My wife and I decided on building a new home in a new development. While I live the quiet home we live in now our kids have nobody to play with or sidewalks to keep them out of the street. I grew up in a new development and it was nice growing up around other families in similar situation.
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My question is what do you upgrade with the builder. We added 9ft ceilings, expansion on the second floor, 2 single garage doors vs double door, flooring, breakfast room, a lot of electrical, recessed lights and some other items which are easier to put in now. I'll be doing a tile shower myself and changing most of the lighting. We will be adding a deck later and are considering putting in quartz post settlement. What are some must haves of things I'll regret not doing now? I'm pretty handy and will change out faucets, put in fans, build mudroom storage. We are also getting plumbing in the basement roughed in.

Thermosoft.com

Best thing ever for tile areas.

Really good quality windows

Pre-wire for alarm system. Oversized electrical panel. Sub-panel or separate panel/service for basement if you’ll have a basement. Plenty of insulation in exterior walls and attic. Premium windows.

Two story as this is a problem for burglars. Also set it up so you can cover both entrances and preferably the entire downstairs with your rifle, from a vantage point upstairs.

Have the kid's bedroom windows, preferably on the second floor, to open towards the back yard. This would make it harder for evil persons to kidnap your kids.

Hard wire all the windows for the alarm system, before the drywall goes on. You could put bullet resistant drywall panels on some of the interior walls, in case there was a shooting.

Yes, a 200 amp electrical service and a 5 car garage.

Add more outlets throughout the entire house and require all outlrs and switches have screwed connections instead of pushed connections.

Add a 220 outlet in the garage.

Upgrade the padding under any installed carpet.

Separate switches for all ceiling fans and ceiling fan lights.

Reenforced exterior door frames.

Cat6 cable to all rooms.

Central vac is an easy add when constructing and now that I've had one I'd *definitely* include one in any house I build. Benefits include powerful suction yet quiet operation, and most importantly all the fine particulates which are not trapped in the filter exhaust outside rather than inside the house.

Spray foam insulation will pay for itself in comfort as well as energy savings every month and the only time to do it is when building new.

On the 240VAC in the garage, I would put several of them in. Plug in hybrid car would use one, another for a welder or two, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
Pre-wire for alarm system. Oversized electrical panel. Sub-panel or separate panel/service for basement if you’ll have a basement. Plenty of insulation in exterior walls and attic. Premium windows.

This without question.
Also, recirculating hot water. Have it plumbed in, you can always shut off the pump, but it’s well worth it.
Solar and a battery backup if funds and sunshine allow. Not sure how sunny PA is.
If possible, have the underside of the roof insulated with a sticky blown on (spray foam) type of insulation in addition to the standard fiberglass AND blown in on top of that. The house I am buying has incredible insulation and it keeps the bills low.
Upgrade the baseboards now. It’s easier than fucking with them and paying to replace in the future.
Prior to any exterior walls standing, I would invest a few hundred dollars in some good long term caulking. I prefer OSI Quad caulking for this type of idea. Lay down a ridiculously fat bead of caulking between the foundation and the exterior wall’s bottom plate. (Take a day or two off work when they are standing the walls and do it with them when they are framing and standing the walls.) You will never have a draft of any kind in your home. It’ll pay you dividends in savings on heating and cooling.

Make sure coax and Ethernet cabling (cat 6) is run to any and every place you could imagine having a router, tv, or any other electrical device that may desire interwebz.

Separate circuits in the garage. Where you may have multiple tools plugged in, etc have multiple circuits so you’re not popping breakers. Extra plugs in the kitchen as well. Overkill on kitchen outlets is better than not having one where you want the coffee maker.

Natural gas stub for a grill, if you haven’t already come to the dark side of Traeger.

A nice sounding doorbell. Sounds stupid, but they’re a PITA to replace and it’ll cost you almost nothing to have the builder upgrade it.

Epoxy coated garage floor. Not the home despot crap, but a solid Sherman Williams type of two part epoxy. It’ll be worth it in the long run. I did it in my last home. Great, but I’d rather have someone else go through that shitshow.

Not much else I can think of, if I do, I’ll post up about it!

The builder does a great job with insulation and the windows are premium windows. We will be adding additional outlets, flood lights outside and some extra outlets outside for Christmas lights. I was thinking about recessed outlets behind where the TVs will go in the living room and loft. We will add some of the electrical at the electrician walkthrough to keep some items out of mortgage. Good idea with the alarm system pre wire. We will have a walkout basement. Alarm for added security and to keep the kids from sneaking out when they're older.

Handicap accessible, 'cause sooner or later, somebody's in a wheelchair for something.

I question the 2 single garage doors...I like having the larger opening. Now you have 2 openers and 2 doors, springs, etc to maintain.

But add a heater in the garage. Makes winter in the Midwest tolerable.

I'd make sure your two car garage is large enough to be usable. I would require it be at least 25' wide and 30' deep. Even bigger would be better. How about storage under the garage too. I would put your fence on top of a concrete line it will make mowing and edging easier. Don't skimp on your auto sprinkling system including enough stations that you won't have pressure problems.

Where most all are mentioning the insides, concrete pad, path, and fence for (and to hide) the trash cans.

(Concrete path to backyard too)

Do the flooring yourself, flooring is a huge markup for builders, it's something you can do for half of what they charge. Flooring and ceiling fans area huge markups. Maybe have them pre-wire for fans but you provide and install the fans yourself after closing.

quote:

Originally posted by Beanhead:
I question the 2 single garage doors...I like having the larger opening. Now you have 2 openers and 2 doors, springs, etc to maintain.

Agreed with that. Plus, if OP wants to wrench on a car in the garage, how can he pull the car into the middle of the garage?

Walk-in Safe (Gun room).

Or at least plan for an area to place Safe(s) with reinforced floor beams.

Plan for internet router placement, upper floor center of house.

Would love to have pvc tubing in place for network and alarm wiring.
Smooth interior, easy to pull new improved cables through for replacement as technology changes.
Much better than cables pulled through holes in boards.

Wash basin in the garage.

Don’t do the two single garage doors. Looks good, but as mentioned above, you can’t park a vehicle in the center to work on it. I regret getting the single doors on my house.

quote:

Originally posted by BB61:
I'd make sure your two car garage is large enough to be usable.

And then make it twice as big.

Also, plumb the garage for a sink of some type. If you are doing an unattached garage/shop, plumb it for a crapper as well.

Make sure the electricians put in a generator transfer switch/plug.

The garage comments are spot on.
Double single doors suck. That’s what I have now. In a month moving to single double door and cannot wait.
Sink in garage is paramount. Cannot skip that.

Split HVAC for various floors.

A neighbor of mine had them build the whole house lower, ie not as many steps up to the house. That can be helpful depending on your age and condition.

Built in surround sound speakers.

One thing we wish we had done - shower sprayer in the tub. Way easier to clean.