If you were building a house (or if you have) what cool things would you do?

[smilequeen]

We are meeting with our architect on Tuesday. I'm working on my list but I'm always up for ideas, things we might not have thought of.

[Jen841]

Do you have a dog or would you want to have a dog someday? My neighbors have super discrete gates between rooms you never know are there. They also have a little nook for dog bowls and food in their kitchen.

[hillview]

place for books
fireplace
I'd like a nook for my personal quiet space
porch
place for grill right off kitchen
windows to see kids outside
drain in laundry room
dog considerations in mud room (drain? hose?)

[smilequeen]

Yes, we have dogs. Discreet gates is a great idea :) We have friends that put a dog wash station in their mudroom. It's really cool.

[Pennylane]

My sister did a few cools things in her last house. In the kitchen she had a knife drawer, a silverware drawer with dividers, a small tall cabinet for cutting boards and cookie sheets. In her bathroom she also had a built in vanity. You open the cabinet and the lights turned on, very cool!

I would also do heated bathroom floors.

Ann

[Pennylane]

Do you have a dog or would you want to have a dog someday? My neighbors have super discrete gates between rooms you never know are there. They also have a little nook for dog bowls and food in their kitchen.

That would be so cool!

Ann

[BunnyBee]

Do you have a dog or would you want to have a dog someday? My neighbors have super discrete gates between rooms you never know are there. They also have a little nook for dog bowls and food in their kitchen.

There's a built-in dog crate I saw forever ago on Pinterest that makes me drool. And yes, the dog wash, dog feeding area, etc.

We just redid a bathroom upstairs and closed off part of a linen closet for cat litter box. If we were building from scratch, I would've made it "fancier" and with some storage. It has a motion-activated, quiet, charcoal filter that I'm hoping doesn't scare my furry nutcases.

High ceilings

Open underneath staircase with bookshelves under (Pinterest, lol)

Storage for holiday decor big enough for a tree

Huge pantry, appliance storage, butler's pantry for plates and serving pieces

Dining room that doubles as a library (with a rolling ladder! Sigh.), with an extendable table that will seat our whole family for holidays

[dcmom2b3]

Channeling my inner six-year old: my best friend in elementary school had a play nook/play house in a finished off space under the stairs of her parents' spilt level. Had the Bunny been in the picture when I was building this place, that so would have been at the top of my list.

More mundane things: radiant heat under kitchen and bathroom floors, built-in shelves/window seats wherever the floor plan would allow. Laundry chute (though a possible fire hazard). Dumb waiter (can you tell I'm tired of climbing stairs?). House professionally wired for sound system with controls on every level and a docking station for iPod/Pad or whatever your source of tunes. Some sort of remote-controlled home alarm, monitoring and reporting system (lets you turn lights on/off from elsewhere, tells you when your CO2 alarm is going off or your sump pump has failed). Retractable awnings over outdoor patio/deck spaces that would be in full sun for part of the day. If the house has wood burning fireplaces, I'd want built ins for storing wood and tools.

[kali]

A few things off the top of my head:
-Central vac with vac-pan in kitchen and mudroom.
-Every room wired with "homeruns"
-Lots of outlets and an electrical panel with more capacity than you can imagine needing.
-Lots of built-ins (window seats, storage, bookshelves, etc)
-Big thumbs up to a dumb waiter. I am so sick of schlepping stuff but even worse is the piling of things near stairs.
-Heated floors
-Solar panels on the roof

We've added some of these things to an old house and would do it again despite the expense. They'd be much cheaper to build into a custom home. You could probably even get rebates / tax credits for the solar panels.

[Kestrel]

Double, wall-mounted oven...no more stooping!
Perhaps a lower, wooden dough counter for bread-making?
Built-in storage for stand mixer
Biggest garbage disposal I could find
Pantry space
kitchen island with pot rack above

(Can you tell I cook?)

Also, I've heard great things about ductless heating....

[elliput]

-Outlets in closets. Especially any walk in closets or utility closets. I would love to be able to put the charging stations for my hand and stick vacs in a closet.
-LED lighting with motion sensors in all closets.

[ray7694]

Laundry room with large counter for folding. On same floor as bedrooms.
Lockers in mudroom
Recycling center

[JCat]

I would have a special place built just for the cats' litter boxes. There is really no good place for them and the litter getting tracked in the house drives me nuts!!!

[elbenn]

Walk in storage for seasonal items--not the storage where you can only access it by a pull down ladder.

