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Congrats! Bookmarked--Looking forward to seeing lots of build pictures! I really like the look and layout, especially that backyard. One thing to consider with the great room, is that they're awfully expensive to heat and cool, so you're kind of paying a penalty for that throughout the life of the house. E: What's your budget for the house, if you don't mind me asking? Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 21:52 on Mar 6, 2016 |
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Mar 6, 2016 21:50
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You should absolutely do the secret room! Just think ahead to if you ever sell the house--that's a guaranteed way to make your house stand out and get offers. The relatively small cost of installing that upfront will probably pay dividends later. I'm currently contemplating doing this with a small bedroom/office in my house. The architect sounds like a great way to go too--small overall cost, but that could probably pay you back having someone else looking out for your interests.
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Mar 7, 2016 03:39
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Zhentar posted:If your cathedral ceiling is well insulated (which, to be fair, is much more difficult than with open attic spaces), you don't pay more of an efficiency penalty than any other feature that increases the exterior surface area of your home. You do pay a comfort penalty, in that greater stratification makes it harder to maintain at a comfortable temperature, but all you need to negate that is some sort of fan to mix the air. Ah, ok, gotcha. Having the air movement from the fan probably makes all the difference. To be fair, I live in a house where the insulation is largely comprised of crumpled up newspapers from 1937 and asbestos from 1968. dreesemonkey posted:Is this going to be your forever home? You may want to look for something that has a suite on the 1st floor, could be used as a office for your wife in the meantime w/ some sort of exterior entrance (you could have the builder frame for a patio door but install an exterior door for a entryway, for instance). This is an excellent point--also make sure you go with extra wide doorways that can accommodate a wheelchair (or more practically moving your furniture). One of my friends' parents just bought a house with extra wide doors, and I can't believe that all houses don't have them, they are just super convenient. Since you're starting from the ground up, a small bit of thinking ahead now will pay dividends later.
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Mar 8, 2016 02:29
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Thanks for all the updates on the architects and little details on the whole process--I am genuinely riveted, please keep them coming! If you can, please post any plans you guys are thinking about as well.
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Mar 12, 2016 15:51
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Gounads posted:Met with the other architect today. 50k is just ridiculous in my book, I don't know what kind of mcmansion crowd they're banking on there. That design you linked, however, is just  Very tasteful exterior, great organization of space, and that upstairs bonus access to the garage is fantastic, especially with the extra bathroom that won't wake everyone up with a midnight trip to the bathroom. Speaking of bathrooms, I'd add a rough in for a toilet/sink in the basement, in case you ever wanted to finish it and add a bathroom down there. There's no such thing as too many toilets. Only downside is the formal dining room, that's a fairly obsolete concept, but it's a nice bonus room and the kitchen looks big enough to accommodate a full table in there. I'd personally expand the kitchen a tiny bit into the dining room, and maybe add a kitchen bar to sit and eat at. First floor laundry is excellent too, though I'd highly highly recommended adding in a laundry chute right above it in the upstairs hallway to the garage. Just think of how many trips that would save hauling dirty laundry. Can't wait to see how it turns out!
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Mar 29, 2016 04:48
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Gounads posted:
Might be structurally difficult to move the door, but add a few windows on the first floor of the garage in lieu of blank space, and that'd solve your problem as well as let in some natural light. My parents house is very similar to that, and that's how theirs is done. You can never have enough light.
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Mar 29, 2016 13:46
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His Divine Shadow posted:The norm is still longer than vinyl. It's lifespan basically indefinite as long as you paint it every decade (dilligent care, with quality paint it can be 20 years), and use good wood. It can also be easily serviced at any time and you can even make new panels yourself, who knows where you can find just the right pieces in 20 or 40 or 60 years? The factory that made them is probably not even around anymore. But wood is always available to be shaped to what is needed. Wooden siding and trim is a wonderful thing   You'll always be able to find replacement vinyl, it's too ubiquitous. Heck, I can even find replacement cement fiber singles for my special snowflake my wavy asbestos siding, even though the original manufacturer has long been sued out of existence. I think your guys' wood lasts so long because the primary paint used over there is that fifty year exothermic linseed oil stuff, right? Most of our wooden siding here in the US rotted out when people switched from oil to early latex paints. I could be wrong, but I think that linseed oil stuff is easier to just recoat and reapply whereas it's very labor intensive here to hand scrape and prep painted wood for a new coat. xwing posted:I already went over this before when it was first brought up... that's entirely reasonable and within the averages for architects. And the people that complain about the prices have usually never set foot in an architect designed home. No, you're absolutely right, that probably is reasonable and I have no idea what I'm talking about. Houses are stupid cheap where I live in the Midwest, so it seems excessive to me by comparison. I think that's also a good point about being an 80's design, I think newer plans get rid of the dining room altogether and rearrange room layouts to emphasize stuff like a larger eat in kitchen with little separation between living area, right? Is there anything else in the design that seems dated or points to the 80's? My parents house was built in the 80's and has a lot of similar stuff, eg big bonus room above the garage, similar master, dining room adjacent to the kitchen, kinda similar sizing and proportions. Otherwise, I think everything else like the exterior and useable space hasn't really changed all that much?
