re: Building A House: What Are Some Do's & Dont's Based On Your Experience?

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Not to be insensitive, but wouldn't there be a lot of things you would need done differently if you built a house that would disqualify a lot of what may he said in here.

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The only thing I would need is a more accessible bathroom, the entrances be level with the slab. A friend of mine, when he built his house, he actually did this to his back door specifically for me, but he says he has come in handy on multiple occasions..

And while I can make it through 28" doorways, I would prefer to have 36" doors throughout the house.

Put in more recessed lighting then you think you need. You can always put it on a dimmer.

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Put outside electrical sockets and water outlets on all four sides. Dont skimp on concrete...only thing I contracted myself and only thing that ended up badly. If its one story, floor the attic....adds storage space and you can convert in the future to more living space. Try your best not to put water heater in attic...sooner or later something will go wrong...took mine 10.5 years.

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This all seems pretty solid.

When I was in college, an uncle asked me to come over after church because the pilot light went out on the water heater and he was too old to deal with it, which struck me as a little odd. It's just a water heater.

No joke, a full water heater, around back of the house, through a crawl space into the dirt area under the house, across the dirt, and through a hole in part of the concrete foundation to another dirt area, and there the damn thing stood.

Whoever built their house took it too far.

From experience: hidden room

Never install a water line on the front of the house.

Install the water heater in the attic. Saves living space. Also install ac/heating system in the attic. Have lights ran up there too.

Try to limit how many vent lines go thru the roof and make sure the capping's are lead.

Look into zone heating/cooling.

Extra rebar and then some in the slab.

Ceiling fans. Make sure you have a switch for the light and one to control the fan for each room.

Plan for outside lighting around the house along with extra water lines in the yard.

Closet space. Bigger closets are always better and also a great selling point. Don't go cheap on the lighting there.

Spray foam insulation is best, rockwool just as good if all holes thru the top plate are sealed with foam.

All corner/tee's be packed with insulation on the outter walls. Before all base plate on outside walls are installed, have a foam pad put down first.

Windows. Don't go cheap there. Buy the best you can afford. Same goes for exterior doors.

LED lighting in cabinets at the back along with plug outlets install in draws are sweet. More so in bathrooms.

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You don’t need multiple sinks in the master bath, one will be used while the other will be used to pile up the wife’s crap

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Maybe if they’re side by side. Ours are on separate sides of the room and we each use our own. Saves me from having to deal with hair all over the place.

Big fancy tiled showers are nice, but they are a bitch to keep clean.

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spend a few extra bucks for Hardie board

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Hardie board is cheap arse shite they put on spec houses to cut costs instead of using brick. Spend the extra cash on brick.

Big arse fireplaces. Husband wanted hand laid brick wood burning fireplaces which added so much expense. Chose biggest inserts they had instead. Very happy for that compromise. We had to up our electrical budget bc he wanted outlets everywhere. Also seperate electrical and breakers for a generator on the outside. Atleast pre plumbed outdoor kitchen stuff. I blew through our countertop budget pretty quickly. I hate my flat bottom bathroom sinks. Constantly cleaning them. Did not buy jetted tub bc they are gross and rarely used. It's just 6' tub. Splurged on 5x5 shower. Get 2 sets of sprayers and diverters. 12" or so rain head. No pex. All copper. Did not spend on kids showers and tubs. Their bathroom cabinets and countertops and floors are very nice, but we did inserts for teen boy shower and young daughter. When they move out I'll pull them out and add porcelain tubs and tile to the ceiling.

Don’t buy an ice maker in the kitchen