Building a Home

Have a mudroom.

A playroom that can grow with the child... ie: then become a 'study' or a place for the kids to hang out with their friends.

LOTS of storage in the playroom... and closets that can close to hide the mess.

We bought an older home... and looked at at least 50 houses. Here is what I wish we had been able to find in an older home.

MUD ROOM with cubbies and hooks and easy to store spaces. Ideally this would be between the garage and entry space.

NICE laundry room with good storage. I spend a lot of time doing laundry... it's depressing to do it in the basement.

J.

We've built 2 homes. My primary warning is to SUPERVISE the builder carefully. Many of them will take a short cut and you have to be around and watch it as it goes up. We were very active with both homes and still ended up with some issues.

House #1 .... only 2800 Sq Ft, too small for us. The master was upstairs with all bedrooms, the pantry was WAY too small. It worked for us about 10 yrs.

House #2 (current)...4000 sq ft.......we built this one when daughter was 5. Master down (love this), at this age for daughter (15), the upstairs is completely hers. This works wonderfully when she has friends over.

This house has a pantry the size of a small nursery. I LOVE it. I keep it well stocked, it also houses school supplies and some filing.

I love having a sink in my laundry room.

Spare fridge in laundry room is a plus. The Deep freezer is in garage.

We have 3 car garage, love the space.

There is a small guest room/office downstairs that is private and is next to the downstairs guest bath. We like this a lot.

The kitchen and family area are huge and open. Very good area for entertaining.

Mu suggestion would be to buy the best you can afford. The builders don't always use the highest quality products...they have to make $$.

We came in 3 yrs after building and revamped the entire heating and air system $20,000 and it was one of the best decisions we made.

We had trouble with our builder, I am not going into some of the horrow stories. Just keep your eyes wide open.

Congratulations!!

My must have would have laundry on bedroom(s) floor. No running up and down. And a powder room (toilet/sink) off the kitchen. Congrats on your new soon to be home.

Love all the answers you have gotten so far! I wanted to add if you plan on having a basement with the laundry down there, add a laundry chute. But I 2nd the idea of laundry on the same floor as the bedroom!!

I love covered porches / patios so if I were building my own home and could afford it, I'd put porch out front and covered patio out back with a fan!

I prefer tile to linoleum on the bathroom floors and would LOVE the ones that heat up!!

Get the windows that you can tilt in to clean.

Brick is nicer and although more expensive, will last longer and look nicer than siding (and you won't have to clean it!).

I'd love to have very large bedrooms!! (who wouldn't?)

I have a walk in closet - I could take or leave it. As long as I had enough space for my stuff, I'd be happy!

I'd LOVE an fireplace (not one that you 'turn' on but a real one with a mantle and hearth you can sit on).

Fenced in yard is a must for us!!

I love crown molding and if I could put it in every room, I would!

Congrats :)

I'm building my home right now.

As another person posted - don't expect it to be done ON TIME.

A big pantry is a plus for me. I want to be able to see what I have in the pantry, plus keep blenders and other appliances in the pantry so they're not hogging up my counter space nor are they in cabinets too high or too low.

A lot of square footage is lost in hallways. Consider your budget and if you really want long hallways. You can easily make a little entry to one wing of the house that has a bedrom and batroom, then another entry to another wing that has another bathroom and bedroom.

My new home will have a 'great room' and kitchen kind of all in one. I like this b/c when i'm washing dishes, I can still see hubby and/or kids playing in the great room. I don't feel cut-off from everyone. My mom's kitchen has an island where we can sit and talk to her while she cooks, but when there are kiddos and they are in the living room playing, it's quite lonely for her and she's told me how upset she is by it. "Noone sat in the kitchen with me while I cooked." If she had an open floorplan she could watch everyone and talk with them.

Yes, a LOT of built in storage in the common living areas! A full bath downstairs near a common area, so when they get a little older you can have one in the tub and still be available for the others.

ALL HARDWOOD floors! Well worth the price, industructable and BIG resale value.

Don't sell your house too soon. We had to live in an apartment for 6 months, a holy nighmare with 3 kids and a dog and mostly everything in storage.

Our house was suposed to be done nov 1st, was not done til the day after Easter, jeesh.

And I AGREE completely, go for a FANTASTIC kitchen, play room/family room attached so you can be in the kitchen and the kids will all be in your line of sight.

A nice BIG island, was the BEST spot in my house, homework, breakfast, company, everyone hung out at the island, they were OUT OF MY WAY, but still right in front of me, tehehe.

