Hindsight is 20/20 - what is clear to you now, and wasn't then?

If you were building, what would you do differently? What would you exclude? What would you include? What could you not live without?

• White carpet.
• Place a half-bathroom (toilet room) next to the dining area for loud, smelly poops with dinner guests.
• Place a bathroom window right at the front door. Gotta let guests know you're showing within feet of them.
• Better yet, bathrooms with no windows. Exhaust systems are loud, the walls will absorb all the moisture. I swear.
• Make sure all closets are in the bathrooms, so towels and linens are close by. They will also absorb extra moisture.
• Use the smallest tile available with salmon colored grout.  
• AC system on the southside of the house for maximum cooling.
• Make every entrance point have a nicely placed half step and never warn people about it.
• GFCI outlets everywhere. Specially the kitchen and the garage, where the most power hungry stuff is. 
  
• Following the last step - place the breaker box behind the water heater. Cold power doesn't flow as well.
• Make sure all your sinks, showers, and tubs are as far away from the water heater as possible.
• When it doubt - add areas where you step down or step up, such as T.V. areas or dining rooms. People love that.
• Oven hoods that exhaust outside are overrated - you want to smell last week's meals TODAY.
• Make sure the dryer is located as far away from an exterior wall as possible. Bonus points if it snakes up into the attic with many 90' angles.
• Put in a central vacuum system - the owners of the house will love them in 20 years.
• Follow the last step - house com system. It's like an archaeological find for future owners. 
• Add random switches that do nothing - it add charm to your home in 40 years.
• Paint, paint, and repaint all the cabinets and exterior. Nothing says a well lived-in home like 10 layers of paint. 
• Wiggly stair rails - a must have.
• Make a room 100% inaccessible by adding a metal spiral staircase.
• Get a super lower horse power garbage disposal - you don't want it to be too loud. Plug it in to a GFCI outlet.
• Make sure all your kitchen appliances face the living room or dining room area, as close as possible, so convenient to walk right up to! 
• Insulation is expensive and itchy, just skip it.
• Dry wall is heavy, go less than a half inch.
• Skip adding return vents in the rooms, just place a vent above the door so everyone in the house will know you're fucking.
• Make the Master bedroom is above the guest room or suite - so they know you're fucking.
• Make sure every room uses pocket doors. Have pocket doors access other pocket doors.

Stripper pole.

Wireless is now, and everything uses it... there is no need for ethernet wiring.  Just an extra expense you can save on.

ETA: if you need your sarcasm detector recalibrated, this post and the one I quoted are both deserving of consideration.

i'm pretty easy

Ranch style
Basement
Big closets
Big bedrooms
Attached garage
Plenty of south facing windows unless you live in the desert
Some sort of high speed network infrastructure

In the architectural stage of our build now.

Things we must have:
Open floor plan
No formal dining or living rooms. Kitchen/dining/family room all flow together
Induction cooktop
2nd floor laundry
In-wall/wall mounted toilets
No visible light switches in the main areas. Going with Lutron and will have keypads in these areas.
Home runned Ethernet and coax.
Master closet functions as a panic/safe room.

Bullet proof glass and heavy steel doors.

Sounds like a no brainer, but a good gutter/drainage system.

The back yard is on the east side of the house so you can sit on your back porch and warm up in the morning and cool off in the evening.

All the things that I've had problems with so far with my older home.

I have 2 bathrooms that are on a lower level and on a concrete slab = a bitch to fix or service. All raised foundations + good access of utilities and plumbing from now on.

I would use mostly "blue wood", pressure treated or equivalent for every piece of wood close to the ground. Where I live, drywood and subterranean termites are a constant nuisance.

No flat roofs, I have a mix of flat roofing and pitched roofing. Flat roofs just don't very last and always end up leaking or pool up.

Pre-run good sized conduits for wires/telephone/cable/ethernet/alarms etc.

