New House Build (What I would do different after a year of living in it)

[bigtiller]

I was telling a buddy that my dream 'house' would be a huge shop with a single wide house trailer behind it. He said why not built it big enough to put the trailer inside? Probably not practical but would sure make for a quiet place with no leaking roof.

My neighbor had a 1.5 car garage and wanted more space for working on projects.
He built a 50x70~ tin shed around and over his garage.
With the garage inside the shed, he didn't need to "move in".

 

[Mike1955]

We built this one in 2014. Our second. I did not put enough plug ins or water outlets on the outside.

 

[EddieWalker]

I'm working on a long term remodel of my house where I'm making the back of the house, the front of the house. The current kitchen is OK, but it's in the wrong place. I'm also converting my attached workshop/garage into a Great Room. We want the kitchen to be part of the Great Room so everyone can see everything regardless of what they are doing.

This is the plan that my wife and I have come up with for the kitchen. It will be open along one wall to connect to the Great Room. We want 2 refrigerators. We thought about a commercial fridge, but don't want to pay for it when two fridges will give us more options. Neither fridge will have a water dispenser. They take up too much room. Our current fridge is a LG that we really like, so we'll get another one, and have them next to each other. https://www.lowes.com/pd/LG-25-5-cu...tproof-Stainless-Steel-ENERGY-STAR/1002543648

We also want to have 2 dishwashers. We have 6 dogs, and they are fed twice a day. Some of them get two bowls of food, so it's normal to wash 18 dog bowls a day. My wife is a little crazy, so she washes the bowls after each feeding. It's so bad that we'll have dishes in the sink because the dog bowls need to be cleaned first!!!!

She wants a gas stove with six burners, so we're going to get one that's 36 inches wide. I'm not 100% happy with it's location in the corner, but it will have counter space on both sides, so it's a doable compromise. The sink will be as big as we can get one. She's just recently decided that she wants a stainless steel farm sink. Counters will be granite.

There is 7 feet of open space between the cabinets. Not enough room for an island, so we are going to get a 5 foot long stainless steel table on wheels and keep it in the Pantry most of the time. Then wheel it out when we need it. She likes to can and we're going to start grinding meat for dog food, sausages and ground for ourselves. That will all be done on the stainless steel table.

Floors will be tile. Walls are sheetrock and ceiling will be tongue and groove with exposed beams and as much height as I can get out of it and still have good insulation.

There will be plenty of outlets, and lighting. Otherwise, it's a pretty basic design.

I'm currently building an attached three car garage so we can get everything out of the shop. Once that happens, I'll be able to start working on the Great Room, and the new Kitchen.

 

[Torvy]

One common water wall with kitchen, baths and utility/laundry all located close to each other. NO plumbing to other areas.

We are doing this in the shop. Our original plan was to have an apartment on one end and live there while they finished the house. We are still putting in the stubs for toilet, shower bath sink and kitchen sink.

 

[dodge man]

One thing, and this is hard to describe, is know what you are doing. It’s very easy to come up with a plan that you think is great but an architect or home builder knows is terrible. Unless you know what you are doing trust a professionals judgement.

 

[tom3]

See many houses in my area (Applachia) that started out one room on corner stones. Have a kid, get some money saved, add a room, dig a basement. More kids, better jobs and add a second story. Way before any permits and regulations. Real interesting to go down in the basement and look how it all started and grew. See where the old coal furnace was with the big bonnet and 12 inch ducts to the rooms. And original electric with four fuses for the lights and radio, cloth covered wires. (got way off topic, sorry)

 

[ponytug]

I'm working on a long term remodel of my house where I'm making the back of the house, the front of the house. The current kitchen is OK, but it's in the wrong place. I'm also converting my attached workshop/garage into a Great Room. We want the kitchen to be part of the Great Room so everyone can see everything regardless of what they are doing.

This is the plan that my wife and I have come up with for the kitchen. It will be open along one wall to connect to the Great Room. We want 2 refrigerators. We thought about a commercial fridge, but don't want to pay for it when two fridges will give us more options. Neither fridge will have a water dispenser. They take up too much room. Our current fridge is a LG that we really like, so we'll get another one, and have them next to each other. https://www.lowes.com/pd/LG-25-5-cu...tproof-Stainless-Steel-ENERGY-STAR/1002543648

We also want to have 2 dishwashers. We have 6 dogs, and they are fed twice a day. Some of them get two bowls of food, so it's normal to wash 18 dog bowls a day. My wife is a little crazy, so she washes the bowls after each feeding. It's so bad that we'll have dishes in the sink because the dog bowls need to be cleaned first!!!!

