Come along as we build a custom home Thread II--Construction
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Anonymous
Also since my other suggestions require a whole new design the very least get a screen porch on the deck ASAP. It's only a few thousand if you do it now rather then waiting do it asap |
Anonymous
No. You put a drain in the laundry floor, put a second floor laundry first if you have room out a first floor one as another |
Anonymous
Yes, not surprising, I suppose. Because I want to keep the focus on things we learned on the process and cost, I won't share too much about our actual choices for the more cosmetic design choices we made. It'll devolve into chaos and be less useful or interesting. But I shared floorplans because a PP pointed out it was hard to judge cost without some basic info on what was being constructed. Which was a fair point. Also, the shade from PP's about the colors did make me think of another lesson learned. I mentioned 'browns and tans' for color palette for exterior which doesn't quite capture what we actually did. What I meant by that was that, we 'warmed' up the fairly neutral brick we chose by going for stone with warmer tones (like browns) mixed in with the gray. And same with the brick--by choosing grout that was more of a sand color than stark white or gray, it changes the tone. The brown roof, garage doors and front door are part of that as well. So that's the first point. The second thing we found was that the photos online looked NOTHING like the brick IRL. Same with visiting the show room. The little 2' square pieces of brick on display give no idea of what it looked like on a house. Highly recommend getting the address of a building that's used the brick so you can go see it in person. Stone is even harder--there is so much variation that even getting a different lot of the same stone isn't the same. For example, we chose something called Nottingham Tudor for our brick. Here's the link for the brick: https://shop.generalshale.com/generalshale/en/USD/Product-Types/Brick/Nottingham-Tudor-6042/p/6042023012 Now here's the brick (and stone) on the actual house: https://imgur.com/a/ht6wkcp This too, as a photo doesn't quite capture it. For example, the photos here were taken on a cloudy day. In full sunlight, some pinkish/reddish tones of the brick come through more. So, TL/DR, definitely see brick out in the wild, because photos and samples really don't cut it. |
Anonymous
We actually made quite a few changes to several elements of the floor plan. Our construction plans have them, but those have a LOT of detail in them and so I went with the older, simpler plans for this thread. They're hard to read via imgur because a lot of detail is lost when zooming in. As you point out, the open dining space off the kitchen is a pretty casual vibe, with the formal dining room accessible off the front hall, or through a short passageway from the kitchen. Also turned the space that was an additional closet near the garage into a walk in pantry, with the entry now from the kitchen. I may post that for general interest because it really improves overall functionality. No sure if its helpful to post the whole kitchen design with cabinets sketched out? We used the Reico designer--and it works with how we live (wheelchair accessibility, for example), and we host family gatherings pretty often. Everyone is going to be different and I think other posts here and elsewhere on the interwebs cover kitchen design well. |
Anonymous
Ok, I'll indulge this a little bit here. Because within the critique is maybe a useful discussion on design elements. For us, a mudroom off the garage entry is way, way more useful. We just don't use the front door very often. Kids, pets, friends-who-are-like-family, everyone comes through the garage 80% of the time. *Some. * guests come through front door for times when we're Entertaining (with a capital E). So, definitely did not want a mudroom off of the front door (if I'm understanding your comments correctly). Disagree on bedroom size, although all of our bedrooms meet that size, except one which meets it in terms of overall square footage, even if one side is 13'. We're not hosting parties in our bedrooms. The owners suite, taken as a whole is huge. Really a dream come true--but a bunch of open bedroom space isn't useful or cozy for us (YM will definitely vary). Hence, we have the sitting room that is an extension of the bedroom itself. All bedrooms have their own bathroom EXCEPT our two kids' bedrooms. We made them share a bathroom and that was intentional; conflict resolution and consideration for others training starts at home (And even their bath has the shower & toilet closed off from the vanities, so that one can shower or use the bathroom while someone brushes teeth, for example. I think a constructive way to look at this is: one of the fascinating processes of building a house is the thought you can put into design, and how design both influences, and is influenced by its users. Do you want the house to feel more cozy? More inviting with more of a sense of communal living? Optimize for convenience and practicality? Grandeur? Then your choices will be totally different from mine, and neither will be 'wrong'. |
