Beef up the insulation as much as possible, and installed rain gutters all the way around.

OK now that the advice to completely change your plans has been recorded, and you are aware that everything isn't a great idea.. LOL

Outlets, - everywhere, and some where you don't think, outside in the eaves for holiday lights or led accent lighting,

Island - i'd opt for water access over the stove for filling pots vs a second sink, unless you're a big cooking fan and a prep sink is valuable. Still would add the water access over the stove.

Walk in Glass showers- Yes, wider openings and lower entry sills, Code may make you put 4 inch block at the base of the door for flood protection. Have to check code, but if it was me, pebble stone floor in the shower, open, no curtains built in shelf in the wall, overhead rain shower head and a hand held on the wall.

Hidden access to safe- depends do you think it's necessary? I know it's Miami, right? LOL

Under cab lights - yeah I like that, run it now, makes a nice romantic glow for the future Mrs R-1 or is that Mrs R-2...

I'd add, be sure some of the outlets have usb charging ports vs just plug in for normal outlet, with all the USB charging devices getting rid of the apple box to plug in is great.

Pre-wire for tv surround, and network, cat5/6 into areas where you'll put devices that would work better wired to the internet, sure wifi is nice but you can't get better speed that way, if you stream, have a net access hard wire there to the router wired in.

oh and, you shoulda bought a Toyota, with a manual trans,

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
pebble stone floor in the shower

I went through this recently with my shower remodel last year. The (now ex-) wife demanded a pebble floor. (No, we didn't divorce over the pebble floor... But it sure didn't help. )

Even my tile guy was like: "Dangit... I hate doing pebble floors. Any chance she would reconsider?"



Yeah, it looks nice. It even feels nice on your feet. But it comes with some drawbacks:

1) You can't use modern mold/mildew-proof poly grouts with pebble floors. The grout lines between the pebbles have to be too wide for poly grout. As a result, you must use traditional grout, and traditional grout is a pain in the butt to keep clean. Especially on a floor. Especially especially on a pebble floor, because not only is there more grout area than normal, but also...

2) It's harder to get the floor to drain correctly with pebbles, because the floor is so uneven. It's not just the pebbles themselves. It's tough to get the grout between the pebbles to slope totally evenly to the drain, because of the irregular nature of the pebble shapes and pebble heights. As a result, you'll inevitably have some level of pooling/puddling/slow draining in various spots on the large grout areas of your shower floor. Wet grout lines attract pink slime, and as previously mentioned, since they have to be old style grout they are a pain to keep clean.


We ended up having to squeegee our shower floor after every shower, in order to minimize the water puddling, and therefore minimize the amount of grout cleaning we had to do. It helped, but didn't totally solve the issue, and adds another chore to "just a quick shower".


In summary, unless you enjoy squeegeeing floors and scrubbing grout, or you have a maid on staff to scrub the grout for you, I'd recommend against a pebble floor.

quote:

Middle room only has a closet (perfect for kids)

I wouldn't tell future potential Mrs. Reloaders you're putting the kids in the closet.

I don't know how it works in your county, but in mine, you are limited to putting 50% of the value of your home into renovations otherwise you have to bring the entire house up to current code including hurricane and flood. It's the house value, not the property value. The county said my 2,400sqft house, built in 1974 was worth $125,000.

Trapper, I was confused until the edit

I’m actually getting it up to code in any case, the house isn’t in a flood zone and once I rewire and install the windows/doors, it’s bang on for code.

Forgot to add if you are thinking of wood floors consider the new VLP flooring. With all the humidity in FL it’s A good option

My new house has LVP flooring everywhere but the bathrooms, and it does have a lot going for it.


Wood look tile flooring is another good option. (Between the two, I slightly prefer the tile over LVP.) It's tough, waterproof, easy to clean, and easy to replace if a section gets damaged.

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Forgot to add if you are thinking of wood floors consider the new VLP flooring. With all the humidity in FL it’s A good option

It has original Dade County Pine floors throughout, in fantastic shape! Just planning on sanding and restaining

Some fantastic ideas so far, I’m adding the following/they were in plan:

Pot filler by stove
Overhead recessed lighting
Cat6/recessed outlets for the two TV locations
Some outlets with USB-C chargers
Wiring for some outlets to run off the generator

I’m going to through each post tomorrow prior to meeting with my architect, and I’ll update once we have finalized.

You are good to go then. I like the layout and don't think you are trying to do too much with your square footage. You won't have any trouble selling it if the time comes to do so.

Nobody wants a 2 BR, 1 Bath home. We live in 1,200sqft one for almost 3 months in the summer and 1 bath between me, my wife, 13yo boy, 12yo girl and 10yo boy is fun. The three kids in 1 bedroom is even better. "I want the light on, so I can read", "Turn the light off, so I can sleep!" The ceiling fan has three speeds, of course each kid wants a different speed, and it's a different speed per kid every freaking night.

I wouldn't pick out things based on what you think a future Mrs. Reloader might like. Assuming you've matured past the point of keeping a motorcycle in the living room or Heather Locklear posters on the back of the bedroom door, pick out colors, tile, back splashes, counters, etc. that you like.

I also like the idea of hiring a designer if you don't have an idea of what look (or "vibe" as my daughter calls it) you are going for.