She wants a gas stove with six burners, so we're going to get one that's 36 inches wide. I'm not 100% happy with it's location in the corner, but it will have counter space on both sides, so it's a doable compromise. The sink will be as big as we can get one. She's just recently decided that she wants a stainless steel farm sink. Counters will be granite.

There is 7 feet of open space between the cabinets. Not enough room for an island, so we are going to get a 5 foot long stainless steel table on wheels and keep it in the Pantry most of the time. Then wheel it out when we need it. She likes to can and we're going to start grinding meat for dog food, sausages and ground for ourselves. That will all be done on the stainless steel table.

Floors will be tile. Walls are sheetrock and ceiling will be tongue and groove with exposed beams and as much height as I can get out of it and still have good insulation.

There will be plenty of outlets, and lighting. Otherwise, it's a pretty basic design.

I'm currently building an attached three car garage so we can get everything out of the shop. Once that happens, I'll be able to start working on the Great Room, and the new Kitchen.

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View attachment 759039

Sounds great. For the dog bowls, you might look at a bar dishwasher, if it is big enough; they only have one level. Very rapid cycle times, with sanitizing rinses make them great for food service uses, like cleaning meat utensils, and, say, dog bowls. It doesn't dry, but you just pull the rack out and toss a new rack in.

I worked one place where there was an eccentric guy who had two dishwashers; both with magnetic labels that flipped from "Clean" to "Dirty". He never unloaded the dishwashers. He used them to store the dishes, grabbed clean ones from the "clean" dishwasher and put the used ones in the "dirty" one until it was full and the cycle repeated. It seemed very sensible to me, but the consensus view on him was that he was brilliant but a few cards shy of a full deck.

If it were me, I would move the stove out of the corner. I have never been in a kitchen with a stove in the corner that I found that I liked, as it is so cramped to have the counter right at the edge of the stove. You don't have much room to maneuver, and the cabinets get in the way. You also lose all the under cabinet space in the corner where you can normally put a lazy-susan, or pull out storage, though it isn't a bad place for an electric hot water booster tank. Our current house was built by the prior owner, who originally put their stove in the corner (adjacent to the sink!), and then sometime later moved it ten feet down the counter away from the corner and sink. Two stove vent ducts through the roof, and two gas outlets. (The old gas line wasn't even capped! Shutting a drawer could have opened the valve. Sheesh.)

One advantage of commercial stoves is much higher BTU ratings, if that is of interest. The downsides are cost, that the hoods have to be larger and venting has to be more powerful.

All the best,

Peter

 

[Torvy]

Our current stove top is on the island. I like it there because I can cook dinner and still be part of the conversation when kids are home. The new house will have the same thing but bump the height up 6". I am 6'1" and my back hates counter height.

Another feature we had customized is the top of the cabinet under the stove has a real drawer rather than a false one. Fits griddles and skillets just right. Had to notch one corner to work around the lines, but only lost about 4 Sq inches rather than a whole 36" wide drawer. New place gets a similar setup, but 30" cooktop since kids are grown.

 

[ultrarunner]

What will the finish height be above the floor with the 6” height?

Looked at a home that was the opposite… the wife is 4’9” and the husband 5’2” and the entire kitchen was custom and all lowered and she was a gourmet cook.

Everyone viewing said new kitchen needed but the existing was a thing of beauty!

 

[oosik]

This is our second house here in Ea WA.

We choose a design with a LARGE kitchen and centrally located island. The stove/oven is in the island. A microwave is tucked in to the end of the island. This design gives us more than twice the counter space from what we had in our first house.

This house is orientated to take advantage of the weather. The SW side of the house has no windows. The blazing hot summer sun beats down on this closed side. We open big windows on opposite ends of the house and big fans draw in the cool night air. This is our air conditioning system and it works great. The house remains cool all day.

Our first house was in Anchorage, AK. It was a split level. Not so very great for retirement.

Otherwise - this design has been just fine for retirement.