re: scrimping and splurging in building a new house

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I added a bidet toilet seat later, but I wish I had just gotten a toilet with one built in.

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An outlet next to the toilet should be standard.

A warm seat with an oscillating warm water wash should be in every home.



-My house had under cabinet lighting with big compact fluorescents. When the ballasts die, I’ll probably direct wire and put LED in or wire an LED driver into the old housing. Putting under cabinet lighting on a timer is such a nice feature. When 9pm hits, they turn on so anyone visiting or any kids can see around the kitchen until the sun comes up.

-my house had column lighting. Half the fixtures had been removed but were in the garage. After 4 years, I put all the original ones in with a very bright cool white LED on my white columns. There’s something extremely…great/wonderful/regal/elegant?…with good landscape lighting. I want to add a moderate amount (several crepe myrtles and a really nice live oak) of uplights, but I’m debating how to do it or whether to just buy a pro’s time. In any event, good landscape lighting wouldn’t be an afterthought, especially when planning outdoor outlet location + running landscape wire under sidewalk/driveway


-speaking of weird outlet location- don’t forget about a plug on a switch for Christmas lights (or better yet, a couple of them all tied to the same switch. Much less of a big deal today with LED lighting, but if you want incandescent, you may actually want to take a minute, measure, and use 2-4 outlets in the eaves/soffit instead of 1)

-prewire everything with Cat6. You’ll probably have wifi good enough to not need it. But you’ll sure wish it was there and you spent a couple hundred bucks in this phase. Remember that landscape lighting transformer you may be thinking of? Throw one there, too. Colored and smart landscape lighting is becoming much more common, and insulated exterior walls that typically have cabinets on the other side can be dreadful to pass wifi signals through. And if you have porches, probably one on each of them as well for outdoor WAPs if you may not have fantastic outdoor wifi coverage.


I’ll be calling for quotes for spray foaming an existing attic in the next few months but already dreading it. Proper insulation and proper HVAC design (as someone mentioned, having the master as its own zone is phenomenal- I’ve got a 2.5T unit that serves my master suite + nursery. Try to get your electric + gas meters near each other, throw a quick connect on the gas meter for a portable generator + a transfer switch for “critical” zones, and if you’ve got a separate small unit for your master, you may be able to scrimp on the backup power situation.)


I also had a dimmer for the main bedroom lights installed near my bed (3-way configuration and I can reach it from lying down, other switch near the door). And I thought that was cool as hell til I saw my in-laws have about 6 different switches near each side of their bed. So-switch configuration throughout the house but especially in the master would also garner far too much of my time

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Just don't go with Trane

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I think we ended up with some Carrier knockoff. First one started leaking freon at 16 months, and it only lasted 5 years before full replacement. The other unit had the same problem, but it held on for 10 years.

FWIW, I've since talked to A/C guys who said units sold during that time frame (2010) were using a poorly modified coil to handle the new required freon. Basically, since the new freon wasn't as efficient, they had to ramp up the pressure and "thin out" the tubing walls to make it cool properly. Also, they were using the same tubing alloy as before, even though the "new" freon caused it to corrode. So, between corrosion, thinner material, and higher pressure, units from that time period were destined to have problems.

I ended up replacing both with Amana. No particular allegiance to that brand, but their units came with a lifetime warranty.