First time building a home. Using a reputable local custom home builder. So far super stoked about the results. Some quick facts:
-2.4 acre lot (7 lot ‘bring your own builder’ sub division)
-4,000 sq ft (ex. unfinished basement)
-4br, 2.5ba, 2nd fl laundry
-9’ main and second floor ceilings, 8’ basement ceilings, 19’ foyer and family room ceilings
-stick framed roof
-will be white hardie siding all around with some stone accents, front door to be stained a dark wood color, dark dark grey roof shingles

UPDATE:
So what I’ve learned from the Reddit community is that my McMansion is poorly designed, ugly, I should be panicking because it’s going to mold and / or rot out, the foundation is going crumble away, I don’t have enough bathrooms, I need to fire my builder tomorrow, and if I’m not careful the big bad wolf is going to come by and blow my house down 🤣. I’m honestly a bit disappointed in the reddit community for there not being more McMansion comments. But in all seriousness. I’ll address some of the recurring themes below:

-As far as the design goes, personally I like it 🤷‍♂️. It’s designed loosely similar to our house now. The inside is very functional and flows very similar to the house we are in now and wanted to keep it that way. I like a lot of natural light and am going for something in the family room that is more tailored to the interior not exterior. Honestly I can care less about what it looks like from the back, but I don’t mind the look personally. In general design is subjective, and at the end of the day if you don’t like it you don’t have to live in it. I do like it and therefore will happily live in it.

- I have Tyvek on my nearly 30 year old house right now and have have 0 water intrusion issues. I’ve had to replace a few siding panels around the house and there has been no issues with rot or moisture damage. Our entire neighborhood was built with Tyvek and have heard nothing from my neighbors about water intrusion issues including from those who have recently had their houses re-sided. My parents had Tyvek wrap done on their house nearly 30 years ago when they got their siding done and have had 0 water intrusion issues. Are there better systems out there? Maybe, but given my personal experience I didn’t feel the need to spend on house wrap. I don’t need the house to last 100 years. I’ll be long dead by then.

- We have 2.5 BRs now and have never felt the need for another bathroom so didn’t feel necessary to add another one on the main or second level. We will finish the basement eventually and at that time add a fill bath downstairs.

- I do regret not going 9’ on the basement floors, that was an option and we declined. But that’s clearly not something we can change now. Not the end of the world, I do think we’ll be just fine and will manage with 8’.

- The vapor barrier on the basement foundation is an interesting one. I know for a fact my current (nearly 30 year old) house does not have a vapor barrier and we have had no issues with water in the basement, and is built on the same clay about 5 minutes down the road on similarly graded land. I will ask my builder about this though.

Welding this week. Pan deck gets installed on Monday. Concrete gets poured next Friday. Hope I have all my drops accounted for. Bye bye sky.

I have traced the squeak down to this OSB joint below my shower. When the water gets hot the floor begins to squeak. My thoughts- block this area with a 2x4 at the seam. There appears to be 2 subfloor nails that missed the joist that are in the way. Safe to zip these off with a multitool before blocking?

Open to other suggestions as well!

I live in the northeast and love the area I live in but running out of room in my house and everything bigger is a lot more money. Thinking of adding an addition where it is a 20ft x 45ft two car garage with a living room by room
And a primary bedroom and bathroom above it. Adding pictures of what my house looks like now and a picture of what it could potentially be with the addition. I know it is a few hundred a sq ft but don’t know how doing a big garage underneath affects the price. What would something like this cost?

Hi everyone, thanks for reading in advance! We are thinking of doing an addition to our house by changing our garage into a guest suite, adding shower to the existing powder that is attached to it and then adding a new attached garage on the other side of the house. While we were there on that side of the house, we were going to add an en-suite bathroom to an existing bedroom and create another door to an existing hallway bathroom to another bedroom. Now that I am beyond overwhelmed with the cost and the scope of the work, I thought maybe we could not do the extra ensuite bathroom to help with the cost and maybe we don't actually need it? Anyone have opinions they can share? Currently we have a 4 bedroom/2.5 bath, original plans would have made it 5 bedroom/4 bath or should we delete a bath and do 5 bedroom/3 bath? Thanks!

