Home design tips and advice

[Pirwin21]

Anytime I am looking for good advice, this forum has always come through. Last year I finished building my three stall garage with a living space above it. The living space comes in right at 980 sq. ft, which is more than large enough for my wife and I. We are expecting our first child in less than a month and it's time for me to begin planning to build our home. Our target date to start the house is approximately 3 years, but I want to get a rough estimate for building costs and budget, so that I know that magical number I'm saving for. I am currently in the design stage and I know there are a lot of you who are familiar in construction, as well as many of you who have a lot of common sense. I was wondering what sort of tips and advice you all had for designing a home. I'm looking for those things that one would typically forget to put in or do and then after they're finished would say, "why didn't I think of that sooner." Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[miramadar]

From a guy who's there right now...

GOOD LUCK!!!

My wife and I are in the middle of building our home. We've been "designing" it for 10 years. Finally, it's almost here. We hope to move into the house in May or June.

Putting a price on a house is like blowing in the wind. I consider myself a "numbers guy". I'm very good with spreadsheets, lists, estimates, and things like that. But even after 10 years of planning, there are just so many things that are variable in nature, that it is near impossible to get it exact. But if you know exactly how big you want the house, and the exact materials you're going to use, you can get a very close number. But what's the price of steel going to be in 3 years? The price of gas? How much of it are you going to do yourself? What grade of materials are you going to use (formica or granite countertops?)? These things have a huge impact on the final price.

Your best bet is to find someone in your area who has recently built a house and pick their brain. You might find someone on this forum. But I've found that asking around town is the best place to start. Your neighbors can help a lot.

Again, GOOD LUCK...and enjoy the ride. It is an awesome (and very daunting) experience.

 

[20 20]

You're going to get all kinds of pricing on what a sq foot will cost, just to many ways/areas of doing it. We did all of our own work/building, including milling our lumber{everything except plywood}. Cost us about 15.00 sq foot that's including some appliances, windows, doors, metal roof, electric, plumbing etc... I believe the last time this was asked it went anywhere from 30.00 sq foot up to 300.00+ sq foot.

Your best bet is to figure out how your going to go about the task. Are you hiring out? Are you going to try and do some yourself? What type of permits does your area require? What skills do you have, plumbing and electrical add up? What type of foundation are you going with? How many windows are you planing? How many doors? How many stories? How many outlets, to many is better then not enough? What size electric box? Are you going to put in a water manifold system{ I highly recommend}? Here are a few things to think of, there are many more.

 

[20 20]

But what's the price of steel going to be in 3 years? The price of gas?

This is a very good point we bought steel for our garage a year before, it was $1.40+ a foot. The next year we where doing the house roof, same type steel{color gage etc..} it jumped to over $3.00+ a foot. :confused2:

Your best bet is to find someone in your area who has recently built a house and pick their brain. You might find someone on this forum. But I've found that asking around town is the best place to start. Your neighbors can help a lot.
.

I agree with this also your area will have a closer comparison then most of us on here. I'd also check with local contractors, if they're decent they help out.

 

[dave1949]

Since you are in NW PA, that could be lake effect snow area? If so, I would plan for that with roof pitches, plow access, etc.

Another good starting point is to decide how you will heat your house. If you plan on having a wood burner that will at least keep the whole house warm enough to be livable, it needs to be in the right location. If you are considering any solar energy, orientation to south and the many design things to think of and research related to that. Considering geothermal/water furnace, where would that go in your yard.

I have always thought is it nice to cluster your plumbing fixtures such that your supply and waste lines are minimized. A bathrooom that shares a wall with a laundry room for example. If you are planning a basement, how the drainage will be done.

You also need to become familiar with the building code for your area so you don't design something that is not allowed. Basic things like bathrooms adjacent to the kitchen. Windows in bedrooms that allow for fire exits. All sorts of things that can trip you up.

Are you a gourmet kitchen type or a plain jane kitchen. Do you plan on having any special features like a wood fired brick oven, atrium/greenhouse, home office, library, hobby room, home theater, etc.

Do you want to blend your living space to the outdoors with an enclosed patio, outdoor kitchen or three season area. What sort of landscapping? Any pools or water features or similar outside.

I would start with a big wish list and then whittle it down to reality keeping your favorites. In that way, when you start putting lines on paper, you know what you need to find room and ideal placement for.

You have the luxury of time, so use that to your advantage by collecting samples, visit home shows, tile and carpet stores, appliance stores, etc. Gather dimensions, power and ventilation requirements for everything everywhere you go. Keep it organized in a folder(s) or something.