My house has a good mix of 15 and 20 amp sockets in each room, which I like. Sometimes you need that extra power for things like portable heaters, vacuums, power tools etc.

I don't know if this is possible but I would build all my bathrooms slightly lower than the surrounding rooms. If there is an overflow, it will generally stay in the bathroom. A floor drain at the far end of the bathroom could do something similar.

I would probably go with cellulose insulation next time. More fire resistant, it can get wet and stay good, not so itchy to touch.

Good double pane windows. The rooms that I've updated with double pane vinyl windows are quiet and warm most of the year.

I probably wouldn't go with stucco on any new house. Maybe something that looks like wood siding but is actually tinted cement. No painting or cracking like stucco.

Separate heater and ac for the top floor.

Cat# (pick your #) run through out the house.

220 run to the garage/workshop.

Big ass pipes running to your wiring closet with pull cords already run.

5.1/7.1 cable run in your main living room and entertainment room.

Phone and cable run to each room.

Extra insulation in the attic.

1/4 turn for EVERY water shutoff

Generator connection into main panel with transfer switch

Firepit in back yard.




Plant trees 20 years ago...

50% of the floorplan would be storage for my wife's shit. 
It would also be a trash compactor.

I'm picking up on a little sarcasm.

Definitely put the house underground. No more worrying about dry air and UV rays!

Buy a home on level land (or close to it).  A really slight upwards slope to house is ok.
Frt door and driveway entrance faces South.  Help with snow melting.
One story structure....I'm getting older and don't want to climb stairs.
Three car enclosed garage......I got toys and I need a place to pull motors.  And, make it tall enough for a lift maybe?
Hook up for RV, dump and clean up.
Screened or glassed in (w/vents) porch....for afternoon beer drinking.

Aloha, Mark

One level, no stairs

lmao

carpet all entryways and kitchen/bathrooms

for hydronic heat make sure any pumps, fill valves and other oft replaced items are as close to floor level behind the boiler as possible, pressure relief valves on water heaters need to be behind the water heater too and plumbed in with sweated 3/4 CU

CRAWLSPACE ACCESS should be in a closet as far as possible from entry

all plumbing should be ran in exterior walls in freezing areas

If you have a second story, make sure the fucking floors are done competently. I spent a couple of hours today driving special screws into the floors in our condo to try and eliminate the awful squeaking. It drives our downstairs neighbor crazy and rightfully so. I try as walk softly but it's not enough. It doesn't matter.  Took care of the worst area today and now it's silent.

It depends on what you value, I tend to like utility and value so I can put more money into better materials.

People who design their own houses tend to make them more complicated than they need to be. The most cost efficient house to build and maintain is a big cube with a simple roofline, but people don't like the way they look, try not to get too crazy with the footprint though.

Overbuild the floors, I say this in every thread, people build really nice houses that feel like shit because the floors are springy. Code requirements aren't nearly stiff enough.

Try to stack your plumbing, short runs make everything cheaper and you get hot water everywhere faster.

Site the house properly for your climate, try to put more windows on the south and east sides of the house if you can.

A basement is really cheap space if you don't get too crazy trying to make it into living space.

Put in a good attic access and route everything in there so you end up with usable storage space.

If you're not in an AC climate, put in a whole house fan.

I really like a jack and jill for the third bath in a house, makes life way easier with multiple kids. You want a master, and a comfortable guest bath on the opposite side of the living room as the kitchen/dining.

The kitchen is the center of home life.

Alexa or Google Home setup device like this

6" stud walls with the best insulation available.

-Hardwood floor everything.

-2 gallon high pressure toilets. Fuck the fucking environment, this is your castle, fuck social norms.

-3+ car garage with at least one 15+ft tall section of ceiling. 3ft thick slab of concrete for two post lift. You may not like working on your car now, but in 5 years it might be the only thing you have to live for.

