Building a custom home...what you wish you had known (feedback, price)

[oregonwoodsmoke]

One thing that few people must ever think of, because it is a problem in almost every house I have even been in:

If someone rings your front doorbell, you can't see who is out there. It is a blind spot. I want a window where I can see who is standing at the front door or else a camera that has a viewing screen right next to the front door. I want to know before I open the front door whether it is the mailman or a crazy guy with an ax.

[ss20ts]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

One thing that few people must ever think of, because it is a problem in almost every house I have even been in:

If someone rings your front doorbell, you can't see who is out there. It is a blind spot. I want a window where I can see who is standing at the front door or else a camera that has a viewing screen right next to the front door. I want to know before I open the front door whether it is the mailman or a crazy guy with an ax.

I always make sure I have windows that allow me to see who or what is at the front door. We typically have a front door with a window in it. I am also known for not answering the door unless I'm expecting someone. I have no time for the religious folks walking around preaching. I have no time for the door to door sales people. Absolutely none! You're not going to save me on my electric bill if I switch to you. You're not coming in my house - they ALWAYS ask. You're not seeing my bills. Get off my property! I don't answer my phone unless I know the phone number either. Yup, I'm one of those people.

[WorldKlas]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

One thing that few people must ever think of, because it is a problem in almost every house I have even been in:

If someone rings your front doorbell, you can't see who is out there. It is a blind spot. I want a window where I can see who is standing at the front door or else a camera that has a viewing screen right next to the front door. I want to know before I open the front door whether it is the mailman or a crazy guy with an ax.

There are now technical solutions to this problem. Many products you can purchase have cameras and intercoms attached to the doorbell.

[ukrkoz]

We lost about $50 K on our custom as we found that builder is rather not willing to comply with his warranty and that he did not warn us about potential grade issues on the lot he recommended. As the result, we landed with partial lot flooding from adjacent property and he refused to do anything about it, what lowered house resale.
I found the best way to deal with builder is to be there every other week or so and CLEARLY mark all imperfections you see. A friend of mine was then a contractor working for custom builders. When my builder chose to ignore requests to fix warped framework and drywalled over it, resulting in bumps, he told me to take hammer and simply punch holes in drywall. So I did. Believe it or not, as I told them many times that frame is not straight and I simply punched it where the bumps were, thereafter, they LISTENED to every observation I made. As it costs them $$$ to remake it. Remember, until it's done and signed - it's builder responsibility, he either does as told or you can throw a fit. His liability. So make sure you catch EVERYTHING before you sign. As after - it's a pain.
Pour water from garden hose onto roofs and windows, do whatever possible you can imagine to check quality BEFORE you sign.

[Ted Bear]

Lots of good suggestions in this thread. I would emphasize three things:


Architect.


Type of Contract: Fixed price (no); cost plus (maybe...but likely no); cost plus fixed fee (yes). You use the latter because then the builder is working for you. In the first two the builder is working against you.


Contract: Include EVERYTHING from permits to grading to exact roof shingles to exact door handles to exact flooring to screws, nails and fasteners to porta-potty. EVERYTHING. If it goes in the house, it will be in the contract. No Smoking in your house. No fires to dispose of waste. No burying waste. You get access whenever you want it. The completed contract will be more than 50 pages, and could run to 100 pages. Timeline, details, specs, materials, finishes, and resolution of conflicts. It ALL has to be in there, in details, so there is nothing left to chance.


Takes at least a year to build. Have 10% in reserve for 'extras' (another reason to go with cost plus a fixed fee....you are only paying for 'upgrades/changes'; not upgrades/changes Plus Something extra --within reason). Do Not let the bank, if you are financing, be your inspector.


Good luck. If your marriage can survive this, it can survive anything. Done it twice--once was meh; the second time was outstanding (better contract, great architect and builder).

[WoodburyWoody]

Originally Posted by Zen88

Consider wide doors in case you need to get a wheelchair into and throughout the house.

Consider having pipes especially in-wall pipes insulated, and insulate the bathroom walls, and use solid doors on the bathroom to keep bathroom related noises down.

