At Home In The Woods

[jayste]

Might consider built in extras like safesfor valuables or gun safes. I know one fellow that built a very nice built-in book case by his front door. It pulls out to get to his gun safe. Looking at the book case you would never guess it. I once had a house that had about a 1 1/2' x 1 1/2' dead space in the middle of the home off of a closet. Would have made a great place for a safe. Of course, I guess these are things you won't be telling us about but you might keep in mind.

Jay

 

[CurlyDave]

For vacuum cleaner use, I have an outlet near the door in each room at waist height. Much better than bending over to plug it in.

If you have an office at home plan now where the desk(s) go and put outlets where they are accessible. Do not put hot air outlets under desks.

I put a return air vent in each room. Otherwise a room will be cold if you close the door.

 

[dave1949]

Lots of great things listed.

To water, I will add put in an underground water line or two when your well is being hooked up. Future garden area(s) or animal sheds are two that come to mind. In your climate, yard hydrants should be very workable and will greatly reduce your garden hose 'games'. A shutoff valve for these in or near the house would be a good thing.

To blocking, I will add go around all your bathroom walls and decide where towel rods, TP holder, medicine cabinet, mirrors, etc will be be, then put in 2x4 blocking between studs for solid mounting. Try to think of any other heavy items like pot rocks, curtain rods, etc. and put in blocking for those too. Shower/bath doors are another item that you need to provide good blocking for. All so easy before the drywall.
Dave.

 

[Obed]

Everyone,
Thanks for all the ideas. You've already given me a lot to think about. Keep 'em coming!

This morning I called the truss guy and asked him if the gable end wall in the basement is load-bearing. He said yes; it is carrying the weight of the wall above it and the gable. It is also carrying the weight of 2 floors (main floor and 2nd floor/walk-in attic). The gable end wall does not carry as much load as the walls perpedicular to it and floor trusses but it still carries load. The framer is going to install headers in the gable end entry door and window.

I've attached the latest pictures.

Obed

 

[Ranger Rick]

When we built our house, in the rooms that might have ceiling fans in the future we had fan rated ceiling electrical boxes installed that would support a ceiling fan. We also had it wired so that there would be a separate wall switch for the fan and the light. It makes it so that you do not need to grope for the hanging chain or find the remote if you only want the light and not the fan.

Also someone suggested florescent lighting in the garage, make sure you get the kind that have an electronic ballast that is rated for cold. I have them in my workshop they work great even in the winter.

 

[Diamondpilot]

Pete, thanks for your posting. You provided some great ideas and we may use some of them. It's nice to think about these things now than after it's too late.

Everybody, I'd love to hear some of the "extras" that you did to give us some ideas. Things like running the gas line to the back porch grill just make sense but I would never have thought of that on my own.

Obed

Not that you need it but my house is on a crawl space and I had them put a extra row of block plus 4 light and 4 outlets down there. Man, that extra row of blocks makes getting down there much easier and having the outlets and lights is sure handy.

I also had my house wired for a generator. I have a 200 amp transfer switch between the meter and the panel with a 50 amp twist lock plug. Now when the power goes out just roll out the genny, fire it up, throw the transfer switch, and she is back on line. I lost my power for 8 days and 3 days plus many 1 day outages and worth every penny.

I also had a 60 amp 220 volt circuit ran out under the deck with 50' of wire coiled up. Made putting in the hot tub 10 years latter a easy job.

Last thing I did was ran compressed air to the garage, 1st floor utility room, and 2nd floor pantry. My compressor is in the barn 100' from the house and the barn and house are both plumed to this compressor. Makes projects simple by allowing me to bring in a 50' hose and my finish nailer or even airing up car tires or child's toys in the garage.

I also put outlets every 4'. Cheap to do and prevents you from using extension cords.

Chris

 

[dcyrilc]

Eddie, I figured someone would comment about the headers. The framer told me that that gable end wall is an external non-bearing wall. The load is on the walls that are perpendicular to the gable end wall. I looked up the code. IRC 2003 says that window and door openings less than 8 feet wide in external non-bearing walls do not need headers.

I guess the question is, is that wall a load bearing wall? The 24" floor truss will sit on top of that wall and will be supported on both ends by the load bearing walls that are perpendicular to the floor truss. Obviously, the perpendicular walls on each end of the trusses will support the truss. Due to the length of the trusses, we are required to have a load bearing wall that supports the middle of the trusses. So, which wall supports the truss in the middle? If the middle perpendicular wall supports the truss, then it sounds like the gable end wall would be non-bearing.

Yes, I would prefer headers over that window and door regardless. But now that it's done, will I actually see a problem in the future from having no headers? Or is this not a big issue and I would be better off fighting a future issue that really makes a difference? Sometimes if you give in on one point, the other person will be more willing to flex on another point. However, if you never give in on anything, the other person may fight you every step of the way.

You asked why he didn't just add the headers anyway? I think the answer to that question is obvious. If he thinks the headers aren't necessary, then why spend the extra time and material to add them?

Obed

Personally, I prefer double 2x's over and under the windows when there is no header, and under when there is, so that there is more material for trimming and siding around the windows. It's code here.

 

[charlz]

To blocking, I will add go around all your bathroom walls and decide where towel rods, TP holder, medicine cabinet, mirrors, etc will be be, then put in 2x4 blocking between studs for solid mounting. Try to think of any other heavy items like pot rocks, curtain rods, etc. and put in blocking for those too. Shower/bath doors are another item that you need to provide good blocking for. All so easy before the drywall.

That's a good one. In fact, since you went to the extent of wide doors for potential wheelchair access etc. I would go with reinforcing the bathroom walls for grab rails etc. To do this the walls are covered in 3/4 plywood under the sheetrock to provide support.

 

[dave1949]

That's a good one. In fact, since you went to the extent of wide doors for potential wheelchair access etc. I would go with reinforcing the bathroom walls for grab rails etc. To do this the walls are covered in 3/4 plywood under the sheetrock to provide support.

Never thought of that Charlz, can't think of any reason that would be a bad idea. Also, the double layer of wall material might cut sound transmission considerably. Someone earlier mentioned sound deadening in the walls. I have used fiberglass batting for that on most of my interior walls. It does a fairly good job.
Dave.

 

[eepete]

Fiberglass is OK for sound deadening, that's we we used. High frequency noises go away, but still have low frequency problems. You can use a 2x6 for the top and bottom plate, and then use 2x4's for the studs where one set is for one side of the wall, and another set for the opposite side ("Interdigitated 2x4 wall"). Now the sound can't directly be transmitted between rooms via the shared studs of a traditional wall. We did this on a bedroom wall to the bathroom, and on a bedroom wall to the outside. They also make sheetrock with metal in the middle, we did that on the same room. The sheetrock guys hate it, and rightfully so. But when we combined the stagger stud wall, fiberglass, and the sheetrock that one room was real quite.
BTW, we call this room the "snoratorium" and it's used in the unlikely event that snoring should occur. Back in my grandfathers day, it was sometimes called a sick room- a place a spouse would use if they were sick so that the healthy spouse could continue on with life. At other stages in life it could be a nursery or where a health care provider stays so you can stay in your house another year or two near the end of it all.

For blocking, just take a day and go around doing it all. Discuss with the in house decorating staff curtain rod specifications on site 1st.

As will all the great ideas posted, interdigitated studs just takes another hour or so to do with the understanding that there are only 12 working hours in a day (but 7 days per week!).
And as with any project (or design) that got finished, what you leave out is more important than what you leave in.

Pete