[egoldber]

We had a charging drawer put in our kitchen when we built our house. Basically there's an outlet inside the cabinet and a pullout shelf. We plugged in a power strip and charge our phones and iPads in there. Love it!

More outlets than you ever think you'll need.

More overhead recessed lighting than you'll ever think you'll need, especially on the main floor. It's not very expensive to add overhead lighting on a second story as long as there is attic access.

I don't personally like a second floor laundry. But I have a laundry/mudroom between my kitchen and my garage and I am seriously in love with that room.

[azzeps]

A high efficiency furnace and AC.

A butler's pantry

A finished basement

Have fun!

[azzeps]

And a tankless water heater for the master bath so that there's always hot water for a shower or a long soak in the tub after the kids are in bed!

And a sewing/craft/hobby space. Forgot that!

[3blackcats]

I had a budget to work with but my must have items were:
-wired for internet plus two cable drops in every room.
-Switch to change from cable to satellite quickly without touching any tv.
-Conduit to put a flat screen on the wall so you can't see any cords.
-outlets in the floor to plug in my table lamps. That way there is no cords running from the wall.
-central vac with a plate in the kitchen to sweep into
-huge pantry
-sliding doors to close off the pantry and laundry room instead of full doors. Saved a ton of space.
-put extra outlets in rooms I knew I would use them

Things I considered:
-outlet in soffit outside to plug in Christmas lights with a switch to turn them on and off inside.
-alarm system

There were small design things i changed, like moving a wall and moving a door to finish off space for an extra bedroom.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk (http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1)

[misshollygolightly]

Pasta "pot filler" faucet over stove (http://www.houzz.com/pasta-pot-filler-faucet)
2 sinks in kitchen
built-in bookshelves
gas fireplace
window seat in at least one of the bedrooms
our current bathroom has lovely built-in floor-to-ceiling cabinets/shelves and a tilt-out laundry hamper. I'm a huge fan and will miss it when we move!
good exterior safety lighting

[alirebco]

To add to the others, instant hot water faucet in kitchen to make tea, etc. Also a natural gas hookup out back to link directly to your grill (we have this and love it!)

Also if you want pocket doors for rooms like a master bath or a home office to save space, you need to do it when building to save money. Oh and upstairs laundry room for sure - ours is a lifesaver!

[DietCokeLover]

Tornado/ storm shelter
Double oven
Instant hot water faucet
Bonus room equipped with a mini kitchen for when kids are older and hanging out with friends

[belovedgandp]

On demand hot water - our master bath takes forever to get water.
Biggest garage possible. Doesn't seem to matter how much there is we will use every inch.

[123LuckyMom]

I pretty much decided to buy our sale-pending house for the upstairs laundry room with drain in the floor! Our current house has first floor laundry, not basement, but I just can't imagine anything better than not having to lug baskets up and down the stairs at all! On that note, if you can't have upstairs laundry, see if you can have a dumb waiter to get things easily from floor to floor.

We're doing two dishwashers in our new kitchen. There's a thread on it. I also like radiant heating in the floors and splits for air instead of central air. It enables each room to be it's own zone.

I would build in mudroom storage. I also love the idea of under stair bookshelves! That's brilliant!

ETA: whole house generator (or as close as you can get!)

[smilequeen]

Definitely some things to add to the list :) Thanks :)

[kellij]

He have a cut out spot in the our bathroom that holds a tv and in front of it is a framed pictures of our kids, so you can shut it and can't tell a tv is in there. We also have the heated flooring in there, which is awesome. We have a storm shelter in our closet floor. The people that built this house used reclaimed stones from a castle in France for some of the flooring. It looks really cool and I figure it won't ever look dated since it's so unique. We have some hand scraped wood flooring that I love too. We have a window seat with drawers under it in my son's room and I love it, both for a seating space and for storage. We have another window seat in our game room and it opens up and it's perfect for costume storage. I also love our walk-out attic. We have wooden "lockers" with a bench that has drawers underneath when you walk in from the garage. I think if I were to build a house, I would want a giant laundry room with a big table for folding clothes on it and I'd put the lockers in there. Despite closing, it's still hard to keep that area neat. We've always thought it would be really fun to put in a slide, and I saw a pic of one in a house recently. I doubt we'd actually do it, but that would be so fun!

[Ceepa]

This thread makes me want to tear down our house to the ground and rebuild it.


-Outlets in closets. Especially any walk in closets or utility closets. I would love to be able to put the charging stations for my hand and stick vacs in a closet.

This is a great idea.

