If you are building a new home, be sure to think about these ten things I’m so glad we did!
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If you are considering building a new home, it might help to hear from someone who has been there and lived to tell the tale. We survived the experience of building a custom home! Yay! That means you probably will too, right? Of course! Being able to build really is a dream come true, but it can also be stressful and intimidating. It can be hard to sort through all of the limitless options and decide what is best and most cost efficient. In the spirit of helping you sort through some of the clutter, here are ten things I’m glad we did when we built our house.
- We changed the roof line. In the original plans we bought from an architect, the roof line was much more complicated, and therefore more expensive to build. Our son’s room was supposed to jut out on the left side of the house, as you are looking at the picture. Instead, our contractor suggested that we extend the roofline to make the other rooms flush with that one. That gave us extra square footage in our office and the kids’ bathroom. We use both of those rooms every day and I’m so glad we made the decision to make them larger. Even with the extra cost of materials for adding footage, it was still cheaper than doing the roof the original way that it was designed because with the new straighter roof line we were able to buy pre-made trusses instead of paying for the labor to have a custom roof built on-site.
- We took windows and doors out of the design. (I know, right?!) This seems odd, doesn’t it? But we’ve been living in this house since 2013 and I’m still glad we did it. In the original design there was a door leading outside from the bedroom that our daughters share. I knew I didn’t want them to have a door now while they’re little and I definitely didn’t want them to have a door when they are teenagers. There are four other doors around our house, it’s not like that one was going to be missed by someone who bought this house in the future, if we ever sell it. So we took the door out. We also took out windows that seemed redundant or unnecessary. (For example, I didn’t particularly want a window in the toilet closet in our master bathroom. Or if a room already had 2 windows, we took out the third.) The windows we did keep we made as large as we could. Whenever we entertain we get comments about how much natural light we have, so I’ve never missed the windows we removed, but taking them out did save us a good bit of money, which let us do other upgrades. We also changed one of the windows in our bedroom to a french door. I don’t think the crew (or my husband) were too happy with me about that change because I got that idea and was very insistent on it while they were literally framing the wall it was supposed to go in and they had to do it over.
- We moved the laundry room. This is by far my favorite change we made to our house plans. In the original plans, the laundry was supposed to be in a hallway closet, just off of our garage. I knew that laundry in the hallway was one thing I really was not going to love. I have three small children and laundry is a constant losing battle. I didn’t want to see baskets of dirty laundry in my hallway every day. So I asked if we could possibly move the laundry area into our master bedroom closet. And they said yes! Our contractor tucked the washer and dryer under a set of stairs, so there is a laundry closet within our closet. We were able to turn the original laundry closet into a very large pantry. That also freed up space where the original, smaller pantry was supposed to be located, so we were also able to add a wet bar off of our kitchen with space for a wine cooler
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our laundry closet
- We thought about where the sun rises and sets and how we wanted to orient the house around it. I did not want the sun shining into my children’s bedroom’s at 5am if I could help it, and the nice thing about building a custom home is that you can help it. It is important to think about those kinds of things in advance because some things, like paint colors, you can always change in the future if you change your mind, but some decisions are forever.
- We decided to go with IKEA cabinets in our kitchen. Don’t let their reputation for cheap dorm room furniture fool you. You know the kitchens renovations you see on home improvement shows? Those are often IKEA cabinets in the after photos. In terms of performance and durability, they actually outperformed several more expensive brands in a study done by Consumer Reports, and they are very affordable. The money we saved by going with cabinets from IKEA allowed us to do several other upgrades that we would not have been able to afford otherwise. You can read more about our IKEA kitchen and see photos in this post.
- We spent the extra money and got real wood floors. Not engineered wood or wood veneer on top of a layer of plywood. Actual wood planks that can be sanded and refinished over time, more than once if need be. The same kind of flooring that you see in 100-year-old houses. We have 3 kids and a dog, so they already have a few small scratches, but we expected that and I think they just add to the character. After all, we built this house so we could live in it.