Anonymous
Friend, look again at the plans. In the upper right hand of the main floor plans you'll see a screen in porch, with a fireplace. There is *also* a deck off the rear of the house, with no screen. |
Anonymous
| For anyone who likes to geek out on home design, I really like the book "Patterns of Home" |
Anonymous
I can never get enough kitchen design info! There is a lot online but most of it is not very practical for our lifestyle (cooking everyday, living with children and pets, entertaining, living in a small house). The best resource I've found is the Starmark blog https://starcraftcustombuilders.com/kitchen.design.rules.htm. The Main Line Kitchen guy is helpful but I don't agree with all his tips or the overall aesthetic. |
Anonymous
We designed our house so the mudroom is right when you walk in from the garage but outside have a second door facing adjacent to the front door to enter in to the mudroom |
Anonymous
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And now...tile. Erin Reaves of Mosaic Tile has my strongest recommendation. Erin is absolutely wonderful. She has a great eye, she's thoughtful and so efficient. We sent our plans, pinterest folders for inspiration, and our budget.
On the day we visited their Chantilly showroom she had pulled a few tile selections for each room, based on the above. And when we told her why we liked or didn't like something, she adjusted and brought new selections from our input and what the space needed. Like non slippery tiles for floors. Once we'd chosen tile, she helped us pick grout and the edging/schluter trim. In less than two hours, we selected the kitchen backsplash, shower tile--and niche insets-- for 4 bathrooms (the powder room won't have any). And floor tile for the main guest room and owner's bathroom. She followed up with a document with photos of everything. This was such a great experience compared to some of the other tile places, where we sort of wondered the floor, picking out materials ourselves. *The builder suggested Erin from the start, but we went to another place for comparison puposes. Working with Erin, much like working with the Ferguson rep on plumbing fixtures, was working with an in-house designer. I appreciated the guidance. She made some suggestions we would not have thought of--like a dark gray floor tile for the main guestroom. She pointed out that rubberized wheelchair wheels might leave tracks on light colored floor tiles. Cost for materials was just over 2k, cost of labor to install was 21K. The tile installers are Century Tile, https://www.centurytile.com/AboutUs.html |
Anonymous
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How tight is the building envelope?
How thick is your insulation? Do your walls and roof have an air barrier? Do you have energy recovery as part of your hvac equipment? Do you have a kitchen fan that actually exhausts out and not recirculates the greasy air? |
Anonymous
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Please tell me your garage doors are not visible from the street nor from the building entrance.
It's so plebe. |
Anonymous
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Up next, flooring. We picked this out fairly early on in the process as well. With tile, fixtures, flooring--it was nice to have selections made up front, which means that a) you can lock in prices and b) things get discontinued all the time, so when we loved something we ordered it.
We also shopped around a lot. We were comparing The difference in prices for both materials and installation/labor. Price differences were pretty dramatic--and when we found the flooring we liked at a brick and mortar store, we searched and found another dealer offering a much better price and they matched it. A few specs: went with engineered hardwood throughout most of the first and second floors. But we did LVP in the mudroom/entry from garage and tile for bathrooms, except first floor powder room, also LVP. There is a ton of info about hardwood vs engineered hardwood vs LVP. We also went with 5" width hickory planks, handscaped and a medium brown color. Company we went with is Aladdin Flooring and they've had great customer service on the flooing side. They also have tile and we were less impressed with the customer service on that side of the business (so we went with Erin at Mosaic). Total cost for materials + installation, including stairs--58K. Flooring will be installed last thing, and needs 3 weeks of conditioning before we can move in and live on it. |
Anonymous
| Oh, correction. It will take them 3 weeks to complete the job. I don’t think engineered hardwood needs to be conditioned like hardwood does. |
Anonymous
OP seems more focused on aesthetic design features, unfortunately (common mistake) |