[cvanbrunt]

A fire suppression/home sprinkler system.

[hellokitty]

I'd like two dishwashers, a large mud room with built in organization, a large walk in pantry, and a secret room hidden behind a bookcase.

[niccig]

Things I love in other people's home, but can't have in mine because of space/layout issues:

* walk in pantry, as in a room. My mother has this and I love it.
* Kitchen island with marble for rolling out pastry dough
* My mother's stove - 2 ovens, a warming draw and a separate broiler. We call it the Roll's Royce of Stoves.
* Retractable doors from kitchen that open out onto outdoor dining space. Friends have this and it's perfect entertainment space as the outside table is just steps from the kitchen.
* Basement so I can put all our crap from the garage into the basement and park my car in the garage!
* Attic space - for more crap.
* Bookcase lined library - even over the door.
* Built in window seat
* Mud room that isn't the laundry as well, or if it has to do double duty, then it needs to be big enough.
* Lights, lots of lights. We have a 1940's home and have to plug lamps in everywhere as not much overhead lightings. (Hope to fix that one day)
* Book shelves/shelves for displaying items along stairs. DH's uncle has this, love it.
* Shower with shower heads at 2 ends, so can shower with DH and not have to swap positions to get to the water (Maybe 1 day).

[goldenpig]

Our house has a light strip running down the side of the staircase that has an motion detector on both ends, so when you go up or down the stairs the lights come on automatically.

[specialp]

-Outlets in closets. Especially any walk in closets or utility closets. I would love to be able to put the charging stations for my hand and stick vacs in a closet.
.

Yes! I have an "outlet wish list" I'm making to have an electrician come out and this is one that bugs me the most. Why no outlet in the closet?! That where DH especially dumps his stuff and I get to hear his low battery signal in the middle of the night.

If you have a 2nd, 3rd story, fire ladders installed. We are probably going to have fire safety ladders installed in our walls below the windows (Werner - you buy at home depot) in the upstairs so that in an emergency, you just open the door and sling the ladder out and it is already attached to studs. It looks like an air vent.

[curiousgeorge]

We have instant-on hot water all over the house and I had no idea how much I'd love it. We have it because our house came with only one hot water heater instead of two (which it should have for the size according to the builder), but the builder put recirculating hot water pipes under the first floor. So, anytime you go to take a shower, wash your hands, etc. you don't have to let the water run to get warm. I figure this has saved us a ton in water bills over the 11 years we have been here! And, we have had a house full of guests and never had anyone suffer through a cold shower.

I personally wouldn't want laundry on the second floor (but our master is on the first floor so that might be why I'm OK with ours downstairs) because of the possibility of water leaks, and that is also why I like that our hot water heater is in the garage.

I would also add a few things to your list:
Electrical outlets in the pantry and all closets
Slide out trash cans in kitchen for trash and recycling
Pantry large enough for appliance storage (bread maker, stand mixer, vitamix, food processor, etc.)
Under cabinet wine fridge
Under cabinet lighting with dimmers in kitchen
Fold away drying rack mounted in my laundry room
Built in "custom" closet at least in master
Ceiling fan in master bathroom. Ours gets SO hot in the summer and this has helped tremendously in cooling it down so we don't sweat while getting dressed.
Outdoor outlets in places that are convenient for hanging holiday decorations
Ceiling outlets that are in the right spots to be centered over tables in kitchen/dining rooms
A garage with adequate space for what you need to put in there. Here in TX so many people drive big vehicles but the garages are not deep enough to accommodate them once you have your other stuff in there, or even without the other stuff.
Garage outlets for second fridge/freezer

How fun to get to design something that works right for you!!

[smilequeen]

Added a lot :) Thanks :)

[sste]

Smiles, but your existing house is so lovely I can't help crying!! Are you moving or just looking for something different in a house? Also is the new house modern or sort of period replica--that would affect the direction I would go in. Here are some thoughts:

1. I would be very interested in either working with or a one-time consultation with a "green architect." You can read about passive houses online. There are a whole variety of changes, some quite affordable, you can make to your house and I think those changes will also help your house from being "dated" efficiency wise when you go to resell.

