re: New home construction thread. ANY AND ALL advice/tips/tricks welcomed

I've had 2 houses built and the first was the closest my wife and I have come to divorce mostly over interior things. The second one was much easier because I changed my attitude about the interior. Every time she would come at me with one of those 6 inch paint color fans it made me crazy, so my reply was "handle it". I don't care if my bedroom is painted Deer Path or Morning Mist! It all looked beige to me. Same thing with flooring, granite and wood finishes. Handle it! The interior of the house is the woman's world anyway. As long as it wasn't anything I felt like I couldn't live with (which was nothing she had picked out) I can deal with it. Handle it!

The other tip I would give is that after all the interior studs were up, we met with the electrician and did a walk through. He said he could go by the plans exactly, but preferred to meet with the owners and do a walk thru. We would walk into each room and imagine where we wanted light switches and receptacles. He had some ideas about placement that wasn't on the plans that have worked out very well. Same with lighting.

Good luck! It can be a frustrating experience or a great one depending on your attitude.

Where are you building?

A couple hot electrical items:

Receptacles by the roof line for christmas lights.

Plug mold tucked under the cabinets instead of receptacles on the wall in the kitchen.

I don't care for plug mold, I think its ridiculously ugly, but its the new trend with rich people.

ETA: I would definitely go with LED lighting. This could be a big expense, but worth it.

My thoughts on the generator is it depends on where you are building. They are nice but require maintenance. For my next house I plan on doing a manual transfer switch that I can plug my crappy generator into and only run a few circuits. I don't really need the whole house running, but then again if that happens chances are my wife will be at work so all the luxuries aren't needed for me.

Expand your garage / car port size and make sure you have somewhere to keep your lawn equipment and both vehicles with plenty room. I am not sure what the standard is here in GA but I know it's too damn small to be called a garage. Even if we had somewhere else to keep the lawn equipment, 4wheeler and all my other stuff, there would still be no way to put my truck and the wife's small SUV in there. Not even sure it would fit a fullsize truck if it were the only thing in there. And add power. Not sure what they were thinking only putting one receptacle on the garage. (Obviously I did not build)

Glad i read this. Im gona xtend my carport now. Its only 11' 7" wide. Couple more feet wont hurt

Can i move into your shop?

similar to this one except I will have 2 roll up doors on the right wall. Plenty of room for all the shite im sure we will have.

Insulation! Personally based off experience I'd spray foam and add like a 1/2 inch sheet of polysterne to the exterior. I'd also foam the underside of my roof decking (though that is a debated topic). Not only will it cut your electric bills but also just makes your indoor air more comfortable.

Also cant have too much storage or outlets.

I will be revisiting this thread tonight to give a start to finish run down of things to do and not to do as well as explaining the processes and procedures. I've built 40+ million worth of residential units numbering around 250 units over the last 11 years. I also run a framing subcontracting business that frames an average of 200 units a year. I have paid for a lot of valuable lessons over the years and would enjoy helping out.

To take this further look into setting up a structured media center and run homeruns of cat5e or cat 6 and coax to every room. Using a star topology with everything centrally located makes everything much easier for all involved.

Take advantage of the fact that you are building the house and do it right from the start. Also use conduit or tubing in the walls and avoid stapling any of the coax or cat5e/6. This will allow you to run new lines or replace bad ones to the existing outlets withoit having to cut or drill. On the outside of the house you can run 2 cat5e/6 and coax homeruns from the demarc point to the closet so that your service providers will have clear places to install everything.