Conveniences in a house build.

keepngoal

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We are in the beginnings of building a house, no design yet and working on a layout but the land is chosen. This should be the last house for us. This is our first personal experience with building, so I’d thought I request some tips and small conveniences that could go into a house build.

We will have a master on the main, and 3 bedrooms upstairs, a covered deck that can be used most months of the year, zero entry, and laundry off of master closet or bathroom. Those are the big strokes, what is out there for small conveniences that can be incorporated?

TIA.
 

JP4CY

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Something I thought of recently that I'd like is a water spigot in the garage because the only ones I have are side of the house.
Also a cheap but good idea is a couple covered outlets under your garage soffits for Xmas lights.
 

DSMCy

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Kitchen pantry can not be too big.
I’m always real jealous of the butler pantries in the Home Show homes.

If your layout allows it, put an access door between your pantry and garage. Allows you to unload groceries right into the pantry/house.

Put outlets in closets and kitchen cabinets.
This lets you plug in things like your WiFi modem/router and keep them out of sight.
 

Clonehomer

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We are in the beginnings of building a house, no design yet and working on a layout but the land is chosen. This should be the last house for us. This is our first personal experience with building, so I’d thought I request some tips and small conveniences that could go into a house build.

We will have a master on the main, and 3 bedrooms upstairs, a covered deck that can be used most months of the year, zero entry, and laundry off of master closet or bathroom. Those are the big strokes, what is out there for small conveniences that can be incorporated?

TIA.

Mud room coming in from the garage. Place to clean up before getting into the rest of your house.
 

JP4CY

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Put outlets in closets and kitchen cabinets.
This lets you plug in things like your WiFi modem/router and keep them out of sight.
Didnt think about that one. We have a mesh and a puck plugged into a kitchen outlet. Maybe I'll move it up to microwave plug in now.
 
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throwittoblythe

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One thing I would love to have is a very basic/rough bathroom in my garage. When I’m doing woodworking, it sucks to clean off to go inside and use the bathroom. Our garage is detached but I suppose for an attached garage you could just put a bathroom inside the house really close to the garage entry.
 

JP4CY

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One thing I would love to have is a very basic/rough bathroom in my garage. When I’m doing woodworking, it sucks to clean off to go inside and use the bathroom. Our garage is detached but I suppose for an attached garage you could just put a bathroom inside the house really close to the garage entry.
I've seen garage bathrooms before that are in the house footprint but accessible only from garage.
 

nfrine

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One thing I would love to have is a very basic/rough bathroom in my garage. When I’m doing woodworking, it sucks to clean off to go inside and use the bathroom. Our garage is detached but I suppose for an attached garage you could just put a bathroom inside the house really close to the garage entry.
The garage needs to be at least twice the square footage of the house...;)
 

Mr Janny

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Shop sink in garage, basement storage area or mudroom. Our previous house had one and I never knew how much I missed it until we didn't have it.

And to go along with it, you gotta have a drain in your garage... for liquids
 

MeanDean

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The garage needs to be at least twice the square footage of the house...;)
I know this is kind of a jokey reply but honestly, however big you think you need your garage. Make it bigger. Like they say, there are two things a man has that he always wishes were just a little bit bigger - one of those things is his garage.
 

MeanDean

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You didn't mention basement.

If I were building a new home I'd have a two level sump pit. Primary on the lower level and backup/secondary on the upper level. One of the worst things that can happen is a flooded basement. A failed sump pump is something to avoid.

In that same vein, give thought to a generator. Power outages like we experienced post-derecho (one week plus) suck. And if there's weather and your sump pump or furnace needs to run to avoid flooding or freezing pipes you'll be in good shape.
 

CYdTracked

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Agree with the pantry, dont skimp on kitchen and pantry space as you can never have enough. Run ethernet outlets to all your rooms maybe? Never hurts to be able to hard wire a device to the internet if needed and it's a pain to wire it later if you have a need. Plan all your wiring in general because once you finish it's harder to add later if the space has no way to snake it directly from the source. Spigot in your basement, I had one installed in my utility room since I do not have a basement bathroom and use it to fill my sump pit occasionally so the pump does not freeze up, wash anything I might be working on, or use when I flush my tankless hot water heater. That's another item, may cost more to install but go tankless as you will save over the long haul in efficiency and life of it vs a tank heater.

Never built a house but found enough things over the years if I ever did I know what I want. Never can have enough storage. My house has a 3 car garage that I'm not sure I could live without now that I have one. Also very useful thing is there is an attic above the garage with pull down steps that I get good use of. I store all my Christmas stuff up there along with anything i dont use often and it helps keep the clutter out of the garage. Shouldn't add much to your costs since it's not a finished area, looks like they just installed the steps with a light wired to the space and some thick plywood across the beams for the floor.
 

keepngoal

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You didn't mention basement.

If I were building a new home I'd have a two level sump pit. Primary on the lower level and backup/secondary on the upper level. One of the worst things that can happen is a flooded basement. A failed sump pump is something to avoid.

In that same vein, give thought to a generator. Power outages like we experienced post-derecho (one week plus) suck. And if there's weather and your sump pump or furnace needs to run to avoid flooding or freezing pipes you'll be in good shape.
Probably no basement, not in an area that has them, nor needs them, and the land material doesn’t really make it a cheap option. Most houses here have a crawl space then 2-3 levels above that.

However, yes we will have two large gens and a two 30 amp hookups in the garage for their use. Excellent point.