Building a house

Bambamski · Posted: Jan 12, 2015 1:01 pm Post subject:

if Soapstone is anything like Slate I'd stay away. Anything that will show scratches when you shouldn't see scratches doesn't look good. At least with the wood butcher block you expect to see them.

Dragging a plate across the slate would scratch it. There are so many better choices. The harder the better IMO when it comes to picking stone for your countertops.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

I think the soapstone has the potential for scratching, from what I'm reading.

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 16, 2015 6:10 am Post subject:

fish6942 · Addict Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 603

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 16, 2015 11:27 am Post subject:

fish6942, it's 4 wide at the front. 2.5 of the stalls are 26' deep and the other 1.5 are 44' deep.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 17, 2015 2:19 am Post subject:

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Why did you hate the mud room in the laundry room? That's one item we were considering in our design.

Our building prices out here start at around $75 and a nice house would be in the $125 range. Obviously, high end houses probably go up from there, but I've never dug into it enough to know for sure. Chances are with the simple design and finishes we're going for, we may end up around $100 or maybe a touch less.

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 17, 2015 8:18 am Post subject:

Okie Boarder, we hated that design for several reasons. First, everyone seemed to put their shoes directly in front of the washer and dryer. Second was that because of the size and design of the space, sorting and keeping laundry in there was not really possible. The mud room and laundry room are next to each other in the new house, but they are distinct, separate spaces. This means that we can still dump stuff direct in to the washer after working on cars and other projects in the garage.

It's pretty easy to make simple decisions that drive your cost up significantly. For example, our HVAC and insulation decisions led to significant increases in cost, but we will recoup that over the life of the house. We have a fair amount of stone work both on the exterior and around the fireplaces. Anything related to masonry or tile work in this area is quite expensive. Kitchens and bathrooms are also a very easy way to drive the price up very quickly.

Due to a sub 3% unemployment rate and a large number of construction projects, the availability and cost of trades in this area further drives up prices.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

OK, good info. If you combined the two, what would you do to not have that feel of it not working well?

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 17, 2015 6:48 pm Post subject:

Okie Boarder, short of putting the washer / dryer in a separate room? Probably make the mud room L shaped with the washer / dryer isolated from the rest of the room with a folding table and space for laundry baskets. But by then, you might as well frame in a door and make it a separate room.

One of the other issues that I didn't mention previously is that we often times had 5 or more neighbor kids coming in and out of the house through the garage. I'd rather have my laundry baskets separate from that chaos.

If you're absolutely set on combining them, it does work. It's just not something that we'd do again.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

OK....good info. We have been thinking about making the room square with enough space that the mud room area is sort or separated, but still in the same area. Maybe we need to consider that space and those concerns. Thanks, again.

fish6942 · Addict Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 603

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

After some discussion with the architect and starting the initial planning, we think we are going to settle in on something around 30' deep and 35' wide. We'll probably do 10-11' ceilings and 8-9' doors.

Some other thoughts that are floating around...

cedar siding (natural look) with brick or rock on bottom third.

actual reclaimed barn wood for baseboard and trim

8' tall solid wood (knotty alder, pine or similar) interior doors

walk in shower design with no door

Any thoughts or experience with any of these items?

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 27, 2015 7:37 pm Post subject:

Okie Boarder, for the garage I'd do 12' ceilings and either 9' or 10' doors. This gives you a bit added utility if you want to work on vehicles on a lift, or park a boat inside with the tower up ... I know you just sold yours ... but you never know. Dimensions are good for a three stall garage.

How are you finishing the reclaimed wood trim? I have a friend with a very rustic home with similar trim and they constantly have pet hair stuck to the trim. Unless you have a good source, this also seems to be a bit overpriced for what it is.

I actually care more about the width of my interior passage doors than the height. 3'0" doors make it way easy to move furniture in and out (as well as improve handicap accessibility).

In rural areas with hard water, you will likely get some mineral build up on the glass, so that is a positive for going doorless.The no door on the shower design utilizes more square footage than a shower with a door unless you like wet floors. If you want to add a steam generator, you will need to have a door.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Thanks. Not sure on the reclaimed wood finish or whether we'll go that way. I can see the pet hair being and issue. Good thought on door width, as well.

ohsix · Posted: Jan 28, 2015 6:04 am Post subject:

When mixing exterior facade materials, I think it looks better to change things up a little, as far as masonry height. We mixed rock and stucco (EIFS). None of the stucco goes to the ground, but some walls are all rock whereas some are ~1/3 rock, ~2/3 stucco.

We looked into reclaimed wood for the timber framing parts of our house and it was $$$ plus a lot of it was warped. We used Douglas Fir and had a couple of guys go at it with wire brushes on grinders for a few days until it looked old.

My interior doors are 8' solid, but paint grade. Stain grade were ~$1,000 each vs ~$200 each for paint. We felt like we had enough stained wood with the floors and ceilings, but after staining everything in the office, we wish we had gone with more stained trim throughout the house. We also went with 3' wide doors in most places. We have a few bathroom doors that are 2'6" wide. The architect originally had them at 2'0" which is a pretty narrow door. I told him nothing narrower than 2'6" and go 3'0" wherever we can.

