re: Building a house: what are some things you don’t like about yours/things to avoid

The open concept just doesn’t make sense to the way my family lives. Maybe when my wife and I are older and it’s just us and we have a smaller house it’ll make sense.

But right now, with little children that we need to keep a close eye on and a dog that likes to get into everything it doesn’t work. Our dog cannot go to the bedroom side of the house or the kitchen. We close those doors, so she gets the two living rooms and the dining room to roam. And if we want, we can close off some French doors to our foyer and a door to our dining room and keep her in just the main living room. I like options.

Red line that fire real place if you live In South LA, been in my house 14 years and I've lit it under 10 times.

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but I get freaked out by too many walls

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Prison memories? J/K

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Make the laundry room big enough for a sink and a folding table/counter. Don't put the laundry room near the bedrooms if it means you have to make it a small laundry room to fit. 

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My wife says ours is a mud room. It is quite big for a laundry room. It has built in tables and shelving and a half bath. I do admit that it's grown on me. I can come in from doing yard work, strip and only get that room dirty

If you have rooms at the end of hallways have them easy slant the corners. It makes it easier to move furniture in and out without having to deal with a 90 degree turn. Best advice one of my contractors gave me.

Also wire the outside for cable and speakers. It will save you some hot as frick time in your attic.

Well this turned into a “must have” rather than a “dislikes/things to avoid” thread real quick.

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Don’t build on a hill!! 

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The "hill" that our house is on kept my arse from flooding in 2016. It's in quotes because this is South Louisiana and it's probably only 4-5 ft

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This doesn’t effect your ability to entertain?

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I think both open floor plan and not have their pitfalls if your house isn’t large.

We have all closed off (older house), and it drives me insane. Can’t stand that we have two small living rooms instead of one large living room. Makes entertaining, especially on a game day, difficult. But doable. The kitchen, dining, and casual living area all open together. The second living room is on its own. Neither are big enough to entertain many people at once.

However, we went and toured Pointe Marie yesterday and their open floor plan kitchen/living/dining wasn’t any larger than mine.. but there was no separate living room either.

I like the idea of open floor plan on a pretty large home. Which I imagine would make broken up easier as well.

Edit - one pro of a more closed off home is that you can be bumping a rave of a party in the living room, and nobody in the bedrooms can hear

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Can’t stand that we have two small living rooms instead of one large living room. Makes entertaining, especially on a game day, difficult. But doable. The kitchen, dining, and casual living area all open together. The second living room is on its own. Neither are big enough to entertain many people at once. 

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Ours was like that before the remodel. The previous owner had the wall between the two living rooms taken out. There's a column there but otherwise it's the same space now.

Can anyone suggest some under cabinet lighting. My house is coming prewired for three drops but I am supplying the fixtures. Having a hard time finding what would be best. Has to be dimmable.