By: ArmchairBuilder.com – CC BY 2.0My husband and I are looking at building our first home. We’re both young professionals, with no kids on the scene (at the moment anyway). I just wanted to ask the Homies about any experiences that they’ve had when building their first homes (good and bad), and what they wish they’d known/considered first.
Obviously we’ll design the house the way we want it, and will inevitably wish we’d done some things differently, but what should we be looking out for/considering when we build our own home?
For interests sake, we live in Australia, so any legal considerations specific to your locality will probably not be particularly helpful. –Naomi
My parents were reflooring their family room and decided they wanted a built-in bookshelf for books and dvds and so on. So they put it against the wall with the door to the storage room and made it a secret entrance. This is fantastically cool but also surprisingly practical. The family room and storage room aren’t very big and the secret bookshelf door actually takes up less space than a regular door would which makes both rooms more functional.
Don’t forget about insurance. Even homes in the process of being built need to be properly insured. And properties under construction cost far more to insure than a completed home. Find a knowledgeable insurance broker who can educate you on the coverage that you require and get a quote in advance of starting the build. As a broker myself, I see a lot of clients who don’t contact us in advance and are surprised by how much they need to budget for insurance costs.
Yup, our builder actually includes the cost of full comprehensive insurance during construction in the contract. (I think in Australia they might legally have to? It’s been included by every builder we’ve talked to).
Something that has surprisingly not been mentioned- be prepared for stress on you and your relationship. Something will go wrong and I think it’s important to be prepared for this and have a little pre-groundbreaking chat about how you guys are in this together and discuss stress control techniques beforehand. Will one of you be primarily be dealing with a certain aspect of the project? When one of you gets the call to decide on something last minute is the other okay with that person making the decision? Is one more able to leave work on a moments notice if there is something needing attention? It sounds like you’ve been able to work well together with the overall design but what happens when you disagree on cabinet pulls or tile color? House building involves a billion decisions, some of which are impossible to anticipate and inevitably there will be a detail that you disagree on. Decide how you will handle the situation and be determined to keep your marriage strong and healthy. I would recommend one night a week where house talk is off limits and you just focus on each other 🙂
After living in all kinds of spaces (subruban homes, boarding houses, tiny city studio apartments, average city apartments, awesome-but-illegal city loft spaces, urban craftsman houses, small third world homes, large third world homes…) I have a hodge-podge wishlist of things I would include in my built-from-scratch home that incorporate my favorite aspects of all of my previous homes.
Some of the things are basic (storage space! high cielings! central heat and ac! fans! open floor plan! home that revolves around the kitchen! indoor laundry room! lots and lots and lots of outlets! good windows, soundproofing, and insulation!) but some are a bit more unique.
For instance, here in Indonesia, all of the bathrooms are ‘wet’ bathrooms, which mean that they are floor-to-cieling tiled and have drains in the middle of the floor. Everything can (and does) get wet.
Now, if I was going to build my own place, I’d put in a more Western shower (with an enclosure, hot water, etc…) but I’d keep the other aspects of a wet bathroom — you have no idea how awesome it is to clean your bathroom by simply spraying the whole thing down. It’s AMAZING.
Max out the most useful spaces. Mud room, laundry room, extra food storage if you brew or can or Kampuchea, and bathrooms might want them bigger than you think. Can you potty train in them.
pocket doors. These are a super big pain to install after a house is built but are a super awesome space saver as you don’t have to worry about how a door is going to open into a room and where that door will go. While they aren’t necessarily the best for bedrooms, they work super well in offices and small bathrooms.
Also, if you have an unfinished basement planned, have plumbing/water hookups for bathroom put in so that if you later want to finish it, it’s much easier and less expensive.
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Don’t forget the broom closet! I just wrapped up designing a house for my in laws – and this is the one thing that just isn’t quite big enough.
MUTHERFUCKING SECRET PASSAGES.
you definitely need to consider those.
Best comment ever.
If you can’t swing motherfucking secret passages, maybe a room hidden behind a bookcase with suffice.
My parents were reflooring their family room and decided they wanted a built-in bookshelf for books and dvds and so on. So they put it against the wall with the door to the storage room and made it a secret entrance. This is fantastically cool but also surprisingly practical. The family room and storage room aren’t very big and the secret bookshelf door actually takes up less space than a regular door would which makes both rooms more functional.
I WISH our budget would allow for this! Would be the most epic house in the area! Love the way your mind thinks!
Don’t forget about insurance. Even homes in the process of being built need to be properly insured. And properties under construction cost far more to insure than a completed home. Find a knowledgeable insurance broker who can educate you on the coverage that you require and get a quote in advance of starting the build. As a broker myself, I see a lot of clients who don’t contact us in advance and are surprised by how much they need to budget for insurance costs.
Yup, our builder actually includes the cost of full comprehensive insurance during construction in the contract. (I think in Australia they might legally have to? It’s been included by every builder we’ve talked to).
Something that has surprisingly not been mentioned- be prepared for stress on you and your relationship. Something will go wrong and I think it’s important to be prepared for this and have a little pre-groundbreaking chat about how you guys are in this together and discuss stress control techniques beforehand. Will one of you be primarily be dealing with a certain aspect of the project? When one of you gets the call to decide on something last minute is the other okay with that person making the decision? Is one more able to leave work on a moments notice if there is something needing attention? It sounds like you’ve been able to work well together with the overall design but what happens when you disagree on cabinet pulls or tile color? House building involves a billion decisions, some of which are impossible to anticipate and inevitably there will be a detail that you disagree on. Decide how you will handle the situation and be determined to keep your marriage strong and healthy. I would recommend one night a week where house talk is off limits and you just focus on each other 🙂
After living in all kinds of spaces (subruban homes, boarding houses, tiny city studio apartments, average city apartments, awesome-but-illegal city loft spaces, urban craftsman houses, small third world homes, large third world homes…) I have a hodge-podge wishlist of things I would include in my built-from-scratch home that incorporate my favorite aspects of all of my previous homes.
Some of the things are basic (storage space! high cielings! central heat and ac! fans! open floor plan! home that revolves around the kitchen! indoor laundry room! lots and lots and lots of outlets! good windows, soundproofing, and insulation!) but some are a bit more unique.
For instance, here in Indonesia, all of the bathrooms are ‘wet’ bathrooms, which mean that they are floor-to-cieling tiled and have drains in the middle of the floor. Everything can (and does) get wet.
Now, if I was going to build my own place, I’d put in a more Western shower (with an enclosure, hot water, etc…) but I’d keep the other aspects of a wet bathroom — you have no idea how awesome it is to clean your bathroom by simply spraying the whole thing down. It’s AMAZING.
Also: butt hose. For real.
Max out the most useful spaces. Mud room, laundry room, extra food storage if you brew or can or Kampuchea, and bathrooms might want them bigger than you think. Can you potty train in them.
pocket doors. These are a super big pain to install after a house is built but are a super awesome space saver as you don’t have to worry about how a door is going to open into a room and where that door will go. While they aren’t necessarily the best for bedrooms, they work super well in offices and small bathrooms.
Also, if you have an unfinished basement planned, have plumbing/water hookups for bathroom put in so that if you later want to finish it, it’s much easier and less expensive.