-WIDE doors on every entry of the house, aka 36+ inch wide doors so you can fit that one fancy $3000 leather couch you can suddenly afford. Get reinforced steel frame plates later if you're poor now - they cost next to nothing (maybe <$80).

French drains on all sides of house.

Each room on separate breaker in panel.

Wire panel for generator

min of 2 power outlets per wall in every room.

Power outlets under eves of house wired to switch next to front door entry (christmas lights)

Water shut off inside in easily accessed spot (such as wall of garage)

Design entries to make moving furniture in easy (no 90 degree turns 3 ft from door.)

Doors and door frames should be solidly installed with steel security features. (forced entry should take EFFORT)

About all I can think of at the moment.

My brother added a gas boiler and in floor heating when he built his house.

It's so sinful it's ridiculous!  Especially that he added extra piping around the toilets!  The seat is never cold and neither is the floor in front, where your bare feet are!

Where do I store the vacuum?
Is there a closet near all the external doors where I can keep my coat?

Its amazing how many homes can't answer those questions.

I would make sure my faucet in the back yard isn't coming from my hot water heater for one. 

I'd also not have a water line running right next to my uninsulated roof so it doesn't freeze, explode and flood my house when I'm out seeing Star Wars. 

Speaking of which, my brother was the primary contractor on my house repairs, and when he was working on it I said "Oh by the way, the utility room light (under the leak) is flickering now and then". He looked at the fixture and said "You know that dome is full of water, right?" 

Generator transfer switch, preferably with a 20kw diesel generator or natural gas generator.

An enclosed space to fit a large gun safe...think cubby hole with studs and Sheetrock, reinforced floor joist, slightly recessed, it makes it way harder to tamper with a safe.

Make sure you run LAN throughout the house.  That is more important than cable tv.  Wifi has limitations.

House Im in now was built by my parents and lacks quite a few things that I am surprised they didn't think to have put in.  I think their excuse probably would have been it was too expensive, (and growing up in post depression Philly, thats almost certainly what their thinking was) but when you are already spending $$$$ a few more $$ doesn't make a difference.  If i had to do it over this is what I would have done. Some of this is probably std. in new homes now I am guessing.

Electrical outlets on every wall, of every room, including basement and garage.  
Electrical outlets outside the house, on every side.  
Exterior faucets on both the front and back of the house (I only have one on the front).
Pull down steps for the attic access instead of a hole cut in the closet
Plywood put down in the attic prior to moving in
Drainage system in both basement and garage
12 foot ceilings in both basement and garage (or whatever the std height is now.  Mine are either 8 or 9 feet and thats not enough)
Larger bathrooms
Washer and Dryer in the basement, as opposed to being in the upstairs area
if you are going to have a walk out basement, just go ahead and have a patio or deck put in at the time the house is built
In the kitchen, a walk in pantry with shelving

there are probably more, but those are all things that are at the top of my list

Steel Frame on All Exterior Doors with reinforced doors
Running conduit of some type for all cable drops(cat 6, speaker wire, etc.)
Cable Management topside
Ensure proper flat surface(issues with travertine tile and cracking)
All LED lights from the outset
Better Attic Access/Ladder(perhaps a lift to attic, I've stumbled across a few cool products for this)
Metal/Iron Gates instead of Wooden BS
Perhaps recessed front porch with Iron/Metal front gate on front door(not sure on this one though)
Bigger Gun Room
Complete Cabinet system in garage
Ensure proper slope on shower floor
Go for the better fixtures out of the gate
More storage space/bookshelves for books and movies
Better think out Water Heater circulation/distribution as well as Water Filtration
Some of the cooler outlets/switches
Bigger Laundry Room
Bigger closets(two for Master) with table in middle
Small secondary mini-bar/drink area for drink fridge, etc.
Undercounter ice machine
Urinal
Ensure proper runs for adequate CFM of natural gas for backyard fire pits

And probably a million other things if given time to think

The best things that we did was cable runs during the build(including cat 6 outside so we can run baluns from the main hub to send video signal to outside TVs), security cameras, etc. Run more cables than you think you'll need. Ensure the proper cables are being ran(solid core), thicker than you'd think speaker wire, etc.

