House Design
- Thread starter wct097
- Start date
thup2
No more shoveling!!!!!!!
Been re-thinking the appropriate size of a house I want. The more I think about it, the smaller house I actually want. Cleaning, utilities, maintenance and overall cost are on my mind. I'd much rather have a smaller but better appointed house than a big house..... especially when I have a good bit of unfinished space in the basement to expand to later. Would like to have enough space to do a private in-law suite should the need arise.
Latest list:
Ideas:
* 1.5 story w/ partially finished walk-out basement. At minimum, I'd like a bonus room over the garage.
* Minimum 2000sq ft finished. 3000sq ft max. Dropped this a bit... I'd like the main floor to be a max of 1700sq ft and I want a finished office/study/gun room isolated in a corner of the basement without windows. Main goal is security for the guns. Secondary goal is good air flow and cooling and no distractions when working. Extra credit if I can soundproof it and have enough room to use it as a man cave too.
* Must have large front porch (
)
* Deck or patio in the back of house
* Main level master bedroom
* 3 car attached garage (ideally, but I could live with 2-car if I get the shop too)
* Detached shop (2 bay, 2 vehicles deep, tall enough for lift)
* 3br 2.5ba (minimum) 4br 3.5ba (maximum) bedrooms don't include the basement office/study/gun room.
* "Bonus" room over garage, but no bedrooms above the garage
* Buried LP tank
* Gas fired heat, water heaters (multiple tankless?), cook top, logs, standby generator, dryer, oven (maybe)
* Wood stoves in basement & detached shop
* Electric service designed around automatic failover for standby generator
* Electric service panels properly laid out and labeled (not like the mess at the compound)
* Electric sub-panels in garage and shop with space for additional circuits as needed
* No heat pumps unless it's geothermal. This is up for some debate as I'd like to investigate the efficiency of a heat pump in addition to gas heat for times when heating needs aren't as great (fall/spring).
* Heat & AC systems that are compatible with Nest thermostats and properly arranged to make it possible to condition the air in a portion of the house differently than the rest. (The Compound has the worst layout possible as I have to heat/cool 1500sq ft of unused space to condition the air for the few rooms we use)
* Equipment room / closet for home office computer stuff (small rack, etc)
* Cat 5 pulled to multiple locations in each room and terminated in equipment room / closet (including ceiling and exterior mounting points for Wifi equipment & security cameras)
* LED lighting everywhere possible. No florescent lighting.
* Hardwood & tile. No carpet, no vinyl flooring.
* Brick or stone exterior.
* Acreage appropriate for back yard shooting range
* Would like to explore the idea of a hardened vault / gun room in the basement. Cinder block filled with rebar and concrete (or poured with the foundation) with a stout door would be nice. Not talking about bank vault security, but something that would take your average thief a while to get through. Not willing to devote a ton of money towards this though as it's going to be very utilitarian. Work bench, tool box, shelves, and a gun safe or two inside. Extra credit if it's done in a way that I could conceal it after the fact by "finishing" the basement and hiding the door with a false wall.
* Geothermal heating/cooling if possible.... not optimistic that we can afford it.
* Main floor laundry
* Audio wiring for home theater
* Residential fire sprinklers
* Integrated security system.... not a bolt on after-thought like ADT.
* Butler's pantry (as opposed to a simple mud room) and possibly garage access from the master bedroom. This really is key for me as I think a lot about the normal flow in and out of the house. In my experience, I typically come in the garage and drop my shit on the kitchen island. As a result the kitchen island is always full of junk. I like the idea of a butler's pantry both for entertaining/cooking/prepping and as a landing zone for junk as you come into the house. Figure on a small refrigerator here as well.
Latest list:
Ideas:
* 1.5 story w/ partially finished walk-out basement. At minimum, I'd like a bonus room over the garage.
* Minimum 2000sq ft finished. 3000sq ft max. Dropped this a bit... I'd like the main floor to be a max of 1700sq ft and I want a finished office/study/gun room isolated in a corner of the basement without windows. Main goal is security for the guns. Secondary goal is good air flow and cooling and no distractions when working. Extra credit if I can soundproof it and have enough room to use it as a man cave too.
* Must have large front porch (
)* Deck or patio in the back of house
* Main level master bedroom
* 3 car attached garage (ideally, but I could live with 2-car if I get the shop too)
* Detached shop (2 bay, 2 vehicles deep, tall enough for lift)
* 3br 2.5ba (minimum) 4br 3.5ba (maximum) bedrooms don't include the basement office/study/gun room.