- We had our contractor install Craftsman style moldings. He made these by hand out of stock lumber. Other than the extra labor cost, which wasn’t a lot because he had budgeted to be installing trim anyway, they actually didn’t cost very much more than generic molding. It was one of the biggest differences in terms of adding character and charm and turning this house into our home. You can find a book with plans for moldings like this here: Shop Drawings for Craftsman Interiors: Cabinets, Moldings and Built-Ins for Every Room in the Home .
- We did a detailed plan for where we wanted outlets, and then we walked through the house again with the electrician. He thought about things that I never would have, like adding an outlet in our pantry to keep small appliances, like our dust-buster, charged, and we thought about things as we were doing our walk-through that we wanted to add or change. If we had just handed over the initial plans, I’m not sure I would be as happy with our final lighting and outlet situation as I am.
- We added a water pump in the back yard. We have several acres of land and I knew that if I planted large gardens or raised chickens in the future (I’m still trying to talk Eddie into the chickens) that it would be a major pain to get water to that area of our property. While the yard was torn up for utilities anyway it was pretty easy and inexpensive to add a pump. Having the water pump also came in handy while we were building the house because that was hooked up far before there was any access to water in the house itself.
- We took a video of everything inside the walls before they put the insulation and drywall up. This was at the suggestion of my uncle, and I’m glad we did it. Now we have pictures and video documentation of where all of the wiring and duct work is behind our walls in case we ever need to access it or try to avoid it during future renovation projects.
The finished project is something we couldn’t be happier with. It truly did feel like home from the moment we moved in because we had a say in every single aspect of the design and construction process. I know a lot of people say once they have gone through the process of building a custom home that they would never do it again, but that wasn’t our experience at all. I loved working with our contractor and I would do it again in a heartbeat. As a matter of fact, we hired him again a year later to turn our basement into an in-law suite for my mom.
Our finished house:
You might also want to check out how we installed our stone fireplace and how we built our floating fireplace mantle.
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Love all this advice! It is awesome to hear from someone that has been there. We recently bought our first house and the laundry room is in the basement, with the bedrooms on the second floor! I never want to live in a house again where I have to haul laundry up and down two flights of stairs. Yours in your bedroom sounds awesome.
I can’t imagine having the laundry two floors away! In our last house it was one floor away and that was bad enough! I would have made a terrible pioneer woman. I would probably just give up and let everyone walk around wrapped in bedsheets if I had to lug my clothes out to a stream to wash them.
If you don’t mind me asking can we see pics of the house plans before and after!
Hi Rob! The architect has the plans on his website. You can see them here: https://www.dongardner.com/house-plan/1135/the-michaelson/
Such a smart woman. 🙂 We built our house 30 years ago. There are some things that I love, and some the I hate, hate, hate! I, like you have pine floors. Love. Small pantry, hate. Small high kitchen window, hate. Wall plugs galore, LOVE. Even one in the middle of my den in the floor. Did I mention no blueprints? ( evil laughter) Just a napkin…The ultimate on my haters list is the washer and dryer in my bathroom downstairs behind folding doors. NEVER EVER will I have this again. We are building an addition to our house, hubs is on dialysis and we need a handicapped bathroom. We need a large storage space for home dialysis. Well guess what I planned and had done. Yep, new home for the next washer and dryer. Had the plumber and electrician go ahead and put it in. Have a stack unit and everything will be hidden. Girls, stand your ground! You were so smart to do all these things as you were building. I love my old wooden home, but there are things that we should have done differently.
I am so sorry to hear about your husband’s illness, although your comment does remind me about one thing that I should have included in this list. We also had all of our doorways widened during the building process so that they would be wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, should one ever be needed- for ourselves, aging parents, etc. Glad your new addition will be able to meet your needs!
We originally had our laundry room next to our garage. We changed that in to the mud closet and moved the laundry room up into the masterbedroom. The MB was on the second floor w all the other rooms. Best.Decision.Ever.
Your Suggestions are great. We also just finished a custom home and I am glad to say I have very few regrets or things I would have done differently. Some things you just don’t know until you live in the space.
Biggest regret was eliminating the powder room by the garage door to save some money. Bad Choice! (and we still have 4 other bathrooms in the house!)
