Building a New House - What Do you Think are Important to Pu

Carefully screen your contractor. Talk to other people who have worked with him to be sure they got along well and there were no issues. I had a great building experience with my house. Most people I know who did not were ones who had issues with their contractor.

As for the house itself, so much depends on what you want, what is standard for your area, and whether you are looking at resale in the next few years. In my area having a basement and a fireplace are essential. Personally, I would not build another house with a 2nd floor due to so much stair climbing.

Spend a lot of time on the arrangement of your kitchen, location of your bathroom and laundry room. These are the hardest things to change later on.

The one thing I'd do that applies to everyone is to have some kind of mud room or at least a good place to put stuff when you come in from the garage that is not in the kitchen.

Pocket doors

Pull-out shelves in kitchen cabinets for pots/pans/lids,storage containers, mixing bowls, etc.

Outlets with USB ports (we changed out a bunch of ours three years ago and it's probably the best small-ish home improvement we've ever done)

No wall-to-wall carpeting

Our next house will not have a fireplace (climate won't require it, and we never use the one we have now in a climate that does require it!)

The next house will also be one-story with wide doorways and halls and no floor impediments (uneven-ess like tiles, door thresholds, etc.).  Floors will be poured concrete throughout.  (Gorgeous pics on Pinterest.)  We are planning the house we will live in when our mobility becomes an issue.

ETA  Haunt Pinterest!

A lot of well thought out built-in storage. With "well thought out" being the important part.
For instance, my parents live in a house where the linen closet is at the opposite end of a long hallway from the main bathroom. What the heck is that about?

In their previous house the main bath had a linen closet right inside the bathroom, and then another one near the bedrooms for bed linens. That made so much more sense.

A foyer/entry with enough space to actually greet guests. Again, my parents old home had a welcoming room that guests entered first. There was plenty of space for a group of people to enter, hug, jostle packages, etc. Their current home opens right into the living room, and the flow of the room makes it a very hard place to have all of that traffic.

And my family currently lives in a split entry home. So if we get too many people crowded into our entry, someone could literally fall down the stairs.


And for me, if I were to build a home, I would do whatever possible to have a level driveway. I live in a mountainous region and all of my life (that I can remember) I have lived somewhere with a hilly driveway. When I was little, I worried about falling on my way down the driveway to school, and as an adult I worry about making it up & down the driveway in the winter. I'll sell my soul for a level driveway at this point.

For me one extra bedroom, pantry on the larger size with lighting and plugs. Larger master bathroom with a vanity a tone of outlets . on one level.

Look at your garage size. So many home plans have an average garage size that is 22' x 20' or 24' x 22'. If you happen to drive a large truck you won't park in your garage unless you add on feet

We visited a million and one show homes in the span of a year so we could get ideas, and figure out what we liked and didn't like. It also helped us decide on a builder. What I wish I had known first was to pick the area we want to live in first, then Pick the builder.

What I love about our house:
-walk through pantry
- upstairs laundry
-a master closest that is attached to the laundry room
-solar tubes(kind of like sky lights) in the kids bathroom upstairs and the bonus room. The really help bring light into a room without having to put in more window
-instead of a small squishy bathroom on the main floor we made it into a walk through bathroom by using the hallway as part of the bathroom. I have floor plans I could send you.
-love the sort close drawers.
-under cabinet lighting

I wish I had:
-put more then 2 outlets in our unfinished basement. Between gym equipment and the Xbox,we are out of outlets.
-way more outlets in the garage
-Xmas light outlets
-some type of deep sink in the garage

We had a lot of fun, our builder was great! Had a couple of issues when we first moved in but the fixed them right a way.

USB Outlet on Amazon


We also put in a couple of these:

4-port USB Outlet on Amazon

There have been several threads on this subject, you might do a search to see some of those ideas.

We did a major remodel (to the studs) to most of our house 4 years ago, and will be finishing off the job starting in January. Here are some of the changes we made that have been the most useful.

