New House (your input wanted)

[dmccarty]

Just turned on something I forgot to add....

We found some VERY quiet exhaust fans for the bathrooms. They are so quiet we forget they are on.

We also bought a whole house attic fan. It is sorta quiet. I just open a few windows and turned on the attic fan to see if we can do without the AC for a few more hours. The attic fan is place in the most central part of the house which happens to be the kitchen.

We use the fan to take heat out of the house from time to time like this morning. Since the fan is in the kitchen if the wifey is "cooking" and smokes up the house it is easy to turn on the attic fan and clear out her "cooking". It also works if we are doing a lot of cooking especially canning we can just zip the heat out of the house with the attic fan.

We bought the fans here, Energy Federation.

Later,
Dan

 

[beppington]

Use #12 romex wiring throughout your house, instead of #14 builders use. It's bigger & can therefore carry more current, which gives you a little room for future electrical expansion or mods, which seems more & more likely with all the electric gadgets & gizmos & rechargeable everythings these days.

Install more outlets than you really thing are need. I suggest no wall should be without one. And never more than about 8 feet between any two. Not good to need one & not have it.

In the kitchen, I installed 4-gang electrical outlets instead of the normal duplex outlets ... & we still use up almost all of them. Space them no more than about 4' apart. Gotta plug in those toaster ovens, George Foreman grill, blender, juicer, cell phone chargers, iPod chargers, microwave, toaster, cordless phone, TV, etc etc etc

Put phone, cable & ethernet jacks everywhere. It's a lot cheaper & easier to do it when the walls are open as opposed to after. Again ... Not good to need one & not have it.

 

[Travelover]

May be be different in your location, but one of the greatest joys at my house in Michigan is a screened porch off the back. I made it 12 x 24' so there is room for a table and we take most meals there in warm weather. Lots of floor to ceiling opening windows with removable screens. It is a wonderful place to entertain or just to relax and watch the wildlife. I insulated it and have a ventless gas fireplace to warm it if needed, though it is mostly closed off for the winter. My one regret was not having a larger roof overhang so the windows can remain open in the rain.

This may be too much additional cost now, but if you think you may want to add a porch, plan for it in the original design. I had a deck, but mosquitoes were too hungry here to enjoy it.

 

[beppington]

May be be different in your location, but one of the greatest joys at my house in Michigan is a screened porch off the back. I made it 12 x 24' so there is room for a table and we take most meals there in warm weather. Lots of floor to ceiling opening windows with removable screens. It is a wonderful place to entertain or just to relax and watch the wildlife. I insulated it and have a ventless gas fireplace to warm it if needed, though it is mostly closed off for the winter. My one regret was not having a larger roof overhang so the windows can remain open in the rain.

I totally agree. Our next house (the one I'm planning) is gonna have a huge wrap-all-the-way-around-the-house screened porch & huge overhangs all around. I made my current barn with 3' overhangs, & while that turned out to be a great start, our house's are gonna be even bigger ... so I can avoid the need for gutters, & easily walk around the house out of the rain.

I really enjoy being able to sit on a covered porch or deck while it's pouring ...

 

[jeffgreef]

I'm a building inspector, and I've seen a lot of houses go up. I read about half what's here and it's all good. Here's a couple things I didn't see:

Get a soils engineer and structural engineer for the foundation at least, if not for the whole house. The only control you have over soil conditions is how wide a footing you place. A wide concrete footing with minimal rebar is probably better than a skinny one with lots of rebar, in terms of likelihood of cracking and failure. Get a wide footprint on the dirt. A soils engineer and structural engineer will be able to design a foundation that will not fail given your soil condition and the load you intend to put on it.

In reference to your original questions such as 'how big a water pipe' and how big a circuit breaker' you can either hire competent, qualified plumbers, electricians and mechanical installers and get the benefit of their knowledge, or you can figure this stuff out yourself by reading. Formulas have been carefully worked out for all this stuff, of course, and it's all in the building codes, but hard to ferret out if you don't know the codes. Taunton Press makes some convenient cheat sheet books on each of the codes (building, elec, plumb, mech) that have the most common info easily found in their pages.