I had a lockout installed in my electrical panel and a 50 amp outlet installed on an exterior wall for a generator. I use a shorepower cable to connect the generator to the house. The lockout in the panel will only allow me to feed the panel with the generator if the main breaker is off. I then use the breakers in the panel to pick and choose what circuits to energize.

Check your electric service. If you have a 100 AMP service, see about upgrading to 150 AMP service.

Most other electrical has been discussed, but adding outlets is always beneficial.

For resale value, upgrade floors, bathroom, and Kitchen. Pick modern, classic colors such as great, and countertops should consider quartz. Paint and new baseboards should be considered.

IF the appliances work, use them for now - anyway with the issues currently going on, they are harder to get.

See about refinishing the kitchen cabinets if in decent shape, otherwise start over from scratch. Get high end hardware for them.

Luxury woof-look vinyl has come a long way, but it is better for bedroom, kitchen and dining than bathrooms. Tile still reigns supreme there.

Help me out, what is room STO? Storage perhaps? Would seem it's a likely location for water heater; if not, where does it go?

Start from the outside/underneath and the most difficult stuff to come back to first.

1. Septic - with all the provisos above
2. Electric - and electronics including computer and security hard wiring - use broad conduit in order to fish/refish/feed/upgrade. Don't depend on wifi, regardless of the advancements, if you can help it. If not, make extra allowance for an external wifi antenna to get best service in the yard.
3. Security - Outdoor lighting, cameras. Walk it for blind spots. Reinforce door jams. Verify hurricane rated windows/shutters etc. Plan from vulnerabilities through contingencies and build/adapt accordingly. Without the ability to change the footprint no option for safe room.
4. Roof, verify condition, flashing etc. You don't want water to ruin your previous efforts.
5. Landscaping. Eliminate overgrown stuff, roots to clog septic system, blind spots, bad guy surprise hiding spots etc.
6. Then the stuff that shows - LED lighting, electric receptacles, floor plan etc like Rogue said etc.

I toyed around with your floor plan before I asked you which was the main entrance.

Goal was to try and make that existing Den space more useable. Also didn't see need for three full baths, so made jack and jill bath between BR 2 & 3. That allowed to increase walk in closet width by a small margin. Added a pantry. Not sure I like the orientation of the washer/dryer...Also, the pantry and W&D could swap locations. I considered pushing WIC and Bath 103A into Den 106 to enlarge Master 103 somewhat. That jog in the exterior wall made that awkward.

At any rate, hope this gives you some ideas.

I really like that layout, actually - only tweak is as you mentioned, swap the pantry and the W/D (especially if you stack them).

Conversation next Monday with the architect, I’m planning on doing that back space first in any case.

Couple more minor revisions. Opposite swing of door between bath and RB2, relocated it out to match line of BR closet, added closet in bath to mirror left side.

Added wood blocking at interior wall in Den for wall mounted TV.
Added batt insulation at interior wall of master.

These changes will have negligible effect on costs.

quote:

Originally posted by reloader-1:
I bought a 1950’s house in Miami-Dade county:

Original Thread

And now I need the help of those older/wiser/more experienced. I’m divorced, with a young kid, and assuming that there will be a future Mrs. reloader-1 in the future.

The house is a single story 2 BR/1 BA1400 sq ft concrete block construction with a crawlspace and septic tank. I’ve gone to a good architect and he has sketched out a great new layout, taking into account the existing windows, load bearing walls, etc.

The new layout is going to be a 3 BR/ 3 BA under the same square footage. Two “master suites”, with bathrooms (one in the front of the house, one in the back), and a guest bathroom off of the living room. Middle room only has a closet (perfect for kids), and opens into the kitchen. Kitchen/living room are open concept, with an island in the kitchen.

Here is were I need help: the layout is mostly in stone, but all of the features can still be added as needed. Here is what I have so far, all in the plan (the entire house will be rewired, and all new plumbing as well)

- outlets and lighting in all closets
- 2nd sink in kitchen island
- walk-in glass showers (no doors)
- hidden access to safe in one of the closets
- under-cabinet lighting in kitchen


What else should I be asking the architect to include before he starts doing all of the detail work/plumbing/engineering/structural/electric etc? Any ideas that are must have?

Thinking of a remodel we went through 5 years ago, I wish we'd done two things. Microwave in the island and an improved hood over the stove. We have the microwave over the stovetop and it's not nearly enough.

quote:

Originally posted by mjlennon:
Added batt insulation at interior wall of master.

Can you do this on the walls around the washer and dryer easily? I wish I could do that in my house. The sound travels throughout the house.

Having a good quality generator has served us well while living in FL. (Tampa area). One that is strong enough to run A/C, not just a fridge and some lights in the house.

Kitchen area: A decent spice cabinet. We are adding under-cabinet-pull out-spice cabinets (from etsy) to be more organized and to make life easier when preparing a meal.

quote:

Originally posted by MaThGr82:

quote:

Originally posted by mjlennon:
Added batt insulation at interior wall of master.

Can you do this on the walls around the washer and dryer easily?

That would be easy to do by inserting some batts of insulation with good sound-dampening qualities, such as Rockwool, between the studs in those walls.

Rockwool is an especially good choice in wet and partially wet areas like bathrooms and laundry rooms, because mold and mildew can't grow in it, in the event of a water leak/spill or excess water vapor.

Maybe it’s just me but when I see a floor plan I like to see dimensions. For example 9’ x 12’ works for my mind Instead of a drawing without dimensions.