For me, the HVAC system. If you’re going to spend a bunch of money doing a major remodel, spend the extra $20k to put in a top of the variable speed heat pump system and/or modulating furnace.

Have the thing run all day at partial speed makes a huge difference for even temperatures across the home, reduced humidity, and better air quality. It can make the home feel much more luxurious.

Anonymous wrote:-Under cabinet lighting
-Functional storage (dividers for cutting boards/trays, etc.)
-Quality closet organizers, not just metal wires
-Outlets where you need them (in a medicine cabinet, in a closet, behind the TV mounting location, etc.)
-Pay for a designer to ensure your colors and undertones align. Specifically in kitchens and bathrooms. Between cabs, countertops and tiles, things can go haywire quickly. Having your undertones align will elevate your look and appear higher end
-Function over form. Think about how you live and use the space and then design to support. So many people focus on the shiny and pretty designs without a lot of thought as to how they will actually exist in (and maintain) the space.

This is great advice. Also, get a high quality kitchen sink and faucet.

-Under cabinet lighting
-Functional storage (dividers for cutting boards/trays, etc.)
-Quality closet organizers, not just metal wires
-Outlets where you need them (in a medicine cabinet, in a closet, behind the TV mounting location, etc.)
-Pay for a designer to ensure your colors and undertones align. Specifically in kitchens and bathrooms. Between cabs, countertops and tiles, things can go haywire quickly. Having your undertones align will elevate your look and appear higher end
-Function over form. Think about how you live and use the space and then design to support. So many people focus on the shiny and pretty designs without a lot of thought as to how they will actually exist in (and maintain) the space.

Splurge on quality workmanship. It is pretty appalling what contractors around here consider acceptable quality work. We bought expensive marble backsplash tile but the install completely ruined it. Sloppy cuts, uneven grout lines, poor caulking.

we splurged on windows and appliances and have never regretted it

Anonymous wrote:Our architect is very practical, which is generally good but I'm looking for ideas to elevate the house. Seems like kitchen hardware/knobs/pulls, doorknobs throughout house, and plumbing fixtures (something that feels substantial) are relatively low cost "splurges" that really elevate the experience of living in the house. Any thoughts or other ideas? Lighting? Tile seems not worth it to splurge on?

Good lighting can totally transform a space and make it appear much more luxurious than otherwise (cove lighting, undercabinet LEDs throughout the house, etc.).

However, doing it well is not cheap, largely due to the expense of an electrician. And here’s one area where I would buy my own materials - you can get basically the same LED strip for $20 on Amazon that a lighting store will charge $400 for.

If I were splurging, I'd totally splurge on storage solutions, cabinets, shelves, built-in bookcases. Anything that matches the scale of the rooms and provides ways to hide away crap. Shopping for furniture is a pain because the quality of mass furniture is pretty poor now, and there's all kind of scale issues. Big stuff doesn't fit in small places (so have to buy "apartment-sized" furniture which is harder to find). And big houses don't fit with antiques and regular/traditional furniture due to the large scale of the rooms. it's all a headache. So having things built-in to begin with would be great.

Also taking care of all the TV-related issues up-front would be useful. I would love to have an art frame TV or a completely hideable TV in a good location. So many living rooms aren't set up very conveniently for TV/couch relationships.

I would say anything that makes the kitchen more effective for you.

We bought a tip out drawer for the front of our sink to hide sponges and brushes. Unfortunately, it didn't work out as planned. For some reasons the idiot installers trapped granite dust under the counter and heavy enamel Kohler sink where we are unable to vacuum it out. It slowly migrates out into the drawer, making everything dirty over time. It took about 10 years for it to stop depositing stone dust into the drawer. I think it's done now. But in the meantime, we got used to never using that feature.

I wish we had one of those divider sets or rollouts for our narrow sheet pan cabinet (the one that's only about 9" or 10" wide by the stove. Our cabinet is older and those accessories only came on the market a few years later (can't retrofit). I'd rather have the rollout style than just mount dividers into the cabinet.

A few months after I moved into our new build house, I went to the cabinet supplier's showroom and ordered three additional matching shelves to add more storage in our most important cabinets. This has been great. I'm glad I didn't have to find cheap aftermarket ways to make more space in the cabinets.

Anonymous wrote:Appliance elevators (lifts) for 2-3 larger appliances like your mixer and food processor.

These pop up from an open base cabinet.

I love our wall of these- so useful

Appliance elevators (lifts) for 2-3 larger appliances like your mixer and food processor.

These pop up from an open base cabinet.

to me splurge means not bargain basement/cheapest out there/any old thing will do.

Doors - interior and exterior
toilets - tho a 4 figure toilet that opens and closes and looks like a piece of modern sculpture isn't my choice
faucets

pretty much anything on display in a ferguson somerville can be found elsewhere for less money and the exact item not a knockoff.
handles and knobs and other accessories are a mixed bag. On sm like youtube I've seen high end designers the if you have to ask/ half a mill per room and watnot say they buy things on amazon, ebay, etsy and homegoods type stores. Plus A LOT of places will buy stuff from alibaba for $1 a piece, place 2 zero behind it and sell it to you as exclusiv. Google image search is your friend.

Wiring for bidets
Handhelds in tubs

Lighting fixtures are real good splurged. Tile depends...where, what for, size.

Crown moulding is not very expensive to install and totally elevates the apprarance of a room. Lowes usually has both standard and more fancy styles of crown in stock.

Our architect is very practical, which is generally good but I'm looking for ideas to elevate the house. Seems like kitchen hardware/knobs/pulls, doorknobs throughout house, and plumbing fixtures (something that feels substantial) are relatively low cost "splurges" that really elevate the experience of living in the house. Any thoughts or other ideas? Lighting? Tile seems not worth it to splurge on?