It's a happy problem but one that can drive you nuts. Good luck.
Dave.

 

[kidr]

I would suggest you look into a Superior Walls precast foundation. the company makes sure the builder prepares the site just right with proper drainage etc. and there are many benefits to the system. I would also suggest installing a radon pump to ventilate the slab. It's amazing how nice and dry it keeps the basement or crawlspace.

 

[EE_Bota]

Any and all advice is greatly appreciated.

One thing I am very thankful for approximately every 3 years or so is that one of my restrooms has the sink RIGHT BESIDE the toilet. I almost hate to have to type that in for all to read, but there is a really good reason why this is a good idea.

 

[kebo]

My few tidbits of general advice to be used or cast aside, as you wish!

1) Is this home going to be your *last* home, one that you plan on retiring in?? If so, I've read that it's best to go ahead and build it with handicap accesible entries. Also, have at least one main bedroom with built-in bath on the ground floor. The reason for all this is that you never know what the future holds. Years from now you or someone in your family could become crippled/handicapped and then you would be forced to change things around to accomodate their needs. Why not do it up front and save yourself the hassle later on??

2) For the same reason above, if you are going with an upstairs I would only have maybe a FROG, storage space, or possibly two bedrooms in the upstairs; ie no laundry room no game room, no office. That would be your decision though.

3) If you think you might be selling this house in the future, don't get too "custom" with it, or you may well limit yourself to a smaller audience of interested buyers, thus making it harder to sell. If you plan to keep it forever, then go all out!

4) I'm sure you are going to build it so it's ECO friendly as you can make it. One suggestion here is to put lots of recessed window space on the south facing side. THis lets in light when the sun is low in the winter (for warmth) but are shelted in the summer when you don't need that extra warmth. Look into using earth berms around some parts of the house for natural insulation.

5) Someone covered this but it's worth mentioning again... If you are going to have a two story (or more) house definitely look at the chain ladders that mount beneath a window (inside the room) for fire escapes. You simply open the window, unlock the chain ladder and let it roll down the outside of the house, and then climb down it to make your escape.

6) If the budget permits, consider a whole house vacuming system. This will win all sorts of brownie points for you, she'll only have to lug the hose and a nozzle piece from room to room. These are much quieter to operate since the motor will be down in the basement or laundry room somewhere out of the way while you are trying to watch the game!!

7) Look at plumbing in the small point of use instant water heaters in the bathrooms so you don't spend a fortune waiting for hot water to get from one end of the house to the other end. These will pay for themselves over time.


Just a few thoughts that I had.

 

[ctpres]

If there is a special view look for plans with Master bedroom, kitchen and living/family room on view side.
Go for 5/8" fire code sheet rock unless you are a few minutes from a fire station. Look at burn thur time vs 1/2", you will be impressed.
Even if you don't use it rightaway, prewire for burg, fire, audio, video, TV and phone service. Wire and your labor/time with no sheet rock in the way is nothing.
Insulate interior walls between noisy and quiet rooms. Say kitchen with bedroom sharing a wall.
If you want to do a lot of the work yourself but don't think you have time for the whole thing, look at a shell home and you finish inside.
Plumb outdoor faucets and future lawn sprinkler system independently from bath, kitchen and laundry. If there is a water softner initially or in the future you won't be wasting salt watering the lawn.

 

[miramadar]

I do have to say, you're going about this the right way. It will easily take 3 years to plan it all out, especially if you haven't yet found a design you like. My wife and I spent hours and hours looking at house plans online and in books, and we always found things that just didn't work for us. So, I bought an inexpensive CAD program and designed my own house. We put a lot of thought into it and came up with a final design that we both love and that functions properly for us. In terms of the design, don't settle for anything less than something that fits you perfectly. You'll regret it if you do. If nothing else, you could buy a cheap CAD program and design your own floorplan and then take it to an architect for the final drawings. That would probably cost about as much as buying stock plans online. And it is a lot of fun to "doodle" with these programs and just explore possibilities.

Another technique we used was to define pretty closely what size we wanted each room, draw the rooms out to scale on graph paper, cut out each room, and then arrange them in a sort of rough draft of the floor plan. Once you have the "flow" of the house down, you can work on the tedious particulars of making it all fit together.

Once you've got the floor plan mostly settled (and that will take at least a year!), you can take your drawings to a building supply store and they can estimate what the materials will cost you. Once you know the material cost, you can just multiply it by 2 or so to figure out what the total cost will be...because labor generally costs the same as materials. But this does largely depend on where you live and the demand for housing.