Get upgraded exhaust fans in the bathrooms. The cheapo fans are loud and move very little air.

Consider two phone lines throughout the house, and phone lines in the bathroom (the phone only rings when you're in the bathroom).

Central vacuum.

Conveniently located and accessed return for central HVAC so you can clean or replace filters without too much trouble.

Make sure you're getting double insulated windows.

How long are the roof shingles warranteed for?

Consider a tankless water heater.

Make sure they use wonder board instead of the green sheetrock when they tile in the showers. It's a cement board that is better than even the green sheet rock. The green rock goes everywhere else in the bathroom but not in the shower.

Find out about fixtures and fittings, like faucets and lighting, because they will use the cheapest crap they can find.

Get extra hose barbs so you don't need miles of garden hoses to get around to the other side of the house.

If you want a security system, have it installed before the walls go up for obvious reasons. This includes wiring for cameras and maybe an intercom.

Extra outside lighting may be useful.

A slop sink in the garage may be useful so no one has to wash up in the kitchen sink after working outside or changing the oil.

If they're not installing underground sprinklers, have them leave a connection or enough pipe exposed so that it can be done in future.

I know this is a long list, I hope some of this will be useful to you.

To the point above about insulating walls .... we did this for interior walls for bathrooms and bedrooms and it made a great difference for noise (at little additional cost). Wish I had done it between floors as well.

To Add ...

- additional outlets in garage and outside ... much cheaper to do it during build than after;

- in each and every room, consider outlets and their placement (sometimes you want an outlet in a closet, sometimes you want one at the end of a long hallway .... builders don't always suggest);

- at the electrical walk-through, take time in each room to consider the final placement of wall switched BEFORE the drywall goes up (electricians often through them and outlets where it is convenient for them, not for the people who will live there);

- want ceiling speakers, at least run the wiring now (same for speakers outside); one of the best things we did (for us) was ceiling speakers throughout the main floor as they get used daily by us;

- if in an appropriate climate, consider heated flooring in bathrooms ... again, easiest to do now;

- is there truly enough space for storage mops, brooms, cleaning supplies, vacuum, etc. and is it convenient? Often an afterthought, often stuck in the closet of a spare bedroom upstairs;

- is there enough storage in the plan? Again, something people don't think about until too late and fill all the closets (and sometimes spare bedrooms) with boxes of stuff that they use on occasion but mostly store;

- again, depends on climate, but what quality garage doors are part of the plan? Thick, non-hallow or insulated garage doors make a difference in northern winters;

- as with the electrical outlets, seriously look at the plans to consider number and placement of heating/cooling vents; again, don't assume draftspeople and technicians care about your utility or needs (and if you have an unfinished basement, make sure they don't put the furnace where it will impede your or future owners' plans to finish the basement if you want ... I have seen HVAC techs do that, "because the basement isn't finished anyway");

Everybody hates lawyers, unless it is your lawyer. Get one to review documents before signing, just as you would before buying a house.

[Tarzanman]

Originally Posted by Zen88

Consider wide doors in case you need to get a wheelchair into and throughout the house.

How wide do you mean? going too wide will require either French doors or non-standard doors which will cost more money to manufacture (or replace)

Consider having pipes especially in-wall pipes insulated, and insulate the bathroom walls, and use solid doors on the bathroom to keep bathroom related noises down.

Also try to located the bathroom on an exterior wall with a window so that you can use it at night or during a power outage without maiming yourself.

Get upgraded exhaust fans in the bathrooms. The cheapo fans are loud and move very little air.

Exhaust fans are not supposed to move much air. The idea is to keep the bathroom under very slight negative pressure to keep odors from wafting very far into the rest of the house. If you want to ventilate your bathroom after use then you'll need a bigger (and noisier) fan or blower.
Do use a bigger fan or blower for the hood over the kitchen and stove and make sure to hook it up to external ventilation (and not just a crappy filter over the stove top)... but be prepared to deal with the noise that a larger fan makes

Consider two phone lines throughout the house, and phone lines in the bathroom (the phone only rings when you're in the bathroom).