2. Have you involved an interior designer in the process? It is well worth it to find a good one and get his/her design input now when it is cheap to make changes! Retrofit=expensive. There are a variety of aspects the designer can give input on including what will be the focal point in each room. One I might ask about -- and I am assuming your house is similar in scale or larger than your last -- are ways to make the space seem homey and bring "down" dimensions visually. This can be an issue with large new construction. We recently brunched at a friends house and I swear it brought out my evolutionary drives and I was convinced I was going to be attacked from above, behind, there was waaaaay too much space! Often the dimensions can stay the same but adding paneling/wainscotting, cozier fabrics for window treatments etc can bring it all into scale. Personally, despite what a designer tells you, I would stick as much as possible to white tile and counters in the bathrooms, it will allow you more flexibility over time to change things up.

3. If your house is modern, I think taking advantage of lot/trees with large windows, walls of windows etc if very nice -- that bringing the outdoors in is probably my single favorite feature in houses.

4. If your house is meant to be period reminiscent, I love farrow and ball painted kitchens with cabinets in their shades of taupe, dark off-white, grey etc. I also love slate sinks, a pantry, etc. Love Kennebec cabinets if money was no object! However, the most imp thing in a kitchen is light/windows! Avoid the cave o' cabinets. Avoid excessive cabinetry IMHO.

5. This may not be where you are going but I hate wasted space. It makes me nervous/uncomfortable. I would avoid the urge to add endless extra bonus rooms and guest rooms. Personally, for a family of five, I would love a large open kitchen/breakfast area/family room area, an attached formal dining room, four bedrooms, one dedicated office, one flexible office/guest room space, a basement playroom and its not for me but a home theater room appeals to most. I also have a pet peeve about the over luxurious basement that feels cold and no one spends time in, add some nice carpeting down there to cozy it up!

6. I really like well designed outdoor spaces, I would also consult with a landscape architect to get innovative ideas. For me, french doors out of kitchen to outdoor eating area would be practically mandatory in a new build!

HTH and enjoy the house design process!

[squimp]

Our current house was built with a ton of thought and planning, I think they anticipated so many things that we love.

Walk in pantry with plenty of storage for appliances. Good lighting.
Kitchen island with granite
Kitchen that opens out onto outdoor dining space.
Built in gas line for the grill, under cover, next to kitchen.
Big covered areas on porch. We use this all the time.
Attic space over the garage.
Bookcase lined library off the office with a built in window seat
Office/craft room/homework station with tons of built in shelving and desks and outlets.
Huge mud room with laundry and room for freezer
Lights, lots of lights. Recessed lights and pendants in the kitchen.
Gas stove, gas fireplace.
Master on the main
Outlets on the ceiling in the porches for christmas lights
Fan in the laundry for the really stinky loads

Seriously though, the placement of lights is a huge deal. They are so thoughtfully placed in our house, and we have separate switches for all the chrismas light outlets so we can just turn them off at night, rather than having to go out and unplug them.

One thing I do wish we had was a whole-house generator. And solar panels.

[arivecchi]

wood burning fireplaces - so much nicer than gas ones!
patio fireplace or firepit
sprinklers
power generator
sunroom with terrace above so upstairs rooms have access to terrace
smart alarm/home control system
doggy doors
garage closet for sports gear
radiant heating in driveway so you don't have to shovel snow

[smilequeen]

Smiles, but your existing house is so lovely I can't help crying!! Are you moving or just looking for something different in a house? Also is the new house modern or sort of period replica--that would affect the direction I would go in. Here are some thoughts:


Oh thanks :) We really love our current house, but the location doesn't work well for us anymore. It was near DH's office and he mostly travels or works from home now, so we want a closer in location...closer to school, more centralized since their sports are all over the area, closer to downtown since we split season tickets for baseball and hockey. My life will always involve lots of driving, but it's too much right now. We were downtown 3 times this weekend and each time we passed the new location and still had 25 minutes left to get home...

The house is going to be french country style. We found an awesome lot in a quiet neighborhood, 3 completely usable acres. So with 3 busy sports loving boys, it should be awesome. We have plans for a pool, sport court, zip line, maybe a treehouse instead of swingset. We'll have big mature trees instead of the new baby ones at our current house.

I'm going to miss my big pond and the rolling hills way out where we are now though.

[sste]

Enough said, I totally understand! I loathe driving and there is a wealth of evidence that driving/commuting has a serious effect on quality of life for most people -- there are some that don't mind that much but most of us do. And with your kids getting bigger you will want increasingly to take advantage of your downtown.

Three acres sounds great. I would def. work with architect to take advantage of views, mature trees, etc. I like the idea of multiple outdoor spaces - - maybe a screened porch or sunroom to the side and a deck or patio off the kitchen area. As a variant on tree house, you could see if the architect could design a custom fort or find someone that does. I think forts can be a bit more extensive than tree houses and also provide for more safety features -- I looked into this once as we almost bought a house with a tree house and there are quite a few accidents from "true" treehouses.

