Hellobee Boards

Well I haven't officially build but we have been deep in the process of house buying/new builds/working with a local designer and one of my "must haves" after seeing it is a cleaning supply closet in the mud room. You can store your broom/mop/even vacuum out of sight but easy available to grab when needed close to the kitchen. I loved this.

Also, something if we decide to build is having an outlet in the pantry. Instead of having to move the bigger appliance we plan to store out into the kitchen for use, I can just use the space in the pantry for the toaster/blender/mixer.

We haven't built a house, but thinking about the modifications we've made to ours or things I dislike - I agree with the no white or really light grout. We have light gray on the kitchen floor and I hate it.

Think about how you will decorate and where you might need electrical outlets for lamps, nightlights, baby monitors, holiday decorations, kitchen appliances, etc. We have a jack and Jill bath with shower and toilet in one room and sinks in the bedroom on one side and a double sink in it's own room on the other. There is no electric outlet in the part with the toilet, so I can't put a nightlight.

Make sure you don't have too many doors opening in the same space. Part of the jack and Jill bath opens into the hall and part opens into the bedroom, plus the door from the hall to the bedroom, the door into the toilet/shower area and a closet with a door mean that the doors are constantly hitting each other unless they are all closed. This could have been solved with pocket doors or a folding door.

I also like to utilize as much of the dead space as possible like book cases under the stairs or narrow shelving between the studs in the bathroom.

@NorthStar: our washer and dryer are backwards and it is so annoying! It didn't matter when we had a top loader but then we bought a front loader and now the doors open into each other. And it is not an easy fix.

Have lights installed in all the closets. All of them. I had it done for the master closets and no where else and I regretted it every time I opened a closet or the pantry. There's no great solutions once the electrical has already been put in, and it's something that drives me nuts.

One other thing - be sure to do a walkthrough after they put in the electrical, but before they put up the drywall. I know that it might be hard, but try to picture where all the outlets, thermostats, etc. will be and ensure they make sense. My DH did our electrical and put a thermostat and air exchanger thing about 2-3 feet in from the edge of the wall vs. right by the edge of the wall. It is totally messing with my gallery wall and I won't let him forget it! lol He also failed to put a single outlet along one of the walls in the baby's room. It is super annoying. It seems so minor, but once the walls are up, it's a pain in the rear to move anything.

We built and I don't have many regrets. The biggest one is determining where the outlets go. I was under the impression we were going to do a walk-through with the electrician before hand, but because of schedules we missed it.

Generally they did a good job, except in our master bath.

We have a countertop big enough for two sinks, but we only installed one so I can use the other side as a vanity with a drawer. (I LOVE this, btw) but the electrician only installed one outlet and it is right next to sink, which is a big pain when I use my blow dryer or straightener. We are going to add another outlet, we just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I would suggest doing a walk through with the actual people doing the installation at major milestones because sometimes the messages get crossed or lost when working through your builder.

Have fun! I loved building!

Haven't built, but I lived in a custom built house and I'm in love with it. If ever we get to build our own home, I would try to make it similar. My favorite parts - skylights in the upper rooms, big kitchen, only a few steps to the front door (a big deal when they get icy), big windows, and a nook with a built in bench by one of the main windows. It was also very nice for the owner that the layout allowed her to close off the first floor from the top floors with a big sliding door. She had raised a big family there, but when the kids were grown, she was able to separate her living space from all those empty rooms and rent them to college students. I think she would have had to move out of her home much sooner if it wasn't for that... the property taxes kept creeping up

We probably won't ever build, but I love these threads. I would do a mud room (off the garage or a side entrance) where you can hose off kids and feet before entering the house.

Three car garage if you can swing it, 2 on one side, and one separate to use for storage/bikes/seasonal furniture.

Thought of one more thing. If you have stairs with a landing, an outlet on that landing. Makes it easier to vacuum the stairs if you can plug in on the landing before continuing on the other set of stairs.

@ShootingStar: We have one closet that doesn't have a light. My solution was to buy battery powered motion sensing lights from Amazon and stick them on the wall with command strips inside the closet. I've been really happy with that fix.

@ShootingStar: Really? I like it so much I started to get annoyed at our normal closets that I have to turn on with a light switch. I like just waving my hand and having the light come on.

@looch: yes! I grew up with a 2.5 car garage and we have that now. It's SO nice. You can also look at making it deeper so there is more room in front of the cars.

At our house we have the kitchen sink located in a corner and I HATE it! Never again! The only benefit is that the sink is right next to the stove, so we can use the sprayer to fill pots on the stove. Though, you can also put in a pot filler faucet over the stove, which is super convenient.

Also, if you'er doing any built in shelving, put electrical outlets inside the cabinets!

floor outlets or outlets near the couch so you can plug in devices and charge while using them from the couch!

My family added on to our house when I was in high school and here are some things I loved:

Kids bathroom: has a timer heat lamp with a regular light so we knew when to hop out of the shower and stop wasting hot water

Ventilation in the closets not blowing on the clothes.

Outlets on either side of where a bed will be in the bedroom.

Pocket doors for the separate sink area of the bathroom.

I'm surprised by all of the washer/dryer comments! We bought an existing house with washer hookup on right and dryer hookup on left. We had to buy new appliances. We got a top loading washer and we either specified when purchasing that door goes on left of dryer or it was something that was to be selected during the installation process. Not an issue as long as you have the appliances that are compatible with the space.

@Shantuck: @brownepiano: @NorthStar: Our washer and dryer are "backwards" with the washer on the right and we just swapped the dryer door so it swings to the left. So there's no difference. I think they're all made to do that! Took DH barely any time...

We remodeled our house before moving in and I think the biggest mistake was the placement of the tankless water heater. It's on the other side of the house from the kitchen, so hot water from
the kitchen faucet takes FOREVER. It was always annoying but became unbearable when I had (bottle-fed) DS. it adds an extra 3ish mins to prepping his bath and washing all the bottles... which doesn't sound bad but drives me crazy lol