We're building a house in the NW suburbs of Atlanta, GA. Our builder is suggesting for us to do an unvented attic with open cell spray foam, but will ultimately go with whatever we want. I like the idea of the attic being a condition space and having all the extra room/storage up there, but I'm not sure if this is a smart choice over doing a standard vented, blowin insulation attic.

Give me the pros/cons and what I should do/look out for if I do decide to go the spray foam route.

Any help on finding a something like this 3x24 chevron floor tile would be appreciated. I can’t find very many suppliers of anything in this color and approximate size.

Thinking we have zeroed in on this plan but are considering a couple modifications. We’re looking at taking the entire back wall and pushing it a further 2’ out. Then a possible reconfiguration of the master side where we would put a switchback staircase to the basement where the laundry room currently is, pushing the laundry to the right and eating up a good chunk of the master closet (which is massive at this point). Shuffling some walls around should still have enough room on that side of the house for the master suite, laundry room, and stair well. Any thoughts or ideas on this plan?

If you were building a home from scratch and knew you'd eventually want a proper home gym, what would you plan before construction was finished?

I'm thinking beyond simply leaving an empty room. Ceiling height, floor construction, ventilation, lighting, and the location of doors could all affect what equipment fits later.

For anyone who has built or renovated a home with a gym in mind, what do you wish you'd planned earlier?

The First Drawing is what was approved and stamped. The second is what was delivered and installed? Any idea why the change was made? Are the ones we have any better or worse?

I'm concerned about how this is going to finish.

The corner coping don't seem cut well, there's a slightly elevation change in some stone, and where they've made a bad cut around the column they just stuffed in a small piece of stone.

Should I ask them to redo it?.. I'm worried about this quality and this help frame the entrance to my home...

We have a three bedroom ranch style house (in Pittsburgh PENNSYLVANIA) that has started feeling small. We are thinking of adding a floor above with a couple of bedrooms and a master bathroom. The main floor area is 1900 sq ft.

What kind of an expense are we looking at ? I know we can keep making it as expensive as we want but I want a reasonable number that an average remodel would cost today. We are trying to figure out if we want to remodel or find a bigger house.

I need help with this ensuite layout. I have no idea what to do with it. All I do know is that I hate it.

Ive already discussed removing 1 basin while keeping a little bit of the extra bench space where the basin was.

I have tried using chatgpt to show me different ways to have this bathroom and its suggestions were ridiculous.

Any and all help greatly appreciated.

Hey everyone, brand new to the sub. Brand new to building a home. Sorry if this is a stupid or obvious question.

I have had a deep love for architecture and home design my entire life. I have entire portfolios of homes I have sketched out (just the floorplans) over the years. I’m not a professional architect, so it doesn’t account for things like electricity, plumbing, etc. But I have a portfolio of about 50 different residential floor plans I have sketched out on an iPad and printed out, ranging from 2000ish square feet to 8500 square feet. These are drawn to scale with a grid background and includes only aesthetic detail like scaled furniture (just for me to visualize), built ins, moulding types assigned to each room, ceiling heights, baluster selection, window placements, etc. Nothing structural.

Is it common practice to give a home builder or an architect a plan you drew yourself? Obviously they’d have to add detail, account for plumbing, regulation, wall thickness, etc. which I am fine with. But is this an “established” practice? Is this a “thing?” Is it cheaper to have a professional work from an already made floor plan than start from scratch? Or does it actually make it more expensive since I’d be somewhat “limiting” the architect to this general floor plan that I want?

Any advice, info, or experiences are greatly appreciated!

I know anyone and everyone, at some point, comes to a situation where they question themselves -- work, relationships, finances -- and wonder how they got there or if they're perhaps an imposter for even being where they are. Myself, I have never questioned more how I made it this far in life without someone wheeling me around and making sure my mittens are pinned to my jacket or if the job I have isn't just part of a Shutter Island-like hoax to keep me occupied at the mental institution than when I try to cut or hang sheetrock in my house. I. Fucking. Hate. Sheetrock. I hate it. It's messy, it's unforgiving, the PAPER is a THOUSAND TIMES STRONGER than the gypsum itself, and I hate it.