* All drawers on the lower cabinets in the kitchen. Increased the storage capacity and made everything easily accessible.
* Take your upper cabinets to the ceiling if possible. Those upper shelves are perfect for seasonal storage and seldom used items. Makes the room see taller and eliminates the need to clean tops of cabinets.
* Under cabinet lighting - go with led strip lights and have the installed at the front of your under cabinet. This puts the light on the work space and not wasted illuminating the backsplash.

*Pocket doors - ours are original to the house (1958) so we just changed them out to new, solid wood doors. That one feature really improves the flow of a room and increases usable wall space.


Depending on your age, design with an eye to aging in place, especially the bathroom. There are some great articles out there on things to consider for this.
*Wider hallways if possible.
*Doors wide enough to accommodate wheelchair/walker.

Some of the things we are doing with our bath in January:
*Zero entry showers
*Forego built in shower benches and use portable teak bench instead.
*Higher toilets
*Low wattage lights under the cabinet toe kick for night time safety.

If you live where your attic space will be usable storage, have them floor that space before everything is sealed up. Around here, I am starting see people climate control parts of their attics as well. Our attic space doesn't lend itself to that or I would do it in a heartbeat!

If you or your hubby or other adult household members are tall, adjust the height of kitchen and bathroom counters.

Completely agree with this. We have a very small house, so careful planning for storage is key. When we remodeled the kitchen last year, my DH drew a plot for every piece of kitchenware and where it would be housed. I thought he was getting a little too persnickety, but it was totally the right thing to do. We selected drawers with the right width and depth for our needs, so everything is now stored as efficiently as possible.

I would not have an outlet inside a bathroom cabinet. we put two outlets on either side of the sink..and some counter space by sink (small bathroom).

We're not at the point of building yet - and may never be but I have a wish list...some is based specifically off what I don't like about our current house, others are based on my experience with MIL in a wheelchair, my own experience on crutches, and the reality that a knee replacement and/or more mobility challenges are almost certainly in my future.

-baseboards and wide windowsills
-easy clean windows that can be cleaned from the inside
-wider doorways (wheelchair accessible - ours are just wide enough but wider would be better/easier)
-walk-in/roll-in shower with a shower head that adjusts to be used by hand/lower/higher and handrails/bars
-bathrooms big enough to use a wheelchair in and hand bars by the loo
-single storey with at least one entrance that doesn't require steps
-space for cat boxes
-a counter in the utility room for folding laundry - and a cabinet for brooms/cleaning supplies etc...
-lightswitches that will turn on lights as you ENTER the house and also where I can turn them OFF as I head to bed...without walking in the dark
-a pantry
-space for a freezer
-drawers in the kitchen - enough for all the stuff I want to store in drawers - my current kitchen has two small drawers - not enough by far
-pull out shelves and/or drawers for lower cabinets
-french doors (or maybe pocket doors) to divide up common areas into dining room/living toom/family room - so I can close them on a day to day basis but open up for entertaining
-outlets outside - on all sides of the house and under the eaves (with a dedicated light switch) for Christmas lights
-hose bibs on all sides of the house
-USB outlets
-extra outlets in general
-easy care floors - no carpets, no uneven spots
-bathroom and kitchen sinks with space underneath for a wheelchair to roll up
-at least one counter in the kitchen that is wheelchair accessible
-storage....two master closets, linen closet for all bathrooms, broom/hoover closet, coat closet, a big closet for storing stuff inside (holiday decor etc... - houses in my area don't usually have basements or attics - this could be attached to the garage)
-garage large enough to park cars PLUS have space for lawnmowers and other outdoor stuff

Also think about furniture placement...you don't want rooms where every wall is broken up with windows/doors/closets and there isn't a good spot for the bed or the couch or the TV etc...

Most of what I would recommend has already been said.

An important feature is to make sure you have a 'man door' on your garage. We do, but many of our neighbors do not.

And a fireplace is a must have for me.