Good Luck and enjoy. I did have a lot of fun choosing my own cabinets and flooring and fixtures. Course it cost about 60k more than we thought it would, and took 6 months longer, but it was just the best house!!

Have fun!

Oh I hope you have so much fun!! I LOVED making ALL the decisions for our new home. I was VERY lucky because my husband and I have very similar tastes so colors came pretty easily. We put porcelain tile in the kitchen/dining area and we LOVE it. We were warned that it was going to cause whatever was dropped to break - but the tile never would. So far - so true. (8 years) We also saved all the extra tile from there and the ceramic tile in the baths in case we needed replacements. We went with a resin solid surface counter top from a company in Lehi (has Stop in the name)- not quite so expensive but very pretty and totally customizable. We are getting ready to add a kitchen in our basement and want to try granite this time. We want to keep our same shutters in our basement kitchen as the main (stained to match our knotty pine cabinets) so we must be happy with them! Shutters w/ no middle vertical piece for opening gives a better view to the outside. We got ours from Wasatch and wish we would've put them in the mortagage instead of waiting for a few years and adding later. They were expensive - $4500 for 15 windows I believe - but they're awesome and we get compliments all the time. Easy to dust with no middle bar too! And the White (what we have in all rooms except the kitchen) has not yellowed at all. Another thing about our kitchen is that we have the cabinets go all the way to the ceiling (but not a high ceiling.) I know another mom earlier commented that she liked having the space up top for "pretties" but I had that before, and the greasy dust in a kitchen is icky so I wouldn't do that again. Just my opinion. =) I love our walk-in pantry - you have to have a light in there. Some newer homes have them turn on and off automatically - I'd like that a lot! Another thing I think I would like (there's a model out at Daybreak still, I think, of a Bangerter home) having the laundry room with a closet that also opens to the Master bedroom closet - so you can hang up clothes right out of the dryer - then when in your room, your things are already in your bedroom closet! Sorry if I'm not explaining this well but the closet doors open up to both the bedroom on one side and the laundry room on the other side. VERY cool!
We also put in solar lights so that the stairs and hallway have little lights when the house is otherwise dark.
As for our basement - currently only half finished - we LOVE that we added an outside entrance and widened the stairs. Helps with finishing supplies (sheetrock!) going in and out, furniture moving etc. Also- get the doorbell installed down there too. We can't hear ours when the movies are playing etc. Yes, surrond sound if you like your movies too! We also left a spot for the water softener that I still hope to get some day!
We used Titan Heating and Air and I can recommend them - we got the right size air conditioner for our home!
My husband insisted on old fashioned copper pipes and our hot water takes FOREVER to get to our sinks - I wish I had plastic pipes.. And radiant heat in my floors! (They're colder with all the tile in the kitchen and bathrooms.)
As for the garge - extra space for extra vehicles and "man toys", extra outlets for deep freezer or extra fridge (and in eaves for Christmas lights - AND our light switch is in our coat closet inside - love that!) and we have one near the front porch for a fountain =) We also raised the third car garage door opening and wish we would've widened it too (another mom said that too I think) We also insulated our garage and are SO happy we did. Helps to not have it freeze in the winter (keeps the dogs' water bowls from freezing) and doesn't swelter in the summer - lots of our neighbors have to leave thier garage door open a foot to let air circulate - we don't - yay!
To protect you and your home from fire - we recently (a year a half ago) added the best smoke and heat detectors. Those coming from your builder give false alarms from just everyday cooking - like bacon etc. and won't give you enough time to get out safely. :(
This is so long! But I wanted to mention one thing about the bathrooms w/ two doors - nice idea, but as a guest, I don't like to have to close and lock two doors. I'm not used to it and have left one open before! yikes!
Best wishes!!

We built our home 12 years ago. We had all the pre-wires done, all the phone jacks, cables, enough outlets added. This stuff is harder to do later. This was suppose to be a starter house but we are still here. We wish it had one more bedroom as our kids share a room. We use one as an office and then the master. I would love a bigger kitchen. The best thing we added was the pantry's. I have two of them and they are great! We have plant shelves that make a nice touch. I wanted a garden tub when we built the home but the builder said they can't. Come to find out another house had one so they could have. We didn't know what we were approved for and decided to keep it simple. That cost us money down the road. We replaced the laminate flooring in the wetlands (bathrooms, kitchen and laundryroom) with tile. We replaced the carpet (it needs it again as it was cheap) and the baseboards and such are plain. The doors are plain. We added coach lighting to the garage, again with the pre-wires. A water softner was added a year after we moved in. Irrigation system was added in the last 2-3 years and we re-sodded twice. Owning a home can be a joy and a nightmare at times. I would have liked double paned windows. The single have too much noise sometimes. I love our double doors as it made moving in and out of the house easy to do. We added on a sun-room but it's an indoor-outdoor room used as a playroom. There are many things we'd change and many things we'd leave the same. Good luck and congrats!

