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

Looks like some sort of light that plugs into the USB. I could be mistaken, though. Nifty if so.

Make damn sure your Hvac guy marks all his copper lines on the ply/osb if hardy board or any type of paneling is nailed up. Make sure all kitchen wiring gets marked so the cabinet folks don't screw or shoot nails into wall wiring or pex plumbing.
Pre wire for a generator even if you don't get one. Hot water, and natural gas outlets outside for grilling, boiling crawfish etc.
Tankless water heater, spray foam, and highest seer rating ac units you can get.
Pay extra for a good painter. My mexi-painter didn't know how to properly run a gun and I made him fix a lot of stuff w a roller.
Get a bigger fireplace than what you think you'll want and run a gas line in it even if burning wood. Make sure your chimney builder knows his shite too. You can have all sorts of issues with a poorly built chimney, not being high enough etc. There's a formula for chimney height.
Walk through with the inspectors if you have time. They can help you catch the screw ups before you've paid the subs and they're gone.
Don't finish paying a sub until you are completely done and you're satisfied or they WONT come back.
I'm sure I can think of some more mistakes I made. Me and my wife built our selves. It was fine. If your wife has ideas go with them. I let mine pick colors, appliances, crap she uses or will be using. Build her a huge clothes closet that's all her own and she'll love u long time!!!

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Have plans for alarm, but no cameras. Should I put more recepticals in the attic for this, or, are they hard wired into somewhere?

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For the cameras it does take a special cableing and the cameras mount to a common electrical box. You can install a decent 6-8 channel system for a grand or less. You can add the cables and boxes now, put blank covers on the boxes (with cable inside), run the cables to a central location where you would mount the DVR, run the cables down the wall, roll them up with a blank cover on it also and add cameras and DVR at a later date. Go ahead and install the infrastructure which is the least amount of money and have it all set up to add components at a later date.

I build for a living...if you want my contact info let me know....good luck

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Mesh in concrete should not be mid way should be in bottom 3rd

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Mesh in concrete is absolutely useless. Use macro fibers or #4 bars.

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Also insulated bathroom door in master bath that led to bedroom to avoid loud noises in morning when he was getting ready and not have to wake up wife.

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Good idea to insulate all walls where a lot of noise is unwanted. My laundry room is insulated and if you shut the door, you can not hear the washer/dryer at ALL. It's nice when trying to watch TV quietly. And cheap.

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Insulate laundry room

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^^^ A must. Didnt think about the bathroom.

Bookmarking for future build.

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And depending on which direction your house faces, be very careful with a wood front door. My house faces east and looked like this after only two years. I have to sand, stain, and varnish already. Hate it.

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Changed my front door from stained to painted.

I took the stain color I wanted on a board and had the paint store match it. Bout bad arse exterior paint (manor hall timeless) and brushed it in and used a stencil to grain the wood door. Looks great. Paint has held up like a fricking champ.

You can do posts the same way. You can buy the tool at a good paint supply.

like this guy does



No more restaining shite. A great exterior color matched oil base will hold up to the UV way longer. My shutters were done 5 years ago. Still looks great