Building a home

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

3) Keep your own spreadsheet of costs, so that you know where your money is going. Even the best contractor can let costs get away from them at times, and you'll want to know where your money is going anyway.

Yes!

And plan to spend more money than your original calculations. Even when building a new home, little, unexpected expenses can come about, and the last thing you want is to not be able to afford your new home.

Secondly, build your rooms around your lifestyle. If you love to cook and entertain, you'd obviously want a big kitchen. If you read a lot, or if you tend to take your work home with you, build a small library/study/office. If you frequently have family staying overnight, build a guest bedroom.. or two.

When it comes to outlets, have a lot of them, but also consider where you're putting them. My apartment has a good number of outlets, but the locations of some of them are weird. Think about where lamps, computers and televisions will probably go, and where you can place furniture to hide cords.

And if you're putting an island in your kitchen, think about whether you'd like an outlet on that, also.

When choosing colors... consider how clean you are (obsessive or laid-back), if you have, or plan to have children, if you have pets, etc.

Lastly, if you have the money, think about any added "bonuses" you'd like. For example, my mom and stepdad completely remodeled their house a few years ago. They have a central vacuum system. My mom (after watching MTV Cribs!!) decided that she wanted a small slit in the wall, adjacent to the floor, so that she could sweep, push the dust and dirt toward the hole, tap a button with her foot, and have the mess be sucked into the wall so that she'd never have to use a dustpan (it's the coolest thing!)

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

My mom (after watching MTV Cribs!!) decided that she wanted a small slit in the wall, adjacent to the floor, so that she could sweep, push the dust and dirt toward the hole, tap a button with her foot, and have the mess be sucked into the wall so that she'd never have to use a dustpan (it's the coolest thing!)

I'm totally curious about this: where does the dust end up? Just in the wall? Outside?

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by KSUViolet06

I'm totally curious about this: where does the dust end up? Just in the wall? Outside?

Central vacuum systems are becoming more common. They allow you to put special "outlets" in your house where you can hook up a vacuum attachment so that you don't have to pull a big, heavy vacuum cleaner around with you.

http://realestateinsider.files.wordp...entral-vac.jpg

And I believe there's a tank where all the dirt goes.

I've looked up the replacement dustpan... I guess they're called VacPans? I found this video. It's not exactly used for what this guy is doing with it, but you can at least see what it is and what it does:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZX6dgm25CQM

[honeychile]

I thought about this late last night - when a sister remodeled her house, she had one cabinet just for charging batteries, cellphones, hand sweeper, etc, etc. It's somehow lined so that a fire would be contained, too.

The other thing she has (I have no idea what it's called!) is under the floor cabinets, in that 6-8 inches or so that's wasted space? You can kick that, and a step comes out. She & her husband are both "vertically challenged" and that six inches is great to help reach higher cabinets.

[EtaPhiZTA]

As many others have already suggested -- electrical outlets -- the more, the merrier. When my husband general contracted our house eight years ago, he did a great job with this.

We have a central vac system with the built in dust pans. I love it for our handwood and tile floors. I still prefer to use my Miele for my carpets.

If you can do 9 foot ceilings, I would say to go for it. It is wonderful to have a full height basement and I love that I was able to get extra tall cabinets for my kitchen. The extra storage space cannot be beat. I also let my husband talk me into installing the double oven. I didn't see a need for it at the time, but it is a real lifesaver during the holiday season.

When you install HVAC, zoned heating and air conditioning is a real plus. I think we have saved a lot of money by being able to concentrate our energy costs to the areas of the house that we use most.

The one extra that I didn't fight hard enough for (and I still regret it to this day) was radiant heat under my master bathroom tile. I hate cold tile in the winter (I live an hour outside of Chicago, and the floor gets cold in the winter). If we ever build again, this will be at the top of my "must have" list.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by EtaPhiZTA

The one extra that I didn't fight hard enough for (and I still regret it to this day) was radiant heat under my master bathroom tile. I hate cold tile in the winter (I live an hour outside of Chicago, and the floor gets cold in the winter). If we ever build again, this will be at the top of my "must have" list.

My cousin and her hubby have this and I LOVE it. I babysit overnight for them sometimes and I love being able to get out of the shower and not freeze to death (we're in Ohio). They also have heated towel racks.

[amanda6035]

omg, thank you for starting this thread. We're also considering building a house...this is some really good advice

[ree-Xi]

I agree - spend the time to have a spreadsheet.

Also realize the need to budget for extra outlets, your driveway and walkway (expect to pay up to 10k depending on the size of both), landrscaping other than the cheapest grass they might throw down, etc. Although I read the building and neighborhood document inside and out, these things easily are forgotten or not addressed, and you suddenly have these costs that add $$$ to your final number.

If you had the opportunity to add in the cost of your appliances and extras to your mortgage, think carefully about trying to pay for those upfront. It's easy to think, oh we have 30 years to pay it off, but once those appliances need replacement, you are probably not going to be done paying them off.

Lastly, research the town you want to live in, and research their tax system. A year after we moved in, my town reassessed properties (home and cars) and they increased the mill rate almost 70%. They staggered the increased into two stages, but our current property tax for our size house in our town would be twice the amount in another town. However, the cost to build in the other town would be a lot more.

Try to reach for a mortgage that is $300-400 less than the max you think you can pay. Things happen, not everything is covered under warranty or home insurance, and other things come along that you realize you need. Plus, consider what it will cost to furnish, plus window treatments, etc.

Consider all methods of heating. Our new neighborhood was built with propane as the method of heating. We were amazed with the cost difference compared to oil, which we had at our previous home. We went from speniding 500-700 a month to less than $300.

Multi-zone heating is worth putting in now rather than waiting. It saves on heat, especially if you have two floors. We were too nervous at that top number and thought we could wait. Now it will cost us more to retro-fit it in.

Ask for building incentives, if your builder seems to be pushing you to sign by a certain time. We got free a/c and free gas fireplace by signing by the end of a calendar year. AND we got a lock down on cheaper prices (which were going up after the new year).

Consider windows that are almost floor to ceiling. Natural light saves on electricity. We love our huge windows, which are super easy to clean.

Best of luck. If I think of anything else, I will come back, if that's okay.

[kddani]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

Lastly, if you have the money, think about any added "bonuses" you'd like. For example, my mom and stepdad completely remodeled their house a few years ago. They have a central vacuum system. My mom (after watching MTV Cribs!!) decided that she wanted a small slit in the wall, adjacent to the floor, so that she could sweep, push the dust and dirt toward the hole, tap a button with her foot, and have the mess be sucked into the wall so that she'd never have to use a dustpan (it's the coolest thing!)

My aunt and uncle have that and it's fabulous. They have a whole house vacuum system- it was only about $1000 for them to put in, but then again they did a lot of the work on their house themselves.

Honeychile- I grew up in and currently live in a Ryan home. We know some people who have built with them in the past few years - most are pretty happy. I think that there are so many things that can happen when building a house something almost always goes wrong. Heartland is good, but I think for the amount of space we want it's going to be too expensive.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. Keep 'em coming. (happy to say we've thought of many of the things mentioned - i.e. we want a big kitchen, may not want hardwood floors because we don't want them to get beat up- get something that wears better with less work. We can always put them in later).