Build the laundry room close to the bedrooms!

I haven't done this, but have my "dream list". It includes the number of bedrooms (additional one for guests), a storage room, laundry room that is made to be functional, walk in closets, bathrooms that don't flush against other bedrooms or the living room, plenty of outlets (think of plugging things in for christmas or having lights behind the couch, etc., without cords running everywhere), outlets in the kitchen too, two ovens, LOTS of counter space, a logical number of bathrooms, and multiple sinks in each, closet space for coats, a mudroom that you can sit and take shoes off in, open floor plan, lots of linen closet space, surround sound, if you have a dog, a door from your bedroom, so you don't have to walk through the house in the morning. A North facing backyard with plenty of cover on the patio, ceiling fans in each room, enough lighting in each room. Big enough garage to fit the cars and the yard equipment, garage organization, and outlets. Oh, and outside outlets under the eves for christmas lights. Those are the things I have compiled anyway...don't know when I will get my chance.

We are building a house right now as well. Regarding the floor plan we have 2 additional rooms for guests, a play room with french doors and a mud room with bench and cubbies for the kids. The advice I have gotten is focus on the stuff that you cannot easily do later. We have recently added a lot of electrical type additions such as extra exterior lights that point out into the woods, added recessed lights (in addition to the room ceiling light) for the room that had less sunlight due to the screened porch, surround sound prewiring, raised electrical outlets next to cable outlets for mounted TVs, ceiling fan prewiring for all rooms. Although we did add stuff like crown molding and judges panels to the 'important' rooms we are leaving the rest for down the road since it can easily be done after the fact. The one thing I kinda wish I would have gotten was a tankless water heater simply to avoid the big water heater in the garage. Good luck and enjoy the adventure!

Depending on where your building one thing I wish we did was this. We have a boiler system in our new house ran through concrete floors and wish we'd ran the pipes through the driveway and front walk and stairs. Several people in our neighborhood did and they love not having a icy driveway. It stays clean all winter.

We have built our last two houses, plus my husband works in the construction industry so we see alot of the homes out there. In our first home it was the bare bones version - something to simply get us in the door and out of renting - so we had a huge list of things for our second house that we wanted to improve on. With little ones, I knew I wanted the rounded (bull-nose) corners on all the walls. One less sharp corner to worry about! We really wanted a mud room between the garage and the house, but it just didn't work with our floor plan, so we had a large, deep stainless-steel sink and counter installed in the garage. It works great and the mess "usually" stays outside!

One thing we keep noticing in our current house is a lack of phone port in the main part of the house. We have found out - after the fact of course - that the electrician our contractor used wasn't the greatest. The phone port is in what is listed on the floor plan as our "formal dining room" - we use it as an office so it works, but having to run in there everytime the phone rings gets annoying. Also, this room is a "pass-thru" room with an entrance just off the front door and one from the kitchen. If you have a room like this planned, be sure you have a light switch for each room at each entrance. In order to turn on our kitchen lights I have to walk all the way through the kitchen to get to the switches.

If you want a basement, but can't figure out how to fit it in the budget, see what the difference is to leave it partially finished. We did this and saved a ton. We can finish it when we want - I just made sure they got the wallboard up and taped - I didn't want that mess in my house later.

Hope that helps! I know I am missing a ton of stuff, but most of it is because of specifics we have for decorating (my husband is a big hunter....) . Good luck!

S.

P.S. I almost forgot - If you like fresh air to cool your house at night, make sure each room has windows that will cross-ventilate. All the windows in our master room face the same way and of course there isn't another window with a direct connection in the opposite direction. We live with the fan on!