Once you get a rough idea of what it will cost to build the house you've drawn, you can endeavor to either cut down or add to the square footage depending on your budget. In my case, I had to cut it down a couple of times to get to my target budget...which was AS CHEAP AS POSSIBLE. I started with a 1-story house w/ full basement at about 2300 sqft per floor and ended up cutting it down to a final size of 1781 sqft. That was a challenge! That forced us to really prioritize our space and make the most efficient use of it.

Another little trick...ALWAYS over-estimate the cost of things, even if just a little. For instance, my building budget calls for $400 per window. I ended up actually paying like $250 per window. Its nice to have that little bit of wiggle room with the $$. And trust me, you'll have cost over-runs. On our house, I estimated that we'd need about 35 yards of concrete to pour the basement floor...we ended up using 64 yards! The concrete calculators you can find online are wonderful...just make sure that your hole in the ground is PERFECT. Our wasn't perfect and our slab that is supposed to be 6" thick is over 10" thick in some places. And it doesn't take long to go through some concrete!

Anyway, I hope this rant helps. Like I said before, I'm right in the middle of my project, so I'm in a good position to lend out advice. If you need to pick my brain, feel free to PM me any time.

 

[nickel plate]

I do have to say, you're going about this the right way. It will easily take 3 years to plan it all out, especially if you haven't yet found a design you like. My wife and I spent hours and hours looking at house plans online and in books, and we always found things that just didn't work for us. So, I bought an inexpensive CAD program and designed my own house. We put a lot of thought into it and came up with a final design that we both love and that functions properly for us. In terms of the design, don't settle for anything less than something that fits you perfectly. You'll regret it if you do. If nothing else, you could buy a cheap CAD program and design your own floorplan and then take it to an architect for the final drawings. That would probably cost about as much as buying stock plans online. And it is a lot of fun to "doodle" with these programs and just explore possibilities.

Another technique we used was to define pretty closely what size we wanted each room, draw the rooms out to scale on graph paper, cut out each room, and then arrange them in a sort of rough draft of the floor plan. Once you have the "flow" of the house down, you can work on the tedious particulars of making it all fit together.

Once you've got the floor plan mostly settled (and that will take at least a year!), you can take your drawings to a building supply store and they can estimate what the materials will cost you. Once you know the material cost, you can just multiply it by 2 or so to figure out what the total cost will be...because labor generally costs the same as materials. But this does largely depend on where you live and the demand for housing.

Once you get a rough idea of what it will cost to build the house you've drawn, you can endeavor to either cut down or add to the square footage depending on your budget. In my case, I had to cut it down a couple of times to get to my target budget...which was AS CHEAP AS POSSIBLE. I started with a 1-story house w/ full basement at about 2300 sqft per floor and ended up cutting it down to a final size of 1781 sqft. That was a challenge! That forced us to really prioritize our space and make the most efficient use of it.

Another little trick...ALWAYS over-estimate the cost of things, even if just a little. For instance, my building budget calls for $400 per window. I ended up actually paying like $250 per window. Its nice to have that little bit of wiggle room with the $$. And trust me, you'll have cost over-runs. On our house, I estimated that we'd need about 35 yards of concrete to pour the basement floor...we ended up using 64 yards! The concrete calculators you can find online are wonderful...just make sure that your hole in the ground is PERFECT. Our wasn't perfect and our slab that is supposed to be 6" thick is over 10" thick in some places. And it doesn't take long to go through some concrete!

Anyway, I hope this rant helps. Like I said before, I'm right in the middle of my project, so I'm in a good position to lend out advice. If you need to pick my brain, feel free to PM me any time.

Can you please disclose which CAD program you purchased?
Thanks, Jerry

 

[MW66]

One of the points that kebo mentioned is accessibility. My wife is an architect and happens to be one of the leading authorities in what is called Universal Design. I am doing it an injustice, but things like wider doorways, no step entries, etc. We JUST finished our new home construction and are in the midst of moving in. A few of my requirements were to have a 3 car garage, master bedroom on first floor, and I have an attached wood shop immediately to the rear of the garage. We went as energy efficient and we could with a tankless water heater, spray in foam insulation, CFL bulbs, etc. I even caulked the entire perimeter of the inside of the house floor to prevent air infiltration. So much so that we needed to put in an HRV system. You have to watch EVERYTHING. My idea of workmanship was not universally shared among all subcontractors. If something is not done correctly, speak up. It is a long and somewhat trying process, but you'll endure. I had my property (20 acres) for about 10 years. Then, I met my wife, she happened to be an architect, we got married, and here we are today. Good luck.