* "Bonus" room over garage, but no bedrooms above the garage
* Buried LP tank
* Gas fired heat, water heaters (multiple tankless?), cook top, logs, standby generator, dryer, oven (maybe)
* Wood stoves in basement & detached shop
* Electric service designed around automatic failover for standby generator
* Electric service panels properly laid out and labeled (not like the mess at the compound)
* Electric sub-panels in garage and shop with space for additional circuits as needed
* No heat pumps unless it's geothermal. This is up for some debate as I'd like to investigate the efficiency of a heat pump in addition to gas heat for times when heating needs aren't as great (fall/spring).
* Heat & AC systems that are compatible with Nest thermostats and properly arranged to make it possible to condition the air in a portion of the house differently than the rest. (The Compound has the worst layout possible as I have to heat/cool 1500sq ft of unused space to condition the air for the few rooms we use)
* Equipment room / closet for home office computer stuff (small rack, etc)
* Cat 5 pulled to multiple locations in each room and terminated in equipment room / closet (including ceiling and exterior mounting points for Wifi equipment & security cameras)
* LED lighting everywhere possible. No florescent lighting.
* Hardwood & tile. No carpet, no vinyl flooring.
* Brick or stone exterior.
* Acreage appropriate for back yard shooting range
* Would like to explore the idea of a hardened vault / gun room in the basement. Cinder block filled with rebar and concrete (or poured with the foundation) with a stout door would be nice. Not talking about bank vault security, but something that would take your average thief a while to get through. Not willing to devote a ton of money towards this though as it's going to be very utilitarian. Work bench, tool box, shelves, and a gun safe or two inside. Extra credit if it's done in a way that I could conceal it after the fact by "finishing" the basement and hiding the door with a false wall.
* Geothermal heating/cooling if possible.... not optimistic that we can afford it.
* Main floor laundry
* Audio wiring for home theater
* Residential fire sprinklers
* Integrated security system.... not a bolt on after-thought like ADT.
* Butler's pantry (as opposed to a simple mud room) and possibly garage access from the master bedroom. This really is key for me as I think a lot about the normal flow in and out of the house. In my experience, I typically come in the garage and drop my shit on the kitchen island. As a result the kitchen island is always full of junk. I like the idea of a butler's pantry both for entertaining/cooking/prepping and as a landing zone for junk as you come into the house. Figure on a small refrigerator here as well.
I wish I thought I could be my own GC.
Planning to have the Compound ready to put on the market by April 30, 2015. If that looks like it'll happen, we'll start shopping for builders around Feb-Mar 2015. Still not sure about land. I'm starting to think we won't find land in the area we'd like to be in, so we'll probably have to start considering moving further out or picking one of the less desirable counties in the area.
Planning to have the Compound ready to put on the market by April 30, 2015. If that looks like it'll happen, we'll start shopping for builders around Feb-Mar 2015. Still not sure about land. I'm starting to think we won't find land in the area we'd like to be in, so we'll probably have to start considering moving further out or picking one of the less desirable counties in the area.
Huh? What timeframe did I cite?
Still don't see where I cited an expected timeline for anything other than putting the Compound on the market.
Where we'd live? Several options. The townhouse, possibly. Maybe a rental. Probably with my mom. Have to sell the Compound before we can finalize house plans. How much we get for the Compound will dictate a number of things in terms of building.
I honestly have no clue what to expect in terms of time to get this dump sold. If I can get close to my asking price in 1-2 weeks, I'll be doing cartwheels in the front yard. I think, more realistically, we're looking at 6-9 months. Several houses on our street that are nicer (IMO) have been on the market for a while, priced at $100-$132/sq-ft. I'd like to price ours around $95/sq-ft and would be extremely happy to get $90/sq-ft.
So yeah, my ideal timeframe would be to list in April, sell in July, break ground in August, move in by February. Knowing my luck it'll sell in October and we won't be able to break ground until April.
I honestly have no clue what to expect in terms of time to get this dump sold. If I can get close to my asking price in 1-2 weeks, I'll be doing cartwheels in the front yard. I think, more realistically, we're looking at 6-9 months. Several houses on our street that are nicer (IMO) have been on the market for a while, priced at $100-$132/sq-ft. I'd like to price ours around $95/sq-ft and would be extremely happy to get $90/sq-ft.
So yeah, my ideal timeframe would be to list in April, sell in July, break ground in August, move in by February. Knowing my luck it'll sell in October and we won't be able to break ground until April.