Hi,
As a contractors wife I would first and foremost make sure you communicate, communicate, communicate with your contractor. If you hire a contractor make sure he's really working for you not just with you. If he's experienced he should be able to give you ideas and suggestions. If you are acting as your own contractor make sure you do the above with the "subs". After that I would make sure everything you want is included on your plans and that it works not just on paper but in reality as well. Often people only consider what looks good on paper. It will also be very important that your scheduling has been well communicated to your contractor/subs. Often people underestimate how busy the subs can be or how long countertops take to be made and installed. Plan well in advance! Part of that planning also includes your City or County planning departments. Every area is different so some can be a major headache while others are very simplified. We built our own home 3 years ago after building a number of "spec homes". I just love our place and find there is very little that I would change. We did do a change of paint color in our kitchen/dining and our sons room. Even though that was a bit costly I know I couldn't have lived with the original color so don't regret the expense to get the desired color. One other item that has been beyond a huge blessing to me is our central vacuum system. I cannot imagine having a house that didn't have a central vac. I love this system. It is so easy to use, makes vacumming much simpler, lighter, quieter and the whole system makes for a cleaner home. My husband did the install so that saved us bunches. The major expense was the beater bar (about $800 in our area). I believe the cost of the entire system plus the tools was around $1300.00. It simply can't be beat!! So, that's some of my personal thoughts on home building. On the lighter side...you need to have a strong marriage to get through it, ha, ha!! If you'd like to chat more about this feel free to email me. Blessings to you and yours, L.

We built our home, and realized later the little things that we didn't think of. For example, on the outside: plug-ins near the rafters where Christmas lights would go....instead of using extension cords every year it would have been nice to think of putting plug-ins up there connected to a light switch where we can just flip them on or turn them off. A door from the garage to the back yard, we figured that we wouldn't need it, but it would have been a nice addition.
For the inside: A microwave over the oven would have saved a ton of counter space, now we are saving to purchase one. Also, in the kitchen a taller back splash, we only have 1 tile high around. One of our bedrooms is the office, it would have been nice to have more plug-ins, a telephone port, and networking in place. Also, they put our TV plugs in our bedroom and living room, I personally would not have a TV in either place, but they did not put one in the family room, I think that that is important, especially since that is the only place we have a TV. A small towel closet in each bathroom, we added drawers to the vanity in the master bathroom. I love the closet in our family room, but it really needs a light because it is so deep, and also I would have loved to make my laundry room bigger. Having a family of 5 I like to fold all my clothes as they come out of the dryer, before carrying them upstairs to put away. It would be nice to have at least a counter that I can fold or put baskets on to put the folded clothes in.

I'm personally always picky about where the light switches are placed. Some of the other things I'm picky about are tall ceilings (especially in a basement), if you are doing a basement that won't be finished right away make sure they put the ventilation, wiring, and any rough-in plumbing in appropriate spots that it will be able to finish around later without having to redo the job. A Jack-n-Jill bath would be nice between 2 of the kids bedrooms or maybe you can make one with 3 doors for each child. We had one with 3 doors in an old apartment. I liked it, but it depends on your layout. I also like a large entry way or mudroom so people can have plenty of room to take off their shoes. I wish I had a sink in my laundry room too. Hope that helps! Good luck on building your home! If you need some good subcontractors contact Rich at ###-###-####. He's great and very inexpensive and has lots of good contacts.

We moved in to our house after years of renting, and there were a lot of things we either overlooked when looking because we were used to not having much, or did not realize how much we would appreciate until we had them.

I am really grateful for:

the kitchen island- I didnt care whether I had it when we were looking but I am really glad I have it now. Alot of places have counter tops that wrap around most of the kitchen- great space but be careful when entertaining it can "trap" people in the kitchen. Having two ways around or out is helpful.

mud room off garage, between garage and the rest of the house. ours is also a laundry room and I am really glad I do not have to go down to the basement to do laundry. A big closet and lots of shelves/storage in the mud room is also key.

big master bedroom closet. :)

2 sinks in master bathroom. We have a 5 piece bath and while we dont use the big tub very much, I am still glad it is there. We got spoiled by the two sinks quickly!

Basement with bathroom and storage space. Ours is still unfinished but with #2 on the way we figure finishing it will be really good in the future in terms of housing guests and giving the kids somewhere out of the way to be as they grow and have friends over. We have a rough-in for a bath, enough space for a large playroom/guest area, and separate room for storage.

Here are some things I wish we had:

COVERED deck or patio. Colorado sun is HOT

Privacy in the back yard. We dont have rear neigbors but our next door neighbors have a deck and can always see us when we are in the back. They are nice and all but I would have liked to have more of a "retreat" back there.

wish the basement was a walk-out. These just feel less like basements and more like extended living space.

vanity counter in the master bathroom

double sink in the kids bathroom

shelves in the kitchen. I like to cook and my cookbooks take up a lot of space on the counter

double oven. I wouldnt use it often, but its a lifesaver when entertaining or doing holiday meals.

bigger bedrooms for the kids/guests

I dont think you can go too big in the kitchen or baths. Have fun! And definitely keep an eye on your builder- that is really important and good advice!

