I'm currently in the design stage of a new home, working out floor plan details now but also trying to think of anything I'd like to have planned for or done before it's too late to go back, especially as a "modern" home. For instance. While I will have wifi, I've already planned to pull cat5 to certain places where I want better/consistent connection or install a WAP. USB ports in certain wall outlets for easy charging. I've always wanted speakers throughout common areas so I'll have wire pulled to those locations, maybe even volume controls beside the light switches in rooms. Considering heated floors in the master bathroom. I'm not certain about any home automation or reporting items I would want or could justify. I do have a Nest thermostat already and like being able to control it from my phone. Not sure I need my washing machine tweeting me though. I'm a runner and am planning to have an outdoor shower in back, the back yard is pretty private being surrounded by woods. It's also 1.4 acres so plan on being outside a lot working in the yard, maybe even a small garden, so the shower will be nice after sweating outside. I may not buy it up front but would like to have a pad poured and electrical installed for a generator. I'll have some gas, stove and fireplace at least. Still on the fence about gas vs wood burning fireplace though, neither would be used much here. Not sure about heating water but have 2 daughters, 11 and 16, so I heat a lot of water as it is.

I'm in coastal Georgia so I don't need to worry about snow. I'm trying to figure how energy efficient we can go but still make sense and be able to recoup the up front cost in savings. I have a mother in law suite I currently use for an office at my existing home and I had it built with spray foam insulated ceilings in the attic and it definitely makes a difference in the summer so will probably have that in the new house. I do work from home so I'm home more than most people and keep the temps more consistent than those of you that leave for 9+ hours every day.

What modern conveniences or ideas would you build into your home if you were starting from scratch? Must be within reason, I'm not a millionaire and assume most of GD isn't either, so no helipads unfortunately, but would love to hear some out of the box ideas.

ETA Keep getting mentions of stuff to do with a basement. Coastal Georgia means sea level, no basements here.

Screened in porch off of the master bedroom to sleep in on the nice nights, I'd kill for that

Make sure whatever electrical panel you have installed has an available UL listed interlock so you can connect a portable generator down the line.  I usually install Siemens panels.

commercial appliances
 

Outlets. EVERYWHERE.

CAT5 in every room. Server / media center room to feed the house.



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Run ethernet cable everywhere, even to places you think you might not want it now.  Far easier to do now, far cheaper to do now, and it will pay off at some point.

Commercial sink and sprayer that comes down from above.

either set up a dedicated wiring closet, or get the largest in wall cabinets you can find. (probably two of them)

however many data drops you think you need, your estimate is low.

if you are putting speakers on a patio, make sure you wire for a volume control, and run a stub so you can add additional outdoor speakers if you desire.

if you put one electric outlet on your patio, then you are shorting yourself. You need at least two.

Tell me more. With 2 daughters home plus a third that just moved out after graduating in May, the only appliances I've really had problems with were the washer/dryer. They've caught hell for 10 years and we actually just replaced the washer 3 weeks ago. It's a lot of work to keep up with 4 females of clothes and wet towels!

ets: won't have a dedicated brick oven but I do have a Big Green Egg and it will have a dedicated place outside with counter top and place for tool storage, plus mandatory bottle opener.

Heated floors. A boiler in the basement that heats underfloor plastic tubing. Best heating system there is.



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I'd personally go for solid Network drops throughout the house in all the rooms and have an air-conditioned electronics closet. I like wi-fi for tablets, phones, and laptops but anything else I'd rather have wired connectivity. That way you can have your smart TVs, Consoles, and PC all linked up. Samsung and other companies have some spiffy features for streaming from your PC to your TV.

I was going to suggest an outdoor shower but I see you're already thinking of that.

I've only ever used an outdoor shower a few times, but it was a very nice experience. Nighttime, open top on the shower, very relaxing.