The benefit to getting a building permit is that your house design will be looked at by a plan check engineer at the building department and an inspector will look at certain aspects of the building process. If you aren't required to do this where you are or choose not to, I stongly suggest you research like **** and/or hire experienced people, not 'learning' contractors.

Don't be afraid to politely question your building inspector and don't assume that he knows everything. No one does.

The smoothest, least expensive jobs are done by those who have done it so many times before that they know how to avoid the common errors.

Good luck.

JG

 

[CurlyDave]

Within a degree is just fine, and the accuracy of any good surveyor will be all you need. I took this picture at sunrise on the spring equinox. Other than having fun sending the survayor an email asking what the arc width of the sun was, becuase it looked like he was off by about half the width of the sun, this picture told me all I needed to know. It's still fun to complain that I might be off by .15 degrees or so.

If your timetable and state of site preporation allow, you can do the sunrise on the equninox and get a line that can be referanced while siting the house. Cheap to do, good results :thumbsup:. You'll have to do a little extrapolation guess work unless you have a really flat, clean horizon. But for the purpose of where windows face and how overhangs help it will be just fine.

Pete

The arc width of the sun is the same as that of the moon (otherwise eclipses of the sun would not work the way they do) and is a little over 0.5 degree.

While waiting until the equinox is a sure thing, you can get "good enough" with the most inexpensive surveyor's compass and the NOAA declination calculator online.

 

[sodamo]

So, done plenty of graph paper with the multi erased pencil lines...

Progressed to a computer drawing that both you and wife feel is really really close...:thumbsup:

So how about making a scale mode??

I'd never done one before, but I was also have a challenge with my roof line that just looking at drawings was giving me the warm and fuzzy I needed. I still had some spacing issues
Once I had my model, I also made things like kitchen counters, cabinets, even vehicles to scale. It was a great experience and a valuable tool.

BTW, the actual house pic is not current, I just don't have a newer on same perspective

 

[dmccarty]

So how about making a scale mode??

I THOUGHT of making models.....

After all model making was covered in my high school architecture design class. And it is in the text book.

But then I decided it was overkill.

Funny thing about our house design. We never liked the front elevation over the porch. We went around, and around and around. We knew what we wanted we just could not get it on paper. And I am the one doing the design so that is pretty sad. :laughing:

The house is being built and the wifey sees a photo of a house for sale. She likes the detail they have over the porch. I like it. We make copies of the photo. I talk to the builder. He and I talk to the framer using a cube of bricks as a desk. We make some pencil marks on my original elevation. We do some math. Make more pencil marks. Taa Daa! New design done! We nail copies of the photo up on the house. Framer goes to work.

Come back a day or two later and Taa Daa!

It is GOOD!

Doing that sort of design change is DANGEROUS and leads to lots of problems but it worked out. Not recommended. :laughing:

Maybe I SHOULD have done a model.

Later,
Dan

 

[JRobyn]

I totally agree. Our next house (the one I'm planning) is gonna have a huge wrap-all-the-way-around-the-house screened porch & huge overhangs all around. I made my current barn with 3' overhangs, & while that turned out to be a great start, our house's are gonna be even bigger ... so I can avoid the need for gutters, & easily walk around the house out of the rain.

I really enjoy being able to sit on a covered porch or deck while it's pouring ...

Exactly what we (she) are doing - just not screened in except for a 8x12 area in the back.

 

[dmccarty]

Thought of something else we did in our house....

Used IC recessed lights. We have gobs of them. The last time I counted we had 85 recessed light fixtures inside the house and on the porches.

We may have done overboard.

I don't think we did though. I wanted to make sure we had light even if a light bulb was out. It worked. We use R30/R40 CFI bulbs. They sure are not cheap but we have some that have been in use four 5-6 years. Those we bought at Home Depot. Replacement bulbs from Lowes do not last as long.

We don't like lamps. The shades end up dusty. One more thing to clean. For some reason they break. Something else for the kids to knock over. We do not have ANY lamps in the house. None. Zip. Nada.

Later,
Dan

 

[pharmvet]

This is some really great stuff. I have the pad built and the road across the pasture. Im waiting on the culvert to be installed and I can rock the road. Plan to plant trees this winter and possibly begin construction next fall. Ill keep you all updated with pics and such. Any more suggestions are greatly welcomed. thanks

 

[mikim]

place outlets at 24" above floor instead of 12" ...easier to plug things in cause you don't have to lean over so far. everything else I have has been mentioned.