It is 2017. You should be running 2 or 3 drops of Cat.5 or Cat. 6 cable to each room instead of phone line. This will allow you to use wired network connections for TV, video, sound, internet, personal data... or even land lines.

Central vacuum.

Is overrated, even if you have lots of carpet. I would suggest mostly hardwood floors (carpet gets gross after ~5 years) and spending ~$600 on a high quality canister vacuum which will let you clean other areas than just your house (like your car). Miele makes some excellent ones.

Conveniently located and accessed return for central HVAC so you can clean or replace filters without too much trouble.

If you have the money, consider two A/C units for different zones of the house. Spend the cash on good insulation or energy efficient building materials that will reduce your climate control costs in extreme weather. Don't forget that there are methods other than forced air for climate control. Heated pipes under floors, geothermal heat pumps, etc.

Make sure you're getting double insulated windows.

European style tilt/turn windows might make more sense for some people.

How long are the roof shingles warranteed for?

What about skylights or solar panels? Roof access via a cubby style door in the attic?

Consider a tankless water heater.

Make sure they use wonder board instead of the green sheetrock when they tile in the showers. It's a cement board that is better than even the green sheet rock. The green rock goes everywhere else in the bathroom but not in the shower.

Find out about fixtures and fittings, like faucets and lighting, because they will use the cheapest crap they can find.

Get extra hose barbs so you don't need miles of garden hoses to get around to the other side of the house.

If you want a security system, have it installed before the walls go up for obvious reasons. This includes wiring for cameras and maybe an intercom.

Extra outside lighting may be useful.

A slop sink in the garage may be useful so no one has to wash up in the kitchen sink after working outside or changing the oil.

If they're not installing underground sprinklers, have them leave a connection or enough pipe exposed so that it can be done in future.

I know this is a long list, I hope some of this will be useful to you.

Make sure you use a quality builder who won't cheap out on building methods. Well built houses do not have floors that creak after a year, sag away from the walls, doors that aren't hung properly and swing open or closed by themselves, noise water pipes, etc.

Also make sure to build with regard to the position of the sun at different times during the year. Sunlight pouring in through a double bay, arched window just opposite your 65" flatscreen LED TV will have you kicking yourself!

Last, give some thought to layout. if you don't have a quite washer and dryer then it might make sense to locate the laundry room farther away from the TV or the bedrooms. If you have a garage, put in a seperate person-sized door so that you don't have to open the big door every time ingress or egress is required.

Consider a small porch for the front and small closets near all external doors for shoes.

[Zen88]

It's also to remove moisture. If someone likes long, hot showers, you need a good exhaust fan or you're more likely to have a moisture problem. As well as get rid of odors faster.

[redlodge]

Holy wow! What a great bunch of suggestions! Stuff I never would have thought of. Almost makes me wish we would have bought a house but we found such a great lot and nothing else we looked at "sang" to us.

We will be talking to builders next week and narrowing down which to choose. So much more to this process than I imagined!!

[TamaraSavannah]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

One thing that few people must ever think of, because it is a problem in almost every house I have even been in:

If someone rings your front doorbell, you can't see who is out there. It is a blind spot. I want a window where I can see who is standing at the front door or else a camera that has a viewing screen right next to the front door. I want to know before I open the front door whether it is the mailman or a crazy guy with an ax.

Hmmmmm, that can go a number of ways.

The front door is a Spanish design of cast iron with a crazed glass. Rather something like these:
http://www.senirondoors.com/flash/1t11.jpg

There are clear glass side windows on either side which not only means that I can look out at who is there but they can see in as well.

So what's the catch? The front door opens into the great room with the Mistress bedroom to one side and the den, dance room (the guest bedrooms) to the other. If I'm relaxing in the den on the computer, my jeans are usually in the bedroom and I have to cross the great room in order to make myself presentable before opening the front door, crossing infront of the view of the side windows.