The house I'm in the process of buying has a two post lift in the shop but that's the one thing the owner's taking with him. The other side of the shop has a mechanic's pit though.


This. I'm glad the current owner had it done already.

I would show up regularly to make sure the contractors aren't cutting corners. Make notes for the builder and things that won't be accept during the walk through.

The house I live in now was built 12 years ago and the stucco man stucco'd over the outside electrical box

You forgot carpet in the bathrooms.  Tile is fucking cold

I'd rabbet my lintels.

Ask yourself some simple questions.

Am I building this as my last house or will I be selling when the kids move on? Build a house in the proper location for its intended use. There is still a market for four bedroom homes near schools. There are markets for two bedroom homes nearby hospitals.

If you want a McMansion, it should have a three and one half size garage. The single door(1/2) should be drive through front to back.


The last house we sold had lots of storage. Big closets, attic space, cabinets galore, pole barn, garden shed - lots of storage for stuff. TOO MUCH STUFF is what we discovered when it was time to move. Storage space was a blessing and a curse. It may be difficult to find that balance.

There are plenty of mechanical suggestions already provided. The only ones I would add, insulate the garage walls and ceiling. Then dry wall the ceiling and walls. Included outlets for a freezer and a refrigerator. LOTS of lights in the garage. 4' fluorescent lights in rows, with separate switches for each row.

The house I rent right now is like that. One bathroom has no windows and the master bath has one big picture window that doesn't open. The 10 layers of paint are all that's holding the rotting wood siding together in some spots.

Quarter turn valves as was said before, I live in a house from the 50's and every valve is the cheapest pos that you can find at the hardware stores and they are all stuck with no hope of moving without having them leak after.

Frostproof valves on the outside of the house just spend the extra 20-30 dollars for something that won't get stuck or leak a few years down the road.

Cheap water valves make life miserable.

there are lots of stupid little shit, but the biggest mistake i see these days is not building out of the ground far enough.

seems to be the new thing to out the sill about 3" above grade for some stupid reason.

This plus insulate laundry room and master bedroom. Keeps noise down.

Sub flooring screwed in instead of nailed so they don't start to creak in a few years.

We are closing on a new home in a month. We had a generator wired in and a utility sink rough-in in the garage. We built the back deck a little bigger than we thought we'd need. Of course all rooms have cable but we also ran one phone line. Even though we don't use a land line and only use cell phones it's a good idea to have one in case of emergencies and cell signal is iffy out in the country. I have a basic old school rotary phone that needs no power.

Wiring closet
At least 2 cat 6 drops per room
Wiring for security cameras and ceiling mount APs
Recess cans for all lighting
External flood lights at the corners on 3 way switch for front back or both
Recessed lighting in eves
Fewer and bigger bedrooms
Oversized shower in master
Tile or hardwood everything

Off the top of my head

Access points and PoE cameras disagree.

We have partially gutted and are renovating a 10 year old house, at least it meets all the hurricane codes and does have a hip roof which makes it much safer. But if I were building new I would build it out of cement block or poured concrete, I would still have a hip roof but I would have it made out of 5 V crimp Galvalume instead of asphalt shingles. The house we're renovating already has nice big overhangs to keep the Sun from directly entering any of the rooms during the heat of the day in yhe summer And we have a porch on both the front and back, ( East / west side)
the house which really helps keep the air conditioning bill down. It has impact-resistant hurricane rated windows already, but if I were starting from scratch I would have dual pane.
The bathroom is already set up pretty well, two big walk-in closets plus a third closet his and her sinks and separate shower and jacuzzi tub. Also separate small enclosure for the commode so I won't have to listen to my wife give me grief about stinking up the place. It has an attached two-car garage but if I were building a new house I would have at least three car maybe four. Between multiple vehicles,  a work area, and Storage you just never have enough room in the garage.
Absolutely no Pergo or engineered flooring, we have three dogs and the kids track in sand. If you can't sand it down and polyurethane it again it is just disposable.