 

[gregrocky]

I built my ranch house in 99/2000. The one thing I really regret is not having a stairway to the basement from my garage, I only have one from my living room. Or put an entrance from outside to the basement. I have to go in the house through the living room to get to the basement. I do recommend a ranch style house, easy to get in, easier to maintain, cleaning windows, gutters, roof,etc. Thinking long term, stairs will be hard to climb.

 

[JimRB]

I made the laundry room too small. I did not do a half bath on the first floor. No coat closet, oops. I ran coax for network cable. Then Cat5 became the standard. 3/4" plastic conduit would have been a better idea home run to the basement. Conduit for the tv/entertainment center area allows you to pull your sub-woofer and satellite speaker cable. Also allows that Cat5/6 network cable for Netflicks streaming.

Garage will become a general use room someday with a bigger laundry room and a 1/2 bath. It was too small anyway. 22x22 should never be allowed as you cannot get American size trucks in it. My little vehicles fit. Truck got kicked out to make room for horse trailer. Poor tractor has spent all its life outside.

My washtub in the 1/2 daylight basement ended up being a full bathroom. Oops but that is ok if someone ever wants to build out a bedroom or two.

I ran a ductwork chase in the back of my master shower and along side the upstairs bathroom. I mean there is a 18"x48" or so chase that the supply and return for HVAC are in. If I do the garage conversion the garage goes on the existing HVAC and the upstairs goes on a new unit located in the mechanical room of the basement.

Geothermal HVAC with a waste heat hot water generator means no compressor outside. It also means that 8 months of the year hot water comes from the heat or air running. During the moderate months the electric to the hot water tank is turned on. No booster heat and it works ok when it is colder outside than the design specs. I need to insulate rafters and such sometime or do a radiant heat barrier.

Cellulose insulation is settling in the basement which does not have drywall on yet after 13 years. I wonder how it is doing in the walls upstairs? I should have done 2x6 on the first and second floor outside walls.

I thought I was getting one type of window and got something else. I wanted Low E but my budget was too small. Make a budget. Make it at least 20% more for screwups and cost overruns. I told my builder to cost the project like he was going to hire subs for everything. We did the electrical, carpentry, tile, hardwoods and paint, countertops and cabinet install (free labor) and still went over. My builder had me sign every check to every sub and supply house. He got a pretty good ride as I supervised myself.

I built long overhangs on my barn. Three north doors on the house have had rot because they have practically no overhangs and improper flashing. Proper flashing on the one door I replaced and a storm door have kept things dry. 2 more doors to go after I reinstall 6 sf of ruined hardwood.

I did 3' doors on all interior doors except the upstairs bath that somehow got 32" doors. Pocket door in bedroom closet as too much space lost with a swinging door.

I did 12 guage Romex as others mentioned. I used comercial spec switches and recepticles. I think that is what they are called. Not the $1 each units but the $3 each units. Your price may vary. I used the screws on all the electrical stuff, not the chinese fingers stuff. Not racial comment but that is what we called the toy when we were kids 40 years ago.

9 foot ceilings on the main floor. 8 foot on second floor.

Engineered floor trusses on first floor so hardwood would be even. Second floor was traditional joists which worked out ok.

I think I spent 2 days, one day with a qualified helper replaced bent, bowed or twisted studs. Double checked for plumb and for evenness. If a wall is going to bow a bit let it bow one way and not 10 ways with each stud.

I live on the first floor or piddle in the basement or garage. My wife uses the spare bedroom upstairs as a studio. That is one of the reason for her wanting to take over the garage.

I did a tall garage door which is how the trailer fit in. Make sure it is the whole way up when pulling the trailer out.

Stairs to front porch have a generous rise to run. Not a lot of rise so they are easy to climb. Stairs are sort of steep inside but within code. Actually a bit less steep than code but still a bit intimidating.

Double hung windows do tilt in. Well the bottom section is the only moveable section so you can clean windows easily from inside the house.

 

[whistlepig]

In our home that was built in 1999 this what gives us the greatest comfort still to this day:

All brick.
Waterfurnace Geothermal.
All Anderson doors and windows.