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Mar 30, 2016 12:21
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The Gardenator posted:I do not think anyone mentioned it, but it would be safer to store the bulk of the firewood away from your main house. Are you required to have fire sprinklers in your home? You can expect average of $10,000 more for that to be installed, but if it saves your life it is worth it. This is a phenomenal suggestion, please do this. It's smart to think ahead for this kind of stuff before the walls go up. Same thing with over compensating electric infrastructure (even though overall electrical demand per home has gone down in recent years) and run plenty of multimedia/cat5e lines (wireless sucks for reliability/speed and the spectrum is always getting more crowded). Also look into smart home stuff, like Samsung Smart Things or Nest thermostat/protect. A lot of that stuff is really starting to mature and can be extraordinarily useful. I can only imagine what you could do integrating some of the ideas from the ground up instead of ad hoc installation.
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Apr 1, 2016 20:14
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Oh yeah, I would stay the gently caress away from any "smart home" or "Internet of Things" devices. Everything I've read about them indicates the developers give precisely zero shits about security, and you're just leaving yourself open to abuse / loss of privacy by installing them. You may think "okay, but how important is that really?", but if an attacker can just figure out when you're not in the house, then they can burglarize you. Nah, your average home burglar is all about opportunity, eg window left open or garage door left open kind of thing. It's incredibly unlikely sometime predisposed to petty home theft is gonna locally hack into your home network to disable your security system--99% of burglars will just move on to the next house without a security system. It's the same exact reason all our physical door locks all utilize a hundred year old design that's laughable from any security standpoint. The locks are there to inspire trust in each other, not because they're worthwhile in preventing a half determined criminal. Also, smart locks are awesome, just throwing that out there. Conduit is 100% the way to go. All the smart home stuff is wireless and operates on coin cell lithium batteries anyways. Only thing I'd want to hardware are cameras. It's pretty cool getting notifications about arrivals/departures, or reminders when you leave that a window is open. The nest stuff is cool because the nest protect will shut off the furnace if it senses carbon monoxide for instance, and warn you exactly where it senses smoke before blaring the alarm so you can stop out if you're just burning stuff in the oven. If you've got Sonos, that actually works right out of the box with smart things. You can, for instance, set it to sound an alarm if x sensor is tripped, and set your lights to turn red and send you an alert. Guarantee most home intruders run away at that. The water sensor is fantastic too, just set that somewhere water leak prone (like my basement or laundry hoses) and fuhgettaboutit. They even sell auto shutoff valves you can add in, so, for instance, if your laundry hose bursts (as they tend to do) your water is immediately shut off before the room floods. Not everything is 100% there yet, but this is the first year it's really, truly good.
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Apr 6, 2016 21:33
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^^ What still needs done with the land purchase lawyer?Zhentar posted:They make ones that don't need to tie in to "smart" home systems. But it's still cheaper to just buy laundry hoses that don't tend to burst. These are awesome! Thanks for the link--I'm gonna pick up a set. I've got steel braided hose, which is slightly more resilient, but it's going on six-seven years now and it's probably about time to replace them anyways. Laundry hoses were just an example for a water sensor, my basement used to flood and even though I'm pretty sure I've fixed the source of the problem, it's good to have some warning if it ever happens again. I heard about the revolv hub thing, that's an incredibly short sighted thing to do when you're trying to build confidence around a product designed to incorporate into the life span of a home. I completely agree with a lot of the criticism, but I'm of the mindset that there's a lot of really cool potential with home automation, and it's been a cheap way for me to get some peace of mind around home security and safety with some extra added convenience in the process.
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Apr 7, 2016 14:42
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Excuses are like assholes, everyone has one and they stink. If I were you I'd take it as a red flag, but it would at least be very useful to have his bid, at least as an extra reference point to use as leverage. Say you could go back to your first guy and be like so and so only bid x dollars for y job, could you explain what the difference in work/materials might be? Might save you a few bucks down the line...
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May 12, 2016 17:16
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Gounads posted:Seriously considering it. I really do have an office with closet planned. Nice! Great choice, formal dining rooms died in the 80's... Most modern homes don't have one.
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Nov 29, 2016 17:24
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Looking good! Any luck setting up a time lapse camera in one of the nearby trees overlooking the site? How's the money situation going? Any more hiccups getting the construction loan where it needs to be?
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Dec 5, 2016 18:57
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It's weird seeing new houses, with wall cavities that aren't filled with some combination of beer cans, rusty razor blades, dead things, newspaper insulation, and long abandoned wiring vv 100% that Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 06:11 on Dec 11, 2016 |
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Dec 11, 2016 05:57
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drat, things are coming along fast! Really great that you're spending the small bit extra upfront for all the right decisions that'll pay back dividends down the line, like composite decking or the zip sheathing or making note of where the utilities are ran inside the walls. Just smart all around! Kudos for caring about the details and knowing enough not to skimp on the bones of the structure to save a few bucks right now at the expense of easily avoidable maintenance later.
