Building a house soon, just looking for advice/tips

Yeah here's some for you: don't! The bottom is falling out and home prices will crater. But the cost of building is the cost of building. Sit tight and you should have your pick of some nice places for a song. Don't bury yourself up front at this time when you can get a steal.

Get light fixtures with normal bulbs. Some times I think every light in my house uses a different bulb

Insulate all walls. All of them.

Outlets, outlets, outlets.

Put them all over your garage. Put them in the eaves on the corner of your house. Put them in your flower beds.

I’m not sure if this is allowed but in the kitchen put them right on top of the counter. I can’t stand the outlets on my backsplash that are halfway between the counter and cabinet.

Go to the tech board for more info but plan a central media closet to store router, switches, hubs, etc. run Ethernet and maybe coax to all rooms from there. Buy the biggest tv antenna you can and mount it in the attic.

run a gas line to your patio

If you are going custom, design from the inside out. Know the general style and shape you want then Start with how you want your rooms located generalky, but dont put up walls yet. Walls will restrict your design. Then do the kitchen layout and design it. Then connect and design living room. Work out from there. If you are using existing plans, this obviously wont work as existing plans start with walls.

If you design it and pay a draftsman to draw it, the house will reflect that. If you pay an architect, it will look like an architect did it. There is a Huge difference in Both look and price.

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And put them at waist height.

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Second this all day.

My garage doubles as my shop, so as we rebuilt after the flood I moved all the outlets up above my workbenches. I thank myself for that every time I'm out there.
Also rewired them to 20 amp breakers for capacity for the bigger tools.

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Really anything youd like to share would be appreciated?

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Get the measurements off your vehicles and any future vehicles and make sure your garage will be long and wide enough to fit them in AND have enough room to comfortably move around (before you fill it with junk )

Outdoor bathroom if you ever have cookouts or guests over so they don't have to got inside the house. Storage lots and lots of storage. Set up a data network. Walk-in shower. A nice workshop. Gas appliances so you can still use them when the power goes out. Tankless gas water heater. If it's not in the budget set up to add a gas generator later on.

1. Look up an architect in Arkansas named Doug Rye. I was listening to him on talk radio before I built 20 years ago and he mentioned a tape or cd on how to build an energy efficient house. I bought it and used about 60-70% of his suggestions. It cut my energy bill in half while doubling by sq. ft.

2. Sit down with the permit officials and make sure you understand the process and cost including inspections. Check with all utility companies about issues and cost on supplying you service. As an example you may prefer to cook with gas over electric. NG may not be available in your area but propane can be with a tank. Check flood requirements and when designing go at least 1' if not 2' above the requirement. The higher you go above base food elevation the cheaper you flood insurance will be. Check with your insurance agent on this $2,000 extra cost in dirt now may save you $500 per year in premiums.

3. Visit open houses and home and garden shows to get an understanding of what you like about counter tops, cabinets, floors, crown molding, plumbing fixtures, wall colors, lighting fixtures, appliances, bricks etc. Have most of that picked out prior to beginning construction. For lighting, plumbing fixtures and appliances I preferred dealing with a business that specializes in just those items rather than a big box store. In my area they all have consultants ready to help you at no charge once you have house plans drawn up. In addition the consultants may offer suggestions on minor modifications to your plans to make things better. You don't know how may times it crossed my mind "I never thought of that" while talking to a consultant.

4.Make sure you allow for electrical, water or gas expansion for any future needs such as out buildings, outdoor kitchen or whole house generator.

5. We bought several books titled 101 house plans. Bought the plans to about 4-5 houses in them. We combined what we liked about each of them into our custom house. I did the first draft and then let a house draftsman take over.