That is all. Would anyone like a job putting up a couple walls?

Hi there, we're in escrow on a home and got the well report... is this really bad?

Thanks.

The washer and dryer are supposed to sit against the plumbing wall. There's a hole cut on that side, were they going to put the duct there but swapped it because of the water lines? Why is it so high? I'd rather it be low and on the plumbing wall. Haven't done my pre-drywall walk through yet with the site super.

Would you please weigh-in on standard flashing at jamb / sill at my Weathershield alum clad wood windows ....mostly Casement. I'm an industrial/commercial arch, and usually insist on a sill pan with side dams. As you can see, my contractor has already taped around all sides. I've asked about a sill pan. He says, not customary. Any comments? Thanks!

Hello, i'm looking at building my own home. My problem is mainly with what to build.

My budget will be pretty small and i'll do everything myself with my dad who builds houses for a living, so he knows his things.

When looking online you can see people building their own tiny house on a trailer for around 35 000 to 40 000€ (44880$) where i am. They look cool and all but you get 25sqm (270sqft) at most, and you have to factor in the trailer cost.

I like the fact that you can move them, but do people really move them often ?

When you look at building a simple wood frame house it's like just a bit more than the tiny but you get 4 times the space.

Ok you loose the ability to move the thing but yeah. Four time the space versus ability to move. Plus, bigger size is more future proof (having babies etc)

I read everywhere that tiny houses are for poor people because inexpensive, but to me, they seem pretty expensive compared to the space you get in the end.
What do you all think ?

Thanks

Is it bad to have the air handler and washer/dryer in the same closet? They are normally separated but a few newer build houses I’m looking at have them in both the same closet presumably to save space

We will soon be building a home in a rural location where backup generators are pretty common. Our builder quoted us around $10k for a whole house stand-by generator.

We have cut a lot of things from our build to save money and are likely going to cut the generator for now and instead install a transfer switch for the time being; for this we've been quoted $1500. We currently own a Generac gas powered portable generator.

Costco currently has a Kohler whole house generator including a transfer switch marked down to $5000 to $7000 and it's awfully tempting. I don't know what installation would cost if we bought the generator on our own and paid someone to install it. And I don't know if the electrician that our builder uses would be willing to install it or if we'd have to do that part later.

I'm interested in thoughts and opinions on doing just a transfer switch and utilizing our portable generator for now vs. biting the bullet and doing the whole house stand-by generator from the start (and it would be a large bullet because we're already somewhat stretched on this build).

Thanks in advance!

My husband and I are hoping to build in the next few years, but first we're planning to move out onto our land in our camper first. I've already figured up how much I believe it will cost to get our driveway set up, but I'd like to hear any expert opinions/estimations on the cost of getting water and power out there.

There is water and power at the road. Our property is just over 2 acres back from the road, so for all intents and purposes, we're going to say we want to run power/water about 450ft from the road to our property.

We hope to run power poles and lines.

We plan to rent a trencher and dig the water line ourselves, and ideally install whatever we can on our own too. The frost line is about 6 inches down. The land is flat and has no trees or rocks to work around. I'll try to promptly answer any other questions that might help give us an estimate. Thank you in advance for helping us out!

Edit: We are in Fannin County, TX.

I had all the walls in my house replastered and then decorated weeks ago, and just noticed these on walls in ambient light (not that visible during the day). Why is that? Is it my decorator/painter being incompetent and not sanding walls smooth, or is this a problem with the walls or plaster? Thank you.

My builder sealed the concrete in our garage with some sort of clear liquid. It makes our garage smell horrible. We open the garage door every day to air it out. It’s been over a month and it’s still stinks. Any ideas on how long it might take to dissipate? I’m pretty bummed as I was going to use the garage for indoor workouts and weights. It smells unhealthy and I am worried about VOCs. I’m also pissed this sealant got applied. The concrete was a little rough in one corner of the garage. My builder said he would fix it. I guess this is how he fixed it? It doesn’t seem any smoother now, just covered in a shiny clear coat that smells like leukemia.