Now, normally, that's not a concern. The house is located well inside of the ranch, I have forest all around the house, and I am not too concerned about anyone seeing me inside my house. If they were at the front door, however....................

................a little paranoia is not a bad thing and I keep a pair of house jeans (old, torn, holed) in the den, just in case.

On storage and electronics wiring.

I may run into a problem with storage, given my lengthy life and "Renaissance Lady" interests. The end calculation with storage has always been that if I need more, I have 10 acres of land, I'll throw in a shed or a barn or something. On the other hand, there is being inventive with what I have. Right now, it is about all the things that belong in the garage and what I've found, so far, that there is room along either wall to fit a lot of things, such as the chest freezer, the work table, room for shelves to be built, maybe even room for the emergency generator and its cart.

Somethings I will have to be more inventive than with others, such as the F-250's cattle guard. That had to be taken off the truck because critical garage space was lost when the well's boost pump, not part of the original plans, was added to construction. In order to fit, barely, the truck into the garage, the guard had to come off. Where will I put it when I have the garage cleared out enough to be able to get both cars in? Probably in the truck bed and when I am using the truck, then the guard will probably be left in the garage. When will the guard be put back on the truck? When I have a barn to put the truck in. Details and details but one ought to be a little bit open minded about their home.

While it is 2017, one might want to keep in mind that such doesn't mean the same in every place. The cable companies do not serve my area in the country. This leaves me with DSL (and that company has a terrible reputation) or radio internet (not much better of a reputation) or satellite which is what I do use which is adequate if I am very conservative. My cell phone reception is decent but I do have a signal booster in the house. When they came out to install my landlines, they were ready to install one but while they were able to install the second, the FAX line, it did catch them by surprise since apparently they only had so many lines going out to that region. Long story short is consider where you are building and then evaluate of whether or not it has everything you expect.

Originally Posted by Tarzanman

.........Also make sure to build with regard to the position of the sun at different times during the year. Sunlight pouring in through a double bay, arched window just opposite your 65" flatscreen LED TV will have you kicking yourself!.........

This potential problem was handled simply in that the big windows, the doors face north and south. There are three windows, 2 bed and 1 bath, on the east side and 1 bath on the west.

NOW GRANTED, when I showed the completed plans to my dance teacher with the added loft, she said that a rose colored window would be great in the western wall of the loft. The plans were done then and it was a bit late for any changes so if you are going to invite the suggestions from creative friends, invite early.

Originally Posted by ss20ts

I always make sure I have windows that allow me to see who or what is at the front door. We typically have a front door with a window in it. I am also known for not answering the door unless I'm expecting someone. I have no time for the religious folks walking around preaching. I have no time for the door to door sales people. Absolutely none! You're not going to save me on my electric bill if I switch to you. You're not coming in my house - they ALWAYS ask. You're not seeing my bills. Get off my property! I don't answer my phone unless I know the phone number either. Yup, I'm one of those people.

The Witnesses did actually come out to the ranch and they did get to talk to me. They were out there in the boondocks because they figured we didn't get that much attention. They got to talk to me because I saw their car enter the ranch and I thought they were some new neighbors. As it was, I was in a jovial mood, talked to them for several minutes about theory, asked them to shut down their car so their idling engine didn't pollute, and I figured that their satisfaction with getting to talk to me might save my neighbors from having conversations.

As phones go, I have four lines, two cell and two land line. Among the reasons for the land lines is that cell phone reception is iffy out there. The thing is that I don't answer my line lines either. That's what the answering machine is for, that's playing //www.city-data.com/forum/psych...ine-games.html .

I, too, will probably not allow them in the house either. Cutting past those reasons and getting back to house design, what I might do instead, conceptually anyhow, is invite "them" to talk business on the front porch.......when I get around to having furniture out there.

There are other matters on this as well when it comes to house design. If anything can be summed up about my house it is that my thinking leaned toward security and emergency measures. Such as that in the vicinity of the front and back doors, there are ready weapons lockers. Now, that's me and that's living in Texas, but I suppose that can be said about just about any custom house........it is a reflection of the person.