What house feature is a must have if you were building today?

[CaberTosser]

Slab heating insulation prep:





Mechanical room wall prep:



IBC condensing boiler system for basement slab, 'staple-up' heated main floor, fan coil and a 75 gallon stainless steel indirect water heater. These photos are my own house that I built a decade ago. A set-up like this beats an on-demand water heater because of the superior flow rate. You can probably guess who did the installation...

[curtz]

I regret not putting in some sort of floor drain in my garage

[260 Rem]

Walk-out basement with large windows.

[brslk]

Go as big as you can on the garage. Might sound a bit odd but don't go too big on the house.
We designed and built our house six years ago and there really isn't anything we would change.
It's 2500 sq/ft, 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, 9' ceilings throughout. Pretty much every little detail we wanted.
The issue is that with just the wife and I, it's a little big. It got to be a little too much effort for us to keep up with the cleaning and we had to hire a maid to come in once a week.
We probably could have gotten by with half the size but who designs a small dream home?
The basement is fully finished with a theater, billiard room, bar and a music studio. The wife uses the theater sometimes and I use the music studio. Other than that, not much gets used down there.
The wife uses one of the bedrooms as an office and one as a sewing room. The other upstairs bedroom gets left closed off for guests.

We did think about the future when we designed it somewhat. I had everything roughed in the basement so it can be converted easily into a separate suite.
All the doors, hallways and master bath shower are suitable for handicapped or wheelchair access.

[58thecat]

Originally Posted by MountainTi

A urinal...at least in the shop or garage anyways

We go outside or off the deck......people askmwhynthere is a sign up stating no peeing off the deck.....wonder why

[58thecat]

We custom built in 2007 now we are looking again but in lake country BC....1000 square feet, two poopers, two bedrooms, living room and kitchen.....downsiIze to complete practical.....this place is tooooo big for us.....

[overkill 19]

42””or 48”” man doors on garage, easier to get lawn mower etc thru. I also put out swing door with tamper proof hinges to make it harder to kick in doors.
Central vac in garage for vacuuming cars etc.
Sky lights in garage, they were $149 each on sale at Home Depot, framed them in with 2x8”s to lift them off the roof so snow/ice melt does not have a chance to leak in.
Make garage as big as you can, they fill up fast. Mine is 1400sqft and I’m constantly trying to purge junk! I wish I had made it bigger but it took me 2 years of fighting to get approval from city of RD for what I got.


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[JB_AOL]

A proper Mudroom (not combined with laundry, and as big as you can make it.

Oversize garage to accommodate vehicles, heated w/drain, and separate exterior mandoor, and ventilation fan

Room in Master for sitting area (reading), Dual sinks (mandatory) w/separate makeup counter for wifey. Probably wouldn't waste room in ensuite with a tub, just bigger shower.

Walkout basement.

Larger Front facade, IE, make more of the front of my house NOT a garage, lol.

[Drewski Canuck]

Large laundry sink in the garage.

All boots, ducks, fish, tools, etc washed up out there.

In winter you will have to shut it down but darn handy in the mean time.

Drewski

[CaberTosser]

Originally Posted by Drewski Canuck

Large laundry sink in the garage.

All boots, ducks, fish, tools, etc washed up out there.

In winter you will have to shut it down but darn handy in the mean time.

Drewski

Why have a feature that's only useful 60% of the year, heat the garage!

[sgill808]

Originally Posted by RandyBoBandy

A bidet

This is the single greatest accomplishment of mankind.

[KegRiver]

I believe the question was must have, not would like to have. So;
A roof and a bed.

I hate getting wet while sleeping and I hate laying on cold floors.

Oh and some sort of heater would be nice.

On the trap line I've lived in places that didn't have much more then tha

[Unregistered user]

Snoring room.

[Jayhad]

I'm in houses everyday and I am stunned by the lack of fore thought of data transfer through out the house. Multiple CAT 6 in to every room all terminated to the main panel. With a COAX, 2 CAT 6 and a fiber line trenched to the property line.

[artie]

Room between the houses is a must
My present place is on the property line so one side of my house is actually the fence. Causes so many problems ie. neighbor lady waters grass and fills my basement with water. Have to go ask permission to check the side of the house.
Now these new houses so close together. One person built a deck that just about touches the neighbors house. Neighbor complains all he hears is kids running around on the deck. It actually shakes his house.
You guys in the country do not know how good you have it even with wells and septic fields.

[nast70]

We did AC and on demand hot water a couple years ago. love it
If I had to do it all over again, I would get the house wired way above code with extra outlets, ethernet cables throughout, and set up so it can be redone as times change without ripping walls up.

[Big Grey Wolf]

A good roof, lots of insulation and a mortgage you can pay even after you loose your job for a few months!

[Big Sky]

Fire resistant exterior.

Wife would like a dedicated laundry room that doesn't have to double as the reloading room. Turn the sentence around and I agree with her.

Home office or den.

Garage big enough for vehicles/toys.

[sarmanz_male]

Great ideas so far. I really agree with in slab heat in garage, mudrooms, and a fireplace.

[amosfella]

I'd want a fireproof room off of the house but still connected to the house that I could set up a couple of smokers in so I could smoke stuff in there year round.

Set it up with closable vents that I could flood the room with CO2 if a fire got out of hand.

[eagleflyfisher]

I thought putting a cold room in may be a good idea.

[Sundancefisher]

10 foot basement ceiling with steel trusses for wide open basement floor plan. Built in sauna room. Stair egress to outside from basement. Extra large garage. Fly tying room with big screen tv.

[fishunter327]

Things I like about my 2008 build are covered decks,slab heat,separate laundry close to master bed ,boot room off garage,open concept , vaulted ceilings, 9 ft ceilings.
Things I should have done,larger garage,smaller house, basement entrance from garage .

[Deep]

A Mother in law suite......next province over.....hehe.

[CranePete]

I think that I’d frame exterior walls 2x8, interior walls 2x6. Insulate well, including interior walls. Solid doors instead of hollow core. Super efficient HVAC system incorporating geo-thermal.
CranePete

[58thecat]

Renai hot water system....on demand.....all appliances running water, people over showering or having a soak In the tub and there is always hot water

[Fwee6]

The highest quality windows money can buy.
Our builder grade double-pane windows are dog sh*t...aggravates me to no end in the winter when ice builds up.

- Spare me all the "run your vent fan, reduce interior moisture levels, etc." B.S.

[Xbolt7mm]

Originally Posted by fordtruckin

On demand hot water
Wood stove
As many bathrooms as bedrooms
9’ trayed ceilings
NOT some gawd aweful huge roof. I can’t stand a single story house with a roof pitched so high the roof dwarfs the living quarters!
A double sided gas fireplace in the wall between the master bedroom and master bath.

I have the fireplace thing you mentioned, looks fantastic but dumbest thing ever, wife uses the fireplace when in the tub and you cant stand to be in the bedroom for the next 6 hours because its too hot

[fishunter327]

Hot and Cold water hose bib and drain in garage.
Big screen TV in garage.
Just prepping some salmon for smoking in the garage and these are items I am appreciating today.

[Mayhem]

Originally Posted by Trochu

Bathroom, our house has one and it's super convenient.

Absolutely...we put one in as well, was a huge upgrade from our last place. I think it's my favorite room now. Recommend installing one of these.