Starting New House Finally!

[Alan L.]

Thanks for the pics. Mrs. Alan L. came home today with some wood samples (whole doors), both Alder and Ash. The Alder and ash are about the same price and oak a little bit less. I like the alder because I like pine. All of our windows are pine, the trim will be pine, and the ceiling of the kitchen and dining room will be tongue and groove pine. the floor will be medium stained oak. So even though the ash looks good too, we are still leaning pretty much to the alder. Its her call, I can live with any of it.

She found that she could cut it down to our $8500 budget by cutting out some of the special custom options she had them do, but I told her this is her area and she should get exactly what she wants in terms of functionality or regret it every day. So we'll probably go over a couple of thousand.

I am thinking right now about where I want to bring my internet cable into the house, where I will put my wireless router. Right now it is on top of the entertainment center above the TV, but I think I would like it out of the way, but close enough to the living room that I will get a good signal from my recliner. I am considering mounting it on the wall somewhere, maybe in a closet, or maybe up in the loft area. Any ideas here?

 

[Alan L.]

Great news! The balcony concrete was poured today!

The truck came, they dumped the concrete in buckets, placed the buckets in the front end loader of a John Deere tractor, and lifted it up to the balcony. I don't know how long it took, but it looks great, with a brushed finish.

Ended up taking the internet cable to the wall behind the TV. The guy that does our wireless internet said I should put the Cat5e cables all over the house, that wired networks are better than wireless.

I know all of that of course, but there are so dang many wires in the walls for this and that, there is no place for insulation, and the walls are almost covered with boxes, outlets, and switches.

So NO!, no more cables. I'm not using any wired network, all I ever need to connect computers together for is the internet. By the time I decide a wired network is needed, or someone else does, the cables will be obsolete anyway......

I called the A/C guy today and asked him to put a return air in the master bedroom. Called the electrician and added some more outlets and speakers on the back porch.

If we don't hurry up and cover all of this up with sheetrock, I'll think of something else, that I MIGHT need someday. This is running me nuts.

Or, someone will come in and say "Did you prewire for the ??????, you know it will be much easier now than later!" I don't want to put anything else in the walls but insulation.

Looked at appliances and chose mostly Maytag stainless steal. Then Mrs. Alan L. decides she would rather just use white, and after reading some reviews I decide Maytag is not the way to go. She goes and looks at appliances today and now says she wants stainless or black. I hate black appliances, or at least I think I do, and so I guess we are back to stainless. But it looks like the budget is being blown on this, the way it has been blown on other items, like the cabinets.

She also went and picked out a couple of alternatives for stair railings with steel ballisters. Don't know the cost yet.

I will feel alot better when all the costs are in, so that I can see what the damage is.

 

[jinman]

Alan, I actually lean toward black appliances because I like them better than white or finger-printed stainless. I'm told that stainless has been improved to not show finger prints, but why would I want to pay two prices just for stainless? In my opinion, stainless anywhere but the washer and dryer inside baskets does not add any functionality. Even so, the look of stainless is very popular.

Good luck with your decisions. When you build a house, you sure get to make lots of decisions. It can drive you nuts. Then two years down the "road" you will discover something so obvious you will wonder how you ever missed it. It's gonna happen; just do the best you can and be happy with it.

 

[EddieWalker]

Hi Alan,

Nothing more frustrating than trying to figure out what you might need in the future and planning for it. I'm sure you have them covered, but just in case, did you wire for an alarm system? Hard wire alarms are much better and more reliable than the wireless systems. Did you put in speaker wire for your surround sound theater? Outlets for Christmas lights? Outlets for outside entertaining?

Sometimes you can get ideas by just glancing at the home books at Home Depot or Lowes. They are kind of basic, but it's always the simple things that get overlooked.

Who are you buying you appliances from? I used to get some really good deals at an appliance store in Tyler, but when Steph and I went in to buy them for our home, my regular guy no longer worked there and the son of the owner helped us. He wasn't willing to give us any sort of a deal, or even match what Lowes was selling them for.

I went to the Post Office and gave the guy at Lowes the Home Depot 10% relocating discount that they accepted for the appliances. This made Lowes the cheapest for what we wanted.

Steph wanted black and I was totally against it. In my mind, I thought they would look terrible, but this was "her" kitchen and that's what she wanted. I wanted almond myself, but now that we have the black, I really like it.

We looked at stainless, but it's a mess with fingerprints unless you pay extra for the special finish. One thing about stainless is that it's so trendy and popular that I wonder how long it will stay that way. Kind of like avocado green or harvest yellow. Sometimes new trends stick around and become classic, but they also risk becomeing outdated and out of style. Just look at Corian. Is anybody putting it in anymore?