Love this article! We are planning on building our home in a few years. Your home looks very similar to a plan I am looking at. Do you have a floor plan you can share?
Hi Jennifer, we purchased plans from architect Donald Gardner for the Michaelson model and modified the house to meet our needs.
http://www.dongardner.com/house-plan/1135/the-michaelson
Did you have to buy the plans before you could even modify them. Or can you show a designer a layout and then they redraw your custom plan. Maybe you save more money buying and modifying?
Hi Andrea, yes, legally, I do believe you need to buy the plans from the architect before you can modify them. It’s an issue of copyright. I don’t think you will find a reputable architect or engineer who will modify another professional’s work unless you have bought the right to use it.
We built five years ago, and we have a list of things we are glad we did too. We sat down with our insurance agent and found that we would save a ton of money going with hardiplank siding instead of wood. It is rated the same as a brick exterior for fire. We went with six inch thick exterior walls, instead of four, allowing for more insulation. We put on 50 year impact resistant shingles and the savings on the insurance paid back the extra cost in two years. We built outside stairs with a full size door up to the attic. The sidewalks go right up to all the doors, and all the doors in the house are three foot doors, making the house handicap accessible. The door hardware are all levers, not knobs. We built the kitchen cabinets to go all the way to the ceiling so I wouldn’t have to clean greasy dust off the top. We bumped the refrigerator space back six inches (walk in pantry on the other side of the wall) so it would be flush with cabinets. We put a double trash can in a pullout in the kitchen island, so no trash out in the room. The island is table height, not counter height. If you bake, this is the best thing ever. I don’t have to stand on my tiptoes to see into my mixer bowl and kneading bread is a lot easier on my back. What do I wish I had done differently? The electrician talked me into light switches that automatically turn on the closet lights when you open the door. Sometimes you want to leave the door open without the light coming on! We have too many windows in the master bath, causing it to be cold in the winter. One big window would have been fine. I wish we had made sure the toe kick area under the kitchen cabinets was just a quarter inch higher, as the vacuum robot gets stuck. Minor things, but I’ll know better next time. Since rechargeable electronics will be with us for the foreseeable future, put electrical outlets in every closet! Good luck to anyone building! Plan well, and you will love your house!
Sound proof insulation for walls surrounding 1/2 bath on main floor and laundry room.
Love this! Could we repost on our blog?! http://www.ccs-homes.com
Thank you so much! You are welcome to post a paragraph or two with a link back to my blog.
Your finished home looks like a dream! I have never read better tips on building a home. My sister is building her first home, and we are so excited and involved that it has gotten me thinking about building a home in the future. I would have never thought about canceling out some windows and doors and recording the inside of walls! I will have to bring my sister to this article!
Thank you for the read!http://www.ausreblocking.com.au/company.html
Love the wall color and floors..do you mind sharing what colors they are…
Thank you for sharing your home..hopefully ours is starting soon.
Thank you, Julia! All of the inspiration for our paint colors came from the National Trust for Historic Preservation Line at Lowes. You can see some of the colors we chose for the house here in this post: http://binkiesandbriefcases.com/building-dream-painted-walls/
I like that you decided to spend the extra money and get real hardwood flooring. That is what my wife and I are trying to decide. I would really love it, in fact, that’s one of the only things I wanted to make sure we get. We’ve been looking into home builders to help us with our new home. We are really excited to get started. Thanks for sharing your story!
Very nice post. I am pinning this. My husband is a contractor and we have built two custom homes for ourselves to live in. With the second one, I did exactly what you did in planning my electrical outlets. I planned every single one.
All great ideas. I have build two homes from scratch and definitely learned from the first one. Another item that my first contractor recommended, put a 2×4 flat in the walls where each door handle will hit. Saves you from dents and holes from door knobs. I was also lucky enough to have room in my main bath on the 2nd floor to have my washer and dryer right there where all the laundry is.
My dad is a builder. He told me to plan ahead for towel bars and toilet paper holders so there can be extra framing in the walls before the drywall. Then these bars will be mounted in studs – not in the drywall where they will get loose.
