Building a new home- "Must Have" Upgrades?

[drewboy12]

also heated floors...

[4X4]

Pretty unlikely. The electrician pulls the permit and is ultimately responsible for all electrical and wiring. No credible electrician would let a layman do his work for him. And if the electrician let you do it, the builder would nix it.

[photon]

Originally Posted by ken0042

So here comes the next question- I'm going to assume they want some silly amount for cat5/RG6 cable runs. Anybody have any luck in convincing the builer to let them do it themselves before the drywall goes up?

Typically not; they have insurance reasons and such for not allowing it. Sometimes they'll look the other way, sometimes not.

When I did it they had a company that did all the media and network wiring, and I went there separately to set it all up (kind of like going to Trail to pick up the appliances or the lighting place to pick out the lighting), their pricing for new networks drops wasn't unreasonable.. it wasn't until I got into speakers or a wiring closet or other more advanced stuff that their pricing got crazy.

Watch out too, they'll try and sell you the wiring panel/closet for $1000 or something, and they might say that without it you won't know what cable is where... which could be true. In 3 different builds, in one they just left the cables hanging, so I had to figure out which one was which (which is easy if you buy a toner tool from Home Depot). In another all the wires were cleanly labeled even though they said they wouldn't. In a third they labeled them but the labels were completely unreadable, so I had to use a toner to figure out which was which.

[trubuilt]

The one thing with in floor heat is you need to put Styrofoam or this product http://www.hardrockdevelopments.com/featurep2000.htm with out it you are heating the ground below
Above your fireplace if you get one, get it wired for a tv to hang on the wall.
If you can't afford the 9-0 basement get them to do 8-4 it makes a huge difference even if you get the 9-0 get 9-4 this will give you 8-0 or 9-0 finished.
If you can get you garage ceiling sprayed with spray foam and any cantilevers this will help with energy savings.
Bring your framers donuts and coffee and or beer once or twice that will get you peace of mind and they will change things if you need it (I am not a framer)
I would agree with the bigger garage as big as you can make it.
If you get a garage less house do a corner lot they are bigger for the kids or dogs.
You can get direct vent high efficiency hot water tank
If you have any questions regarding the cribbing or concrete send me a pm I have done it once or twice

[Nage Waza]

The item most valuable in my house is the kitchen floor foot-lever vacuflow thing. You simply step on this thing and a vent starts sucking up whatever you swept up. Seriously a great invention.
Second best thing is to vent the vacuflow outside. REALLY cuts down on dust.
Another good thing to do is drywall and insulate the garage. If you can, get the gas line into the garage as well...if you can get your hands on a ceiling mounted furnace for cheap then you are good to go.
Air conditioning is also a good investment.
My house is a walkout, so a stairway from the upper deck to the backyard is VITAL. My dog gets let out in the kitchen and he run downstairs on his own.
I think if you have a nice front entrance it should have space for a bench. Some of the long and narrow entrances make things awkward for people when they arrive.
My house was also wired and labeled for Cat5 which is cool.
The downside of my place is the location of the cable outlets. Of course they put them near the floor yet the wall mounted TVs are closer to the ceiling. I am going to have to modify the walls to clean it up.

There are some upgrades I am about to start:
Finish my stairway going to the basement and moving the door to the bottom, garburator,

[Pablothegreat]

I think alot of things have already been mentioned like Cat5 wiring and whatnot, but I would also add the following:

If you plan on wall mounting your TV, run 2 inch conduit, and maybe consider running 2 of them from your wall location to the floor. Even if you don't plan on wall mounting, its a pretty easy thing to do.

Also, I was in contact with our site supervisor, and he allowed me to place some 2x4 backing on where I wanted to mount the TV, and other areas where I wanted to hang a mirror, wall mount the surround speakers, or something else that was heavy.

I also suggest insulating for sound, especially any kids room, shower areas, or powder rooms. I asked the site super if I could do that on my own one weekend, and he said it was no problem. The subcontractor used the normal "pink" R12 insulation, and I replaced it with Roxul from Home Depot. (really worthwhile investment).

Considering also looking where they put drainage lines and water lines. I have a few that are running along my kids room, and it is very loud. All they had to do was re-route it another 3 feet into the laundry room, and problem would be solved.