If you are going to have a pool with growing kids I might consider a slimmer rectangular lap lane structure -- maybe with some period detailing or landscaping. For adults and older kids having the option to swim laps is nice.

[AJP]

Ditto to a lot of the above.
My needs that could be dealbreakers are:
LARGE (like huge)
-Walk in pantry
-Mudroom
-Main level laundry.
If my dream house had everything but, I'd keep looking.
I dream of having a laundry room where I can sort, fold, hang, iron and stain treat while being near the hub of our home. I really need one large pantry for overflow, and the mudroom needs to be on the main level with tons of storage, storage for vacuum, brooms etc, and a door to the back yard for doggy. Oh, room for a dog crate too!

[Mommy_Mea]

I love so many ideas in this thread!

A few things I would love in a house:

- An outlet in my vanity so I can store the base for my electric toothbrush in there
- A kitchen that has good view to the rest of the house, but can be closed off when we have guests or when it is a disaster and I want to be able to ignore it :)
- Oriented on the lot to allow for the best light possible, especially passive solar
- Great indoor/outdoor connection to the kitchen

[Pyrodjm]

Huge soaking tub and a family closet

[essnce629]

I'd love a big laundry room with a table in the middle (like an island) for folding and a flatscreen tv on the wall so I can catch up on my shows while folding without having to lug laundry baskets all over the place!

Like this (tv can go over W&D) :)
http://twoinspiredesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/laundry-room-I1.jpg


Oh, and I'd really like a folding glass wall that leads from the living room to the backyard that opens everything up. Really popular in all the new cape cod style houses being built in my neighborhood right now. Great in the summer!
http://img.archiexpo.com/images_ae/photo-g/aluminum-folding-patio-doors-61648-1869633.jpg

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/51861833180856401/

[elliput]

Oh, and I'd really like a folding glass wall that leads from the living room to the backyard that opens everything up. Really popular in all the new cape cod style houses being built in my neighborhood right now. Great in the summer!
http://img.archiexpo.com/images_ae/photo-g/aluminum-folding-patio-doors-61648-1869633.jpg

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/51861833180856401/
That is really neat. Probably would not work very well in locations with cold winters though.

[mikala]

That is really neat. Probably would not work very well in locations with cold winters though.

Or locations with mosquitoes :-p this is one of those things I drool over in design magazines and then realize we can barely eat on our deck part of the summer much less invite the bugs in for a snack.

[smilequeen]

I'd love a big laundry room with a table in the middle (like an island) for folding and a flatscreen tv on the wall so I can catch up on my shows while folding without having to lug laundry baskets all over the place!

Like this (tv can go over W&D) :)
http://twoinspiredesign.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/laundry-room-I1.jpg


Oh, and I'd really like a folding glass wall that leads from the living room to the backyard that opens everything up. Really popular in all the new cape cod style houses being built in my neighborhood right now. Great in the summer!
http://img.archiexpo.com/images_ae/photo-g/aluminum-folding-patio-doors-61648-1869633.jpg

http://www.pinterest.com/pin/51861833180856401/

It's funny, we have this bookmarked to ask the architect about

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/19526880/list/An-Indoor-Outdoor-Serving-Bar-Opens-the-Possibilities

I am curious about how feasible this since we have 4 very distinct seasons.

We have mosquitos here, but we usually treat our yard for them (because we have to treat our yard for ticks and the treatment gets rid of both).

[Indianamom2]

My list is fairly simple:

More outlets than you could ever possibly need
Overhead recessed lighting in all rooms
A place for feeding animals that is NOT in the kitchen (ditto for supplies/litter pan)
An awesome laundry/mudroom with TONS of storage. Maybe something like this:

http://www.houzz.com/mudroom/p/40

or this:
http://www.houzz.com/mudroom/p/72

I'd like the mudroom/laundry combo to have a door that can be shut to the rest of the house, and preferably the shelves could be hidden behind cabinet doors so that it didn't have to be neat and tidy.

Oohh...this is nice too:

http://www.houzz.com/mudroom/p/72

[essnce629]

That is really neat. Probably would not work very well in locations with cold winters though.


Or locations with mosquitoes :-p this is one of those things I drool over in design magazines and then realize we can barely eat on our deck part of the summer much less invite the bugs in for a snack.

Yeah, not sure how it would work with snow and icy winters! No snow or mosquitoes out here in the valley!