This is BEAUTIFUL!! How did you get started in building the home? What are the first steps you need to take? I am more interested in building our dream home than renting or buying what we may or may not be happy with.
Thank you so much. The first thing we did was look at land in our area. We are fortunate because my husband is a civil engineer so he was already very familiar with codes and ordinances and what we would need to do. We wanted to make sure we could have access to public water and sewer, but if that is not a priority for you then your search might be different. Then we found a builder. We looked at some modular houses, but ultimately decided to build a custom home with a local builder.
Some of the things I did were: Made sure that the toilets had enough room on either side for my vacuum! Such a time saver! Put hot and cold running water in the garage with a laundry tub. Yes, I have a mud room and bathroom off of the garage, but washing car parts and other things should not be done inside of the house. Made sure there were water faucets on all sides of the house and, most importantly, made sure that the basement ceiling was 9 feet tall. Not that much more money, but that much more space. Also, and very important, is when each inspection is done, take a clear photo of it so that you can see the inspectors name and date, just everything. If something goes wrong, you can say “YOU inspected this, YOU are responsible!”, end of! You and the others had some really neat ideas I never thought of! Thank you!
Have electrician put master light switches for outside lights and entryways in master bedroom for security. You hear something or suspect someone’s roaming around in middle of the night you can light them up. Also motion lights work well but should be used in unison with hard wired lights. Do both! If it is a criminal they do not like lights. Plus it gives you the advantage of being in the dark where they can’t see you! Lots of great ideas.
My husband is an electrician and he always walks through room by room with the owner before he starts. Most people have no clue what they want and when he makes suggestions some think he’s just upselling. A lot of the time they come back and want what he originally suggested but there’s always more cost to redo than to do from the start. People think that the blueprint designers know what is best but we have seen some crazy stuff over the years, he’s been doing this for 30.
I am wondering how you feel about the color of your hardwood floors. They are gorgeous! I have been wanting dark hardwood floors but I am worried about how they are to really live with. My experience in the past says dark colors on the floor are worse then light colors, and that even after one day they look dusty and show every little bit of dirt. I would love to hear your honest opinion. Thank you for this article. I am trying to think of every little thing before I build, and your article gave me some really good ideas.
Hi Becky! I’m sorry it took me a while to reply to this comment. In all honesty, while I do love the look of my floors, they do show dirt VERY easily. We had a more honey colored hardwood in our last home and did not have that problem.
I really like how you said that a home builder should make room for a washer and dryer. I also appreciate your tip to make sure your contractor installs actual wooden floors. My husband and I are looking into a custom home builder for a new house in our same city; thanks for the tips. http://www.panoramamarco.com/node/16
I was just going to draw a map of where all the wires were. That is so smart of you to take video. Please thank your uncle for me, I will have to try that out! Do you have any more tips about staying under budget?
It’s good to know that you can change up the roof line for your custom built home. My wife and I want our roof to be an odd shape, and normal houses typically don’t offer that luxury. We’ll be looking further into our options for custom building a house to get that roof line that we want.
Thank you for this post and everyone for their comments. We are doing a gut reno / addition and are designing the home (a one floor ranch) to be accessible – wider doorways, at least one walk in shower, grade level access from at least one door. The idea being that the house will last during all stages of our life! As the population ages, I believe that home like that will be more and more valuable, assuming the changes are integrated into the design. My pet peeve is a laundry room with the washer and dryer right next to each other. I want a table / counter between them so I can sort for either dryer or hanging. I think it will be oh so very efficient
Thanks for the suggestion to consider where the sun is oriented on the house. My husband and I have three small children, and we also want to avoid the sun waking them up before they should. We’ve been thinking about building a home for a few years, and we’re thinking of going ahead with our plans this year. Hopefully we can find a great construction company to work with!
Thank you so much for your point that having outlets where you need is critical so take time to plan it out and then talk it through with your contractor and electrician. My sister is thinking of building her dream home on some property that overlooks the city. She has very specific tastes, so I hope that she looks for builders that can meet her needs!