A cleverly hidden bunker.

Multiple Coax/Network drops to every room.
Extra storage - you can never have too much
If hanging a TV - design where it will go and run everything behind the wall to where you'll put the components- HDMI, Coax, Network, Power (I did this during my reno and it made life A LOT easier).
Outdoor power outlets spread around the outside wall at the patio
I love having big sliders from family space to the outdoor space - makes entertaining much better.
If you're building an outdoor entertainment area, run power for outdoor kitchen and power/coax for TV - even if you're not doing it now.
Run generator hookups at the main electrical box - even if you don't install a generator, you might later, or it might help resale.
Make sure you have plenty of electrical circuits, and aren't overloading a smaller number - I had a load issue in my last place due to poor design
Outlets in the roof soffits if you like to run xmas lights
Build your laundry room with space for an extra washer/dryer set, with hookups
Put your laundry room on the same level as the bedrooms (if they're upstairs, put the laundry there)
Make sure you have at least some folding and storage space in the laundry
Pay someone to design your kitchen not the person designing the house...a kitchen designer - it's not that expensive. - especially for lighting
If you're building an island, consider a second smaller sink  - having two is a god send
Pot filler over the stove is a nice to have - but it's REALLY nice
Your stove exhaust won't always be adequate - windows by the stove will help
Don't skimp on appliances.
If possible having your kitchen by the patio (where the grill would be) will make things easier
Make sure every room has a run for overhead lights/fans even if you don't use them right away
Extra 220 runs in the garage for tools and/or Electric Vehicle hookups
Hose hookups on each side of the house
Proper drainage around the foundation
Proper gutters
Run sprinklers/irrigation the right way
Proper Drainage for your water heater - if it fails don't add to your repair bills
Put your a/c handler in an easily accessed place for filter changes
Make sure you have the right sized A/C for the space - even if it means going with multiple units/zones
Stucco doesn't hold up well -
Don't skimp on windows - your utility bill will thank you
Attic fan if you have an attic will help
Pay for better insulaton
Sometimes a noisy bathroom fan is a good thing
Tile is great for cleanup - but it doesn't absorb sound - remember that
Here in FL - hurricane proof doors/windows, no shutters.  Insurance reductions will pay off in the long run.
Metal roofs last a really long time, and can look pretty good.

Wired connections will always be faster and more consistent, and if properly setup to a central network location you make your life a lot easier.  Whether that's adding extra wireless access points, hardwiring smart TV's, running Cameras, etc.

Wireless will always have weak points.

Put bestest gun safe in budget & put it in the basement before house is built.

Steel doors and frames with locking bolts all around.
if you have natural gas:
      generator with 2 fuel sources = natural gas and gas
      tankless water heaters = gas
drop down storm covers for windows
sprinkler system on a well
master bath = walk in shower only with comfy seat and hand grips on wall to get in and out safely (knee surgeries taught me this)

I really want to sell my current house, buy a lot, and build my own on it.

Dreaming of a one level, utilitarian, minimal maintenance design.

No "garden tubs," but larger walk in showers with seats.

All outlets/switches would have the wires screwed in, NOT stuck in.

I would make sure the builder put shower and on Durock cement board, NOT basic drywall!!  

Even if it is a new house, before I signed off on it, I would have a professional inspector do a thorough inspection.  Even if I contracted the house from scratch, the builder would would know I was going to do this.

You can not overestimate the number of electrical outlets you will need.

Go ahead and put ceiling fans in all bedrooms and living areas.  

HVAC units and Water Heater should be walk-up accessable.

Hardiplank siding or brick.