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Dec 17, 2016 01:25
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Have you considered making the eat in bar in the kitchen a two tier bar, kinda like this? https://st.hzcdn.com/fimgs/74211efd027bcc8a_8682-w500-h400-b0-p0--craftsman-kitchen.jpg Might help add a bit of functional separation between kitchen and living space, while still keeping it open and useful. What are your plans for the bay window? We've got one in our house and best as I can figure is to build in a bench around it for a table, but that's a really difficult space to furnish in any useful fashion... I don't know how those things became so ubiquitous considering how impractical they are otherwise. E: oh, your should put a flower box shelf under the kitchen window, so you can keep a few house pants under the window by the sink. It's just a nice touch.
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Dec 19, 2016 05:19
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Gounads posted:2x6  I didn't even know that was a thing... This house is a stark counterpoint to all the mcmansions of the world. Congrats on getting the loan finalized! I can't imagine what a relief that's gotta be.
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Dec 29, 2016 03:32
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Dang, I can't believe the hassle and number of hoops you keep having to jump through to get this house done. I wouldn't be surprised if you came out of this experience with grey hair. What's the plan for roofing? Can you get away with a fifty year metal roof, or does that not fit the aesthetic of the neighborhood?
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Dec 31, 2016 06:49
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It's not just washers that hum a little tune--in Tapei they have musical garbage trucks /derail
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Jan 4, 2017 16:56
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Thanks for the video tour! That was excellent! I think you'll absolutely love that studio space and office space, great choices placing those where you did. Especially with those skylights in the studio, I predict you guys will be spending a lot of time in there. I'm a big fan of having your own space to pursue your interests and personal development, and having a good space is half the battle. Just a thought on the studio space, have you considered additional hvac capacity for the space? Being above the garage, it won't stay conditioned like the rest of the house, so you'll probably want a dedicated heat source and maybe something like a mini-split for AC. Just something you can turn on while you're using the space so it's not always sucking down energy. Where is the laundry going again? Is that going to be on the second floor? If not, are you going to have a chute to drop clothes to the laundry room? If it is on the second floor, are you going to have a floor drain in case of emergency? Sorry if this is a repeat question, I feel like it may have been answered earlier in the thread.
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Jan 7, 2017 15:13
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Gounads posted:My kids bedroom left and my office right. It's the jack & jill bathroom. Good to know! Since you guys have modern insulation and building techniques, it may not be as extreme of a temperature difference as it was in my parents house (which was built in the late eighties). It's just nice to have something extra in there since the garage isn't a conditioned space, and since you're directly underneath the roof it takes a lot to stay cooler in the summertime, etc. That way you don't have to crank your entire house one way or the other to compensate for one detached space. You should definitely go for the laundry chute while it's still easy to frame that in and nobody has used the cavity for plumbing or electrical.
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Jan 10, 2017 13:38
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N'thing wanting to know more about local politics and the whole process. Never seen another house build talk about it in such detail and it's extremely interesting. It really sounds like the people stamping your permits have little idea what they're doing or what they need either. At least it'll be worth it in the end!
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Jan 19, 2017 13:23
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n0tqu1tesane posted:They saw your post about the toilet throne and decided to surprise you by buying it for you. 
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Jan 23, 2017 05:30
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couldcareless posted:As an IT guy, I personal hate wifi but have accepted it as a necessary evil.  Wired is always superior to wireless, any day of the week I'd recommend the 802.11ac Unifi Pro wireless access points over the lite. Been awhile since I looked at the spec sheets, but I believe they're 3x3 MIMO so they've got extra radios and can accommodate more clients simultaneously, which probably isn't a concern for the home user, but they're not that much more expensive so why not. I have two in my hundred year old lathe and plaster house, one for each story, and they're great, no more wireless issues. I also set up about twenty of them for my work while they occasionally wig out they've been pretty great overall. Lots of great supported functionality, couldn't be happier. The point about the POE switch is a great one, especially for security stuff like cameras, sensors, and smoke alarms. What's the plan for all that? Did you get that stuff built into the walls, or are you going to have to add it on later? E: vv They do all come with injectors, but if you're setting this up from scratch, what's another hundred bucks in between the cost of everything else? Injectors are clunky, and if you have a bunch of stuff it's a mess of wires and a separate power strip to accommodate them, etc. Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 04:16 on Mar 29, 2017 |
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Mar 29, 2017 03:39
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dreesemonkey posted:That is true they are a sponsor, but I still trust the source (TWIT) as he's tried most of the mesh networks (Plume, google wifi, etc) and generally very fair with honest reviews. Not to derail too hard, but if you can hardwire your access points, you'll run into a lot less interference and not eat up so many channels connecting access points to one another, especially if you're already in a crowded rf spectrum (which is only getting worse over time). Mesh is great for retrofitting old apartment buildings and stuff where it's drat near impossible to run new wire, but not at all what I'd recommend for a new build, or even an existing home. Even if you use mesh APs, you still need power, and low voltage poe plenum cabling is a lot easier to install than new household 120v AC wiring. So what's the plan for wireless access points, Gounads? You have any drops in the ceiling you can use to install them? How about home security sensor wiring, what did you wind up up deciding for that?
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Mar 30, 2017 18:35
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