Keep your bathroom warm if you're not going to have a door. We had a steamer installed in our shower, which I highly recommend, so we had to close ours off. The shower is big enough that if you don't use the shower head closest to the shower door, the glass just gets condensation on it. We don't squeegee the glass. Between softened water and it being cleaned once a week, it always looks pretty good.

One other thing I would do different is pay attention to wall arrangement. I thought I did a good job of this, but there are 2 poorly planned walls in my house. Our guest bedroom shares a wall with a utility closet in the garage. That wall has a tankless water heater mounted on it with a circulating pump that runs every few minutes. The pump sounds like a phone vibrating and the headboard of the bed in the guest bedroom is against that wall. I've spent a few nights in that room (not the result of arguments - yet) and that noise is annoying. I could have put that utility room about 3 other places in the garage which would have been better. My back closet wall is also the wall which our younger sons crib is against. I usually wake up at 5:15 and my wife swears I'm waking up our 4 month old son (who wakes up about 5 times a night anyway) by pulling clothes off hangers in my closet. My closet is smaller and laid out differently than my wife's, but we could have flipped the closets on the original floor plan if we wanted to.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Hmm, good thoughts, thanks. The reclaimed wood is a maybe with one potential contractor and it is only because we may be able to work together with him to tear down a small barn and get the wood at a more normal cost.

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

ohsix, interesting thoughts on the adjoining walls. I'd say if you can't avoid those issues, then use a noise-deadening insulation (like "Rock Wool") in those walls to dampen it. Easy enough to do before the drywall goes up.

Going to stain-grade solid core doors seems like overkill to me. I mean, if you are going for that look then I guess you don't have a choice, but paint-grade solid stuff always looks (and feels) great when I see it.

We have some 36" doors in our house. I'd only recommend them if the rooms they lead to are large enough to accommodate them. Whoever put them in my house (previous owner) did not take that into account. If it wasn't a total pain in the arse, I'd switch them back to 30".

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

I'm also looking to wire in the whole house with Cat5 or similar. I can see the value in this and have talked to a few people about it, in addition to the feedback on here. One contractor I'm considering said something about Cat7e. What advantages or limits are there with Cat5 vs Cat6 vs Cat7?

At this point we will probably just pre-wire and may do some whole house audio. We probably won't video share through this system, but I'm sure it will make it very easy to connect up anything network related and our TV system, whether it be satellite or "cable".

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 29, 2015 5:57 am Post subject:

You will need at a minimum Cat5e, however Cat 6 is now priced at a point where it makes sense to use. Cat 7 adds shielding to each of the wire pairs to eliminate crosstalk. Cat 6 supports double the transmission performance of Cat5e. Cat 7 supports triple the transmission performance of Cat 6.

Cat 7 might future proof you a bit more, but it is doubtful you would need that in the life of your home.

In your case, I would run one coax and two Cat6 to each TV location. This way you have some flexibility on how you deliver signals to your TV.

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Have y'all run other runs besides where the TV's go for security or in-room audio distribution?

ohsix · Posted: Jan 29, 2015 7:46 am Post subject:

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

ohsix, my boss had that done in his office. He conducts a lot of meetings in there, so it made a lot of sense for client privacy. The walls have just regular R-XX and they laid it on top of the drop ceiling as well.

The only time I ever hear noise from his meetings is when we get an old fart retired construction type laughing at some joke my boss cracked. Or when those same guys sneeze. Seriously every time those kind of guys sneeze I need to re-hang all of the pictures in my office. What is up with that?

ohsix · Posted: Jan 29, 2015 8:00 am Post subject:

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

Okie Boarder · Ladies Man Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 10056 City: Edmond

ohsix, good to know. Sounds like this one contractor we're talking to (who is probably going to be our first choice) likes doing some nice touches and is in to the techie stuff. We're going to look at a couple places he has done up similar to your house, including his own home. I've already told our architect to add a closet somewhere so we can have everything wired up and decide how we want to use it when the time comes.

ohsix · Posted: Jan 29, 2015 8:59 am Post subject:

chavez · RIP MHL 04/25/1958 - 01/11/2006

jjaszkow · Posted: Jan 29, 2015 6:03 pm Post subject:

Our access points are hidden in the closets, so most have a single Cat6 near the ceiling installed in them. This way, the AP's are hidden but we still get good coverage.

My exterior outlets are also all switched by two switches in the main entry closet. This way, during holiday season, the lights can be controlled via these smart switches rather than hanging timers around the house. Additionally, each corner of the house has a receptacle in the soffit to make for easy light wiring.

brew · Posted: Jan 29, 2015 7:07 pm Post subject:

On the mudroom discussion, we ended up with a pretty good solution on our house. The door coming in from the garage has an L shaped hallway that comes around to a side door where I park. We recessed a large built in into it that has 6 hooks across for jackets, a flat area to sit on to put shoes on, and then storage above and below. It cuts into the laundry room space some, but we used that short wall to put the controller for the alarm system.