Here's a picture of our kitchen with the black appliances before I finished off the backsplash on the counters.

Eddie

 

[scott_vt]

She goes and looks at appliances today and now says she wants stainless or black. I hate black appliances, or at least I think I do, and so I guess we are back to stainless.

Mornin Alan,
I think we have the same refrig that Eddie and Steph have. It looks like a Kenmore black double door with a textured finish. I dont have any problem with that appliance. Eddie also looks like he has a black stove but it looks like it has the cooktop surface. That may be fine, but we made the mistake of getting a black stove and it is not the cooktop, its just black gloss enamel. It is the worst mistake I ever made !!! I wouldnt get that appl,iance if you paid me ! It constantly needs to be cleaned and never really looks clean ! DONT GET THAT ONE !!!

Good luck with your decision !

 

[mikim]

Our fridge was making a lot of noise so figured we'd need a new one soon -- happened onto a "scratch & dent" french door bottom freezer that I knew the wife was looking at for $680 (less than half price) Couldn't turn it down -- It is black texture on the sides and brushed stainless steel doors. We like it just fine and don't have any issues with finger prints on it. We probably would not have chosen that color , but at that price it was worth a try.

 

[mikim]

The guy that does our wireless internet said I should put the Cat5e cables ...Well -- I'd say he's wrong right from the jump --- Cat 6 is the newest and bestest right now ..... but how long will that last? You may be very OK with wireless -- if it changes you don't have a bunch of wires abandoned in your walls no longer good for anything. You just change out components.----

 

[Alan L.]

The house is not wired for an alarm system, never had one although its a good idea. However it is wired for surround sound and patio speakers, and outlets on the front and back porches.

There are Christmas light outlets in the eves, with switches on the inside. All of the outside lights can be turned on and off from 6 different locations. The electrician uses a special cable called "3-way" to help wire 3-way switches. He says he typically uses less than a roll. In my house, he used almost 3 rolls. I have never seen so much wire in a house. They also very neatly kept the wiring runs together and out of the way, leaving good storage areas in the attic. Ditto on the A/C ductwork, they took special care to push everything to the sides.

We are doing spray in foam in the walls. In the attic storage areas that have OSB on top of the joist for storage, they will spray foam on the bottom of the OSB. We have one 25 by 6 or so part of the "attic" that is being sealed in with foam and is a part of the conditioned. space. I am putting some shelves in there for little used items, but stuff that we don't want to get hot as in the other part of the attic. Also in there is the TV/Satellite junction box where all of the cables for TV go to various locations in the house, plus the rotor cable. The splitters and such will be mounted to the wall in that space and I can work on them without getting so hot in the summer. There are 3 RG6 (quad shielded) to each TV location - one for antenna and two for the satellite (so I can record two channels at once on TIVO).

The bedroom TVs are configured to mounted on the wall like hospital TVs. The living room TV is wired for a plasma to be mounted on the wall (there is a conduit from low on the wall to behind the plasma to hide the wires coming up from the satellite receiver and stuff up to the TV). Right now we are leaning to a DLP rather than Plasma because of the glare factor (and they are cheaper too!), but it should be tall enough to cover up the outlet and stuff designed to be behind the plasma.

I didn't bother looking back at this thread to see if I have written a similar epistle on the TVs already. Yesterday at work I spent about 45 minutes running up and down the office looking for the file with the February deposits I had been working on. One of the guys said "this ain't February", thus explaining why I couldn't find the file.

Tomorrow we are going to an appliance dealer in Dallas that my builder does business with, not a box store.

 

[Alan L.]

By the way on the subject of appliances, I think Lowes has a very misleading and shady practice on their pricing. There is a big sign that shows all these different brands they sell, and they state that if any other store beats their price, they will sell the item for 10% less. Sounds pretty good.

I brought them pricing on the Maytag stuff from the Maytag store and they barely beat the price in every item and were exactly the same on the double oven. The salesman stated that since their price was not more than Maytag, then the 10% did not apply on any item. I was obvious to me that he was setting the price on the fly to be barely below the Maytag price, so that his "price" was lower and thus he didn't have to go 10% below the price of the competitor. So basically this is a worthless guarantee.

 

[tallyho8]

Another way they get to advertise "the lowest price on appliances" is that they get the manufacturer to put their brand label on it. It might be made by Whirlpool but may be labeled Roper, Estate or any other name. Even though it's the exact same, they can sell it for more and still claim they have the lowest price on this brand appliance.