We live in military housing & have for nearly 10 years now so I can't tell you about building a house from experience, but I have racked up YEARS of experience planning our "forever" home for when hubby retires. My biggest issue w/mil housing is the wasted space. We've yet to live in a house that has under-the-steps storage so if 2 floors are in your plans, make plans for some under-step storage. I have fantasies of cutting the wall out under our steps to put in nice shelves that can hold deep baskets for mittens/hats/gloves, purses & keys, dog leash, just random drop-at-the-door stuff. You could even go easier than that & just have a crawl space put in there to store Cmas/Halloween/Easter stuff when it's not in season.
We've had dropped cabinets for the last few houses which I really like-I can store pretties & my vases up there. I would love to have a pantry that has room for food to feed all 6 of us (I've got food in our small pantry & in our "pantry extended" lol, a huge closet off the dining area in our kitchen) & space to hold my crockpots & rice cooker, which have yet to make it off the pantry floor in any house we've had. Tons of cabinet space in the kitchen (we've got a peninsula-for lack of a better term-in our kitchen & it separates the eating from cooking areas w/tons of prep room), a living room that you can arrange more than one way that will hold any size TV or furniture you want, a laundry room that will hold not only the washer & dryer but also baskets for clean & dirty clothes (my SIL has a bedroom-sized laundry room that I drool over w/envy)
Those are my major things. We've also planned our "lottery house" (if we had unlimited funds) & everyone would have a bedroom & another space all of their own (Dad would have a movie room, Mom a sewing/craft room & each kid would have some space to his own)
This was fun! Thanks!

I would splurge for an architect and interior designer as we paid too much and didn't get exactly what we needed. We have lots of wasted space in my opinion.

I would include these:

laundry room sink AND granite counters in laundry room

stainless interior on dishwasher(it doesn't stain or smell)

double oven with heating drawer and gas drawer

icynene foam insulation on all walls, including interior(soundproofs as well as saves money)

metal roof(ugly, but never needs replaced)

stained concrete instead of porcelain tile(which is not supposed to ever crack and has)

I would NOT put so many extra outlets in. I would THINK about whether or not I needed one there. We put at leaset 2 on every single wall. It cost us $75 per outlet. We have 4 in the living room, 3 in the bedroom, and 12 outside under the eaves that we will never use that I can see right now.

I would not get a LG front load washer and dryer as it doesn't work.

I would NEVER buy a BOSCH dishwasher which had NO HEATER and rusted my Oneida silverware plus never dried.

I would NOT buy energy star ceiling fans and lights($5000 for a 2800 foot house). We will never make our money back on utility savings.

I would not let my husband pick anything as he picked the plainest of all things and it makes our house look much cheaper than the neighbors(plain window, no paines or lines at all look old and outdated). One realtor said we might have to ask $60000 less than it cost to compensate.

Are you working with professionals? (Architects, designers). Who's doing your plans? Are you working from stock plans or are you starting from scratch? Have you been looking at model homes, archtectural and interior design magazines for inspiration? Are you specifiying your own interior finishes, or will you have help?
Building a custom home with my family as a young adolecent had quite an effect on me and I became an interior designer. I would advise you to work with professionals, though they come at a price. If you are doing it yourslef, I have these words of advice:

Have a concept ( this is like having a theme, though not so litteral).
base every desision on your concept.
be willing to give up even your most favorite materials and ideas if it doesn't fit the concept.
This way you will have cohesion instead of hodge podge.

Most people are supprised to know this, but as a professional interior designer, we even had the art work selected and placed before foundation was poured. We had it mapped out on paper to a "T" before construction began. By having eveything this desiged, we could appropriatly place all lighting. Also design with a furniture plan. Don't just have big rooms with no thought to the placement of furniture.

As to the specifics of what to have on the F.P. All I can say is I've really seen trends come and go, so watch out for trends that you don't get suckered in. Everyone wanted islands for a while. Now most people find they just get in the way of the work triangle of a good functioning kitchen. Everyone put salad sinks in their kitchen now everyone is removing them. These days people make master suites with master baths you could park a car in. To that I say, if you can afford a house keeper great if not, do you really want to spend 2 hours cleaning just one bathroom? Another big trend is the floor vent to suction dirt into. It remains to be seen if this one sticks or if it will go the way of central vac. I remember that central vac was all the rage but I don't know anyone with a central vac system who didn't go to a vacuum cleaner within a year of having it. Happy research.

p.s. my MIL loves her composite sink, and hates her flash water heating system (says can't get water hot enough for some jobs, like laundry).

