New Construction Home Design

We are preparing to construct a new home for our family of four. We have two small children. I have looked through the numerous books and/or design and planning sites and have a pretty good idea as to what type of home that we want (a farmhouse). My question is this: For those of you who have been involved in the construction of your own homes, what things can you not live without that you included in your new home and what things do you wish that you would have done differently or included? Thank you for you input.

Just built our house a year ago. Here is a list of things that we put in our house that I'm pleased with.
1. Slate flooring throughout kitchen and hallways
2. Real hardwood floors (no, they aren't cold)
3. Big porches to sit on in the summer (front and back)
4. A huge shop for my husband
5. Double sinks in the master bath
6. Garden tub in the master bath
7. A bonus room above the garage with a kitchenette, laundry area and bathroom.
8. 3 car garage

What I wish we would have done.
1. Wired the kitchen for cable or satellite TV
2. Added electrical outlets in the walk in closets
3.Besides canned lights in the ceilings of the front and back porches, I would add a simple outdoor light beside each outside door. Without these when we turn on the porch light we are burning 4 bulbs needlessly. To leave the house and leave on a simple porch light we can not do that since we didn't install any.

That's about it, all other stuff I'm really happy with. I'm glad I don't have carpet. I'm so happy with the slate floors. Oh! and most of our closet doors we put the type that you just pull open, which have a ball at the top. These are really convenient.
I hope all this helped.

2006-10-26 13:23:09 by way_surreal

www.HousePlanGallery.com - 601-264-5028 - In this video, we take you for a walkthrough of a recent build of our house plan - HPG-1800B-1. The ...

How can I go about finding a reputable builder in my area? I've done searches for home builders in the Chicagoland area, but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. Is it better to design your own home, or does that cost more than using a pre-existing floor plan? Also, is there any way to find pricing for new construction homes? I need to know what price range some of these homes are in to know if it's a possibility.
Any help is welcomed, I feel like I'm up against a wall here. Thanks!!!

Contact your local Association of Home Builders (NAHB) group and get suggestions for builders. Here is a link to the Great Chicago Association http://www.hbagc.com/ which includes a list of builder members.

Visit the National Association of Home Builders website for lots of general information about the building process, including information on floor plans, modular homes, cost of building etc. Here is their link http://www.nahb.org/default.aspx

Many builders will give you a "ballpark" price per square foot for new construction in your local area, but bear in mind that without having complete specifications, it really is just a ballpark. The type of finishes chosen can greatly change the cost of building, so it is difficult to nail down a typical cost. Using this figure though, you can usually determine if the size of house you want to build is likely within your budget.

2007-01-17 11:44:46 by KBGood

Price: $24.95

I know Lawyers get lists , SOMEHOW, from the city halls and bombard you with information when you get a ticket (i assume it is public information after all). I'm trying to do something similar for people building new homes by offering my lighting design services - however, town halls are giving me a hard time about obtaining a permit list. Even though its public information! Any suggestions besides going to those list websites to pay for new homes?

I work in an architecture firm. We usually go to the township websites and locate their building and planning departments for information on permits. Many times, forms and information is online, but if not, there is usually someone specifically you can contact listed there.

2007-06-14 10:46:41 by SomeRandomGuy

Price: $12.95

Well the problem is that once it began to grow, I needed to add staff, get a bigger office, more vehicles, etc., etc. What started off as a small home based cleaning and home repair service branched off into new home construction. Good, right? Well, I took my attention off my home services business to concentrate on construction. I built a home that is now on the market to be sold but I'm sure you can guess how well that's going. Anyone in the market for a 500k house in downtown Austin, Texas??? So now I'm going back to my roots and trying to redevelop my home service business. I've been cleaning carpets, repairing water heaters, climbing on roofs...anything to get the bills paid. My issue is that I loved to construction process. Designing homes with the help of architects, meeting with tradesman, picking out finish materials. I've been thinking about going to school to get some type of degree in this field. It just feels like I'm so far away from doing another project because of lack of financial backing. I'm trying to stay motivated to keep working my small service business but I'm just not making enough. House payments, car payments, bills. Overwhelming! If you were me, what would you do???

First, i would review my expenses with an eye to cutting back on cost; second, i would concentrate on home service and maybe home repair. Since people would definitely be repairing their houses instead of building new ones given the state of the economy. The housing situation is definitely down. You might take advantage of the doldrums by getting that degree you were thinking about. You might look into enlarging your geographic coverage in the hope of getting more business. You can also look up government and institutional clients which may give you building repair contracts. concentrate on your core competencies and keep it up.

2008-10-06 22:49:00 by M R

i want to know technical information on wood fireplaces concerning
construction and measurement of different parts which are best
for effeciency and safty

Open fireplaces highly in-efficient. You'd be lucky to get 10% and all your far away rooms will be cold. Masonry heaters are good but very expensive to have built the correct way. Wood buring stoves and fireplace inserts have good efficiencym often near 70%.

I had a wood stove professionally installed for under $2200.00 that heats my entire1780 sq ft. ranch to 75+ degrees very easily. I use about 1 cubic ft of wood per day on average in cleveland ohio(weekends about 2 cu.ft since I'm home).

2006-08-22 02:29:28 by IBRAHIM E