If you have the space, I would try to build either an oversized garage or a separate workspace area. My previous house had a garage and that was 24' x 25'. My current house has a garage that is something like 20' x 21'. It doesn't sound like a lot of space lost, but that is a gigantic difference. It went from being able to easily pull the cars into the garage and having tons of space to open the doors and unload things, to barely squeezing in the cars and feeling like you can't open a door without hitting the other car.

Fireplace type: personally I would vote for a wood stove, but the convenience of having a gas fireplace is a nice thing as well.

with USB jacks for recharging as well.

I would build a room for an endless pool.

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Zoned heating and air conditioning. You can heat and cool only parts of your house you need and close off the rest. You'll need a two-stage whoseywhatsy, you can't just do it with an "on" "off" compressor/furnace/air handler.

Electric heating grid under tiles in master bath. Sweet touch.

Big fan of gas water heating, no need for water heater tank.

Generator: Natural gas generator is nice if you have it available and can afford it, otherwise, put in an outlet by your panel to plug in your portable generator, that way you can just feed circuits you absolutely need ala: Fridge, freezer, Heating or Air dependent on the size of your generator.

Faraday cage. The whole house.

That are like 4 ft off the ground, not that 9 inches or wahtever off the ground bull shit

Look into spray foam insulation against the roof in the attic. Plenty of good slinfo on the Internet to make your house use way less power for not much money. If gas is available use it.

Pot filler in kitchen at range.  Towel warmer in bathroom.  Crestron everything.  Drain in Garage.  Safe Room.  Geothermal HVAC.

Large walk-in closets in all bedrooms.
If a two story home, your laundry room should be on the second floor.
Build at least a 3 car garage.  More would be better.  You can't have enough garage space.  
His and her sinks in the master bath.  (You'll thank me for this later.)

There will be a screened porch but not off the master. In this part of the world there just aren't enough nights I could sleep there to justify it being separate, but I love the idea.

This will be more for sitting in the evenings when it's nice, I don't mind being a little warm, but keep the bugs off. Our state bird is the mosquito and our gnats are really just teeth with wings.

How about wiring for a video surveillance system?

I would get solid wood doors; the hollow doors in my house leave a lot to be desired for cutting down noise in a house with lots of open space.

Ground source heat pump HVAC system

During the building phase, before the drywall is installed, take a million photos of the studs, joists, plumbing, and electrical.

Don't skimp on insulation, insulate the hell out of your house. It will pay you dividends later on.

Can lights in the ceiling to really light up an area. Make the splurge and buy some high-quality CREE LED bulbs. Then put those lights on a dimmer switch. You will literally end up using something like 5% of the electricity you normally would with incandescent bulbs. Even with the LED bulbs turned low on the dimmer, they still output a significant amount of light because their efficiency is highest energy input his lowest.

If you like to have moving air while sleeping, ceiling fans are definitely a good idea. Get ones that come with a remote control or buy a separate remote control and install it when you're putting in the ceiling fans.

Spend some time thinking about how you want your electrical circuits done. In my house, the wall switch in the bedrooms turns on the electricity to a few outlets, I'm assuming so that you can plug in lamps and have them turn on. Personally I hate that.

Make sure everything in your electrical panel is clearly labeled with exactly what is on each circuit so you know what you are turning on or off.

If you ever think you're going to do any kind of woodworking or hobby work in your garage, make sure there are plenty of outlets. My garage only has two outlets, one of which is on the ceiling for the garage door opener.

I'm trying to get rid of furniture in the bedroom by putting more into the closet so the closet is already designed to be 14' wide, hoping this will work and open up the bedroom since we're actually going down in bedroom size a tad. It is 2 story but the only thing upstairs is going to be the 2 kids bedrooms and their jack and jill bath. With the oldest remaining kid in 11th grade, we'll be down to just one real soon and we won't be carrying clothes upstairs to do laundry. We did plan the laundry room, and dishwasher, to be as far from the master as we can put it though.

Central vac

Panic room

Soft closing drawers in the kitchen (and other rooms too). It's nice to close the drawer and not worry about the noise it makes from slamming closed, or having everything inside get jostled around.

gun room

Could've had about 10 Dysons for the money, but I like mine a lot.