 

[miramadar]

Can you please disclose which CAD program you purchased?
Thanks, Jerry

I used Punch Home Design AS18. It's a neat program, but a little difficult to get started with. There is a learning curve. But once you've got the basics down, it's really not hard at all.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I bought at least one set of house plans for a general idea, that helped some. I ended up designing several different variations before we settled on a floorplan. If it's multiple stories, get the stairs in early, then work from there. In addition to drawing floor plans, I drew construction plans that showed every joist layed out, ever stud, etc.. When I went to frame I had a complete picture of each wall, with dimensions, etc. I made sure things fit on paper before I built. I still ended up changing some things during construction. I also made a spreadsheet, where I calculated pretty much every piece of lumber I needed, how much drywall, insulation, roofing, etc.... I knew after design how much material was going to cost, the unknown was labor for the things I subbed out, but on those items I had gotten quotes, so I knew going into construction the final cost, and the amount I needed for a construction loan.

 

[CurlyDave]

Since you have one child well on the way, and may have more, put the master bedroom at the opposite end of the house from the kids bedrooms.

Building for accessibility is a great idea. We did all the wider doors, etc. Also, the master bath is designed so that the toilet can be accessed by both a resident and an attendant if necessary.

We put a ramp inside the garage. Out of sight and out of the weather.

 

[sodamo]

We did this, or more accurately, are still building. Still got some cabinet and trim work to do. We are owner-builders and not getting any younger

Before any drawing, we made a written list of what we wanted in terms of space or function, for instance: single story, ADA, exercise room, area for caregiver in my dotage, no hallways, openness, ventilation, etc. As I drew different plans, this list became our sanity check. Went through a number of styles and material before settling on what we built. Not only did I do scale drawings, I also made a scale model using that foam board stuff. This was really great. I made the roof removable. Also using same scale, did mockups of kitchen, laundry, garage w/vehicles. This provided a very good perspective of windows and doors. Although we did make changes, the final product is very close to model.

Have fun.

David

 

[dave1949]

You can maximize your building budget by incorporating the ideas from sources like: The Not So Big House

The author has a few books that have been out for awhile now. Any time you can use a couple sq ft more efficiently, you save money on the construction costs by reducing the overall footprint. You also save money forever on property taxes which are usually based on sq. ft. and you save money forever on heating/cooling costs. There is less space to clean and maintain also.

In terms of area enclosed for the least spent on foundation and exterior perimeter wall costs, a fairly square (width to length) 1 1/2 story home over a basement is hard to beat. Exterior walls are expensive to build and the more you have, the heating bills rise. Currently at least, a house of this type with a first floor master suite is very popular. It was a popular house design in the 1800's also, so it has some staying power. Granted, the master suites are a bit more opulent these days.

There are lots of custom built-in things you can do; sort of a throwback to the 1950's Craftsman style, that can add a lot of usefulness and character to a home without increasing the construction costs. An example would be at the end of a hallway, if you leave 16" free wall space on each side, it becomes a perfect place for a floor to ceiling bookcase/gun cabinet/hobby display/kid's toy & game storage area or whatever. The basic concept is to make better use of the space than what is typical.

Dave.

 

[miramadar]

I made the roof removable. Also using same scale, did mockups of kitchen, laundry, garage w/vehicles. This provided a very good perspective of windows and doors.

This reminds me...another great thing about using the CAD program like I have (Punch AS18) is that you can see the plan with furniture in it. You can move the furniture around, change the size, orientation, etc. This really helps visualize how things are going to look and function once built.

One rule of thumb that I used was to keep at a minimum 3 feet of walking space around everything.

 

[Pirwin21]

Thanks for all the great advice so far. Definitely a lot of useful info. I plan on doing almost all of the work myself (not a big fan of heights, so roofing is out of the question) and this will hopefully be my "last" home. I really like the idea of the built in bookshelves in the halls. I built something similar in the apartment in my garage that utilized the space over the stairs, but probably would not have thought about it for the hallways. I'm starting to think that CAD software of some sort is a must, so that will probably be one of my next purchases.

 

[miramadar]

I'm starting to think that CAD software of some sort is a must, so that will probably be one of my next purchases.

Again, I highly recommend the Punch software. My software came with a fairly comprehensive owner's manual. Within a week I was very comfortable with the program. It is a very functional program, but with functionality comes a steeper learning curve. But yes, this is money very well spent!