Watch the placement of any rough in plumbing in the basement. I had to spend a few $$$ getting the toilet stacked moved away from the wall and centered where I wanted. The original plumber did not account for the interior wall being built and insulated.

4X4 mentioned mechanical room layout. Great point. Again, I paid extra bucks to subsequently move the hot water exhaust pipe.

Other than that, consider 9 foot ceilings in all floors, including basement. It will make a huge difference. Also, lights in a vaulted ceiling are great, except when you can't reach them to replace a bulb when the burn out. I'm going on 3 years of darkness in the main living room. Tough lesson learned.

Good luck with your purchase, should be alot of fun.

[photon]

I tried to do 9 foot on all 3 floors, but then the back of the house would have been over 34' tall or something, against code or AC or something.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by photon

I tried to do 9 foot on all 3 floors, but then the back of the house would have been over 34' tall or something, against code or AC or something.

Yea, height restrictions. It'd be nice to be able to go 9' on all floors, but that'd inevitably turn into 10' and then 11' and so on. Nice for the home owner, not so nice for the neighbour that has a castle built beside his normal sized home.

[photon]

Lol it's already like that to a degree... The back of my house has a nook in the middle, so it goes like this _|-|_ with windows all around.. if I stand in the nook and look up or down the row of houses, the back of my nook is even with the back of everyone else's deck!

[4X4]

Originally Posted by photon

Lol it's already like that to a degree... The back of my house has a nook in the middle, so it goes like this _|-|_ with windows all around.. if I stand in the nook and look up or down the row of houses, the back of my nook is even with the back of everyone else's deck!

Well that's your fault for being 'nook people'.

[EDBTZ12]

I don't think this hasn't been mentioned but upgrade the quality of the paint.

The paint that they use is the cheapest out there so ask to upgrade to high quality paint. It will only cost a couple hundred more and will last years longer not to mention look a lot nicer.

[Shazam]

Make sure to not get matte paint. It's useless.

[photon]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Well that's your fault for being 'nook people'.

Everyone else has a nook too.. the back of my house comes out to where their nooks end. Just a big house.

[4X4]

Originally Posted by photon

Everyone else has a nook too.. the back of my house comes out to where their nooks end. Just a big house.

Heh heh... I was mocking that annoying scotiabank commercial, not you...

[socktape]

This might have been mentioned but things I would look into doing...

1. Put in some 2x4s above the window frames so that you have more to anchor drapes/curtains to.(same thing mentioned for a wall mounted tv)
2. If you can run some of the cat5 and speaker wire yourself the builder should be able to let you know when a good window to do it.
3. Make sure you are happy with where the rough in is for the basement bathroom... you can move this around quite easily in the planning stage.
4. Get them or DIY insulation in the upstairs walls for a little soundproofing.
5. Check everything over constantly when they are building... frame spacing etc.

Tile vs hardwood.....
We have tile... it is hard/cold unforgiving if you drop something but we're happy with it. Hardwood is nice but it scratches and dents easily, especially if you have a dog. I don't know if it is worth the extra money to upgrade to it. At the time we built it was $6/sqft. Seemed a little unreasonable when you can buy it for a lot less than that and you are saving money on the tile that you aren't using. Labour should be relatively a wash. You can always switch later.

[fredr123]

We bought our house from the first owners. The house was two years old when we got it. I wish the original owners would have paid extra for the following upgrades:

1. Screwing in the drywall instead of nailing it. We're getting nails poking out all over the place.

2. Better carpet. It's wearing all over the place and seems are coming up.

3. Tiles that are properly cemented to the subfloor. They're coming up all over the place.

4. A garage wide enough so that you can open your doors to get in and out when two vehicles are parked in there.

5. A kitchen design that allows two or more people to be simultaneously present.

[Shazam]

Unfortunately, no builder is ever going to agree screwing in all the drywall unless you're willing to fork over $100K more.

[Russic]

The Vacuflow vent thingy in the kitchen is the single most important element in my parents house. Every time I visit them I shake my head at it's brilliance.

[fredr123]

Originally Posted by Shazam

Unfortunately, no builder is ever going to agree screwing in all the drywall unless you're willing to fork over $100K more.

How much extra does it cost to get them to hit the studs with the nails?

[Shazam]

They didn't hit the nails in far enough, that's why they pop.