire.

Building a house is so fun but probably one of the biggest headaches you'll ever encounter!!

Oh, another suggestion I'm soooooo glad I did is to install under cabinet lights in the kitchen. I'd be LOST without mine!!!

[futurehouse]

Whatever it is, it will be 'in-style' for a period and 'out-of-date' quicker than two shakes of a lamb's tail. Go with the most durable finish you can, whatever the color. Try to score some pull-outs in some of the cabs or a lazy Susan in the dead corners if you can.

What do you think is more durable.....oak or poplar?

[futurehouse]

Also what about Digital Satelite Prewire?