Master bath with all wall mounted fixtures and no curb for the shower.

Torture chamber

Do you like ceiling fans?   If so plan for the structural requirements when framing.

Power for future jacuzzi (outside).

Can you provide a rough floor plan for review and suggestions?

Pre wire for CAT6, CCTV, alarms, HDMI where TV's will be, audio, ect..

Towel warmer.

Bunker.

Sprinkler system with fire eyes.

Still debating on floors. SO wants "hard wood" but would be happy with engineered. I'm not a fan of the floating stuff so will have to be either glued or nailed. We're aren't 100% on if it'll be a slab or raised with crawl space. I don't want tile anywhere so if we're on a slab there may be some stained concrete in the laundry and master bath. If raised I'm not sure what we'll do in those places.

ETA, dang, just re-read this and I originally read this as solid wood FLOORS

Moat.

Full Stone outer walls.

Gate.


Oh oh MODERN.......

Prewire for Cat 6, and think ahead how you could possibly upgrade it when cat6 gets replaced.

Run power outlet to walls where you will hang tvs to get rid of wires.

Definitely build a gun room in the basement with a vault door. Having a fault reloading/gun room is one of my dreams some day.

What he said^

alot of good ideas here. make everthing with wide hallway's/doors/handrails and wheelchair accessable. trust me on this

NEVER SKIMP ON CLOSET SPACE!!!!!!!! I am on the verge of redoing some closets in the apartments my father rents as well as the one I live in.

Make sure your wash room is right against an external wall and not some middle of the house bullshit. Shortest run possible for your dryer exhaust will help maximize dryer efficiency and make it easier to clean. Also make sure you have a a table area in the washroom for folding clothes.

You water control room and electric box should be centrally locates for shortest runs possible. It would also be a good idea to put in the largest utility box you can and make sure that you are not overloading your outlets. If you live in an area prone to power surges you might want a whole house surge unit.

PS I do not know if you mentioned it, but building a two story house is for suckers and young people who intend to buy a new home as they get older. Having a two story house as you get older is a bitch, also hardwood and lots of tile are awesome, until you get old and have frail bone structures.  Just a thought.

Pistol range, gym, gun vault.

Ceiling fans in every room.
Radiant heating in floors-probably my favorite thing about my house.
Wide doors throughout house - 36" minimum

Ununoctium

My sister's house has this and she loves it.

If you're planning on growing old in this house, look up "universal design" for the first floor.  I would also put a guest bedroom with full bath on the main level.

I wouldn't go completely nuts with passive-solar design, but look into your window sizes and locations, and roof overhangs, so that your south-facing windows are shaded in the summer months to help lower your HVAC bills.

One of the "bedrooms" is really going to be my office. It would be a bonus room but I'm having a closet put in so I can call it a bedroom and will be a 4 BR house in all. It won't be a "gun room" or man cave but I plan on having a place planned for a decent safe. It will be on the opposite side of the house from the master so my fudd guns and scatter guns, along with some valuables, will stay in there. I'd like to have something small and secure planned in the master suite though so I can at minimum stick my AR and Glock in it with some magazines and be able to lock it yet access easily. I'm not certain how I want to do this just yet. My dad mentioned that if it's on a slab to have them leave a hollow in the bedroom and have a safe in the floor but not sure I want to do that. Not to mention every tradesman working on the house from day one will know it's there.

Don't run a single ethernet cable to wired locations, run two. Costs practically nothing and is sometimes a major help later on. Like someone else mentioned, take tons of pictures during framing, electrical wiring, and plumbing rough in. You will be happy you did. Slab house? How about a nice large in-slab safe for valuables. Also a dedicated, secure, and hidden gun room.

Outlets everywhere.

Network ports everywhere.

Coax everywhere.

Speaker jacks in your family/entertainment room to hide speaker wire.

Conduit to make future wiring pulling easier.