Oh honey! We just went through that! Had our house built and we moved in 5 months ago! WE LOVE IT!!
I would highly recommend getting a central vaccum system throughout your home and dustpan in the kitchen!
We have a 2 story home. Think about what you like and resale as well.
We had our bedroom extnded by over 24 sf and it's huge! Large master bathroom with huge soaker tub and seperate large shower. Huge walk-in closet with extra shelving and hanging room.
Get underground sprinlker system, it was soo worth the $!!
We added a half bathroom downstairs and bought a house with enough bedrooms (5) so we could have extra space for guests. We turned 1 of the rooms into a den/office and still have a futon for guests if there is an overflow and need more than just 1 guestroom.
Our kitchen and bedroom are our sancuaries, so that's where we put the extra $. We have granite countertops and custom island...added additional counterspace and cabinets and huge pantry!
Being a military family, we don't expect to live here forever, but we wanted to buy something instead f throw $ away on rent, again.
The upgrades we made will certainly help with resale!
Be sure that you walk through the design studio, you get a better idea of options then too!
Good luck and have fun, I knowhow stressful it can be!

We just finished ours and the thing I wish we would have done is nicer counter tops. We went through Parr Cabinets in Salt Lake and thought we liked the counters when we were in the store but I think we are going to have to upgrade. I love the cabinets themselves!

We also had built in bookshelves put in the kids' rooms....love them!!!

One more thing....insulation in between all walls. I don't think our builder did that and there is a bit of an echo.

Make sure your kitchen table area has enough room for the table to fit with people sitting at it and people trying to get around those sitting down.
My husband would not see it. We looked at a model home with no table in the kitchen. I should have gone with a roll of blue painter's table and put an outline of the tables then the chairs with fat people(us) sitting in them.

Make sure you have a pantry in the kitchen. Closets off the kitchen don't help. We splurged on a half bath off the kitchen. It is the most used bathroom, especially for guests.

Go talk to the builder's workers when he is not around. If they tell you bad stories, RUN! My husband didn't listen to them. They resent being mistreated and underpaid by the builder so they made substitutions. The painter substitued some cheap brand for Sherwin Williams paint even though it was in the contract. The paint comes off if you knock into the wall or use painters tape. We repainted some walls with Sherwin Williams. The paint sticks fine.

*********Do not sign a contract with an arbitration clause. My husband has never sued anyone. We had to fight the builder on some things. We waived our right to sue so the builder delayed. *************************

We built our home 6 years ago. It's the second home I've built, and there are plenty of things I wish I'd done differently.

We added length to our garage, an extra 5 feet, but I wish we'd made it 2-4 feet wider to accommodate bikes, getting cars in and out, trash cans, etc. Our builder has several different modes, but surprisingly, garages differ considerably in dimensions.

I wish we'd spent the money at the time finishing the basement. Our house is currently valued less than the purchase price, and we're having a hard time justifying the cost of doing it now despite having 2 small kids.

I wish we'd sucked-it-up and gotten the door handles we wanted and put that into the mortgage. We have the brass bulb door handles that look very 1988. We have replaced all the faucets and light fixtures, but that's the one that is the biggest pain.

I wish we'd added an extra electrical outlet on the outside of the house as well as an additional water spigot.

We upgraded the carpet several levels, but it still stinks. I'd have just gone with the builder grade and replaced it later. I wish we had 36" counters in the bathrooms. I wish we had 42" cabinets in the kitchen. We've replaced the sink to a deeper sink.

I wish I had laminate instead of carpet in the dining room.

Mostly, I wish we'd caught some of the corners they cut here and there. Sometimes our laminate shifts and shows huge gaps. Little things here and there add up, and 6 years later, we're pouring more money into it than we should be.

Good luck.

I have not built a home but I have a friend that I LOVE her floor plan that they designed. There is the nicest playroom right off of the family room that has double doors that CLOSE so the mess (if there is O.) stays all in there.
(In the future this would make a great large office or den.) Also, they have a wider than normal staircase to the upstairs (I know you said yours will be all O. level) with a loft overlook and her bedrooms are all off of a room sized, large center hallway. It really is an awesome layout.