What feature do you like about your house, garage, hangar, etc???

When I built our house, things I still like...
Hot and cold water both to outdoor spigots.
Security lights with three-way switches...one in MBR and one in utility rm.
Lighted and floored attic. Lighted crawl space.
Dual shower heads.
80 gal water heater.
Copper water lines. No leaks after 17 yrs.
Interconnected smoke alarms in every room.
Wood burner.
2" concrete slab in crawl space. Use creeper to get around.

Things I don't like....
Cut ends of hardiplank concrete siding absorb water, swell and break apart with freezing temperatures. Holds paint very well though.
Wood framed windows rot if not kept well painted and caulked. Vinyl would be better.
9:12 shingled roof pitch is not easy to stay on.
Jacuzzi tub only gets used once per yr.
Plantings to close to house making it difficult to repaint hardiplank after 16 yrs.
 
RV10flyer said:
Jacuzzi tub only gets used once per yr.
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This. They rival the 'formal dining room' in the olympiad of uselessness. I have a really nice shower, and left to me to decide, the master bath would have gotten a corner for a couch before it got a tub. But it wasn't left to me to decide ;-)

Plantings to close to house making it difficult to repaint hardiplank after 16 yrs.
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Dont ####ing plant any ####ing evergreens anywhere close to the house.

Oh, and never plant crapmyrtles anywhere around your house. What a pain in the ass they are.

Gravel and cactii are the secret to landscaping happiness.
 
weilke said:
Oh, and never plant crapmyrtles anywhere around your house. What a pain in the ass they are.

Gravel and cactii are the secret to landscaping happiness.
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What the hell kind of crape myrtle do you have that can be described as a pain in the ass?! They don’t grow at a particularly rapid rate, can be purchased to mature in many different heights, are mostly drought-tolerant, and don’t make too much mess. Sure, you have to trim them up once a year or so, but I can’t imagine many other shrubs that require any less maintenance other than maybe a boxwood.


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SoonerAviator said:
What the hell kind of crape myrtle do you have that can be described as a pain in the ass?! They don’t grow at a particularly rapid rate, can be purchased to mature in many different heights, are mostly drought-tolerant, and don’t make too much mess.
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They grow like bamboo, dump their stupid little pods to clog everything up and catch every damn fungus in the air. Hate them.
 
Kritchlow said:
A screened in porch.
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We have two screened porches. Both also have fireplaces.

We have two pocket doors. One is a double set that separates the "bedroom" part of the guest suite from the sitting area. The other divides off the toilet area from the bath area of one of the downstairs bathrooms.
 
A couple of random comments...

To whoever said have access to all in-wall plumbing, YES! All my fixtures, except the kitchen sink, will be on the common wall 'twixt the living quarters and garage. Access panels will be installed on the garage side of the wall at each location. Also, this wall will be 6" to allow for both insulation and plumbing.

To those who mentioned gutter guards, NO! I absolutely hate gutter guards. IMO all they accomplish is moving the problem from the bottom of the gutter to the top. To the top, closer to the shingles, metal roofing, flashings, etc. where a back-up can do a lot more damage than at the bottom. This is especially true if you have large trees that spit small pods that will plug the guards instead of flushing off...and this property does. If one has a very steep roof that is high in the air then, yeah, gutter guards may be a worthwhile investment, but on a roof that's 6/12 or less, especially on a single story house, I find it far easier to clean the gutters occasionally with a leaf blower than to clean plugged guards.

Pocket doors. They serve their purpose, I'll have a few. All the interior doors of my last house were pocket doors (12 of 'em) and they were high maintance because they were pushing 20 years old. They're not fun to work on or replace the rollers on. They have their functional downside, mostly that they open from the wrong end, something I never really got used to even though I was in that house for 10 years.

Screened in porch. Porch yes, screened in, no. Not enough bugs to justify it in this neck of the woods and screens impede nice breezes.
 
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Oh - look at Kieth Rucker's shop - he used metal roofing as wainscoting - looks pretty nice and will stand up to a bump or two. (I put my planer through the drywall the first day that I was moving stuff into the shop.)

Skip to 26:40
 
Cool, thanks!

Oh, one other thing...central vacs. One word in response: ROOMBA!

I have three, two on active duty and one in reserve. The two are programmed to run for an hour every day. Each does 1/2 of a 2,000sf house and are separated by a "lighthouse" gizmo that comes with the machines.

All I have to do is:

* clean the bins every other day.
* clean the brushes every few weeks.
* rescue one of them every few days when it either gets lost or stuck.
* I vacuum manually about once every month.

They keep the house pretty spotless and the great thing about them is they're low profile and vacuum under the bed, nightstands, dressers, tables, chairs, couches, etc., places that rarely get vacuumed when doing it manually.

I love my slave vacuums, because even with a central vac you still have to do the work yourself!!

Pets: My shepherd husky mix is a house dog a leaves his undercoat everywhere he goes, roomba handles it nicely.
 
The things I like about my house are: the view, it's paid for, the 60x40 pole barn 'garage', the land it sits on.

What I wish the house had....master bath has a large soaking tub. Useless. I wish it were gone and in its place a walk-in shower that needs no curtain. The toilet will be one of those fabulous Japanese toilets with the heated seat and built in bidet.

No carpet. Anywhere. Been in Thailand for two months and I've come to love the marble/tiles floors. Mine will have radiant heating and drains in the kitchen and bathroom so I can use a liberal amount of soap and water to clean the floor and then just hose the thing down.

Two kitchens. One 'normal' western kitchen, and a smaller, well ventilated Thai style kitchen where I can cook curries and such and not fumigate the house while I'm at it.

More storage space. You think you have enough, then one day, you don't.
 
We have a jacuzzi tub. Useless. Perhaps it's unique to our model/installation, but:
- too small. At 5'11", I simply don't fit.
- doesn't actively heat the water

Informal survey of several of our neighbors (wide variety of ages) says no one uses them, though they seem to be almost necessary for a home to be considered "higher-end".
 
scottfromboston said:
We have a jacuzzi tub. Useless. Perhaps it's unique to our model/installation, but:
- too small. At 5'11", I simply don't fit.
- doesn't actively heat the water

Informal survey of several of our neighbors (wide variety of ages) says no one uses them, though they seem to be almost necessary for a home to be considered "higher-end".
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I've only used mine once, and that was when I had injured my back and needed some relief. My wife uses it about once every other month, especially if she's not feeling great and needs to soak. The downside to my installation (aside from no active heating), is that my water heater is not sized to be able to fill it (it easily fits me at 6', 225lbs with room to spare). I normally put two large pots of water on the stove to boil in order to be able to bring the water up to temp, lol.
 
SoonerAviator said:
I've only used mine once, and that was when I had injured my back and needed some relief. My wife uses it about once every other month, especially if she's not feeling great and needs to soak. The downside to my installation (aside from no active heating), is that my water heater is not sized to be able to fill it (it easily fits me at 6', 225lbs with room to spare). I normally put two large pots of water on the stove to boil in order to be able to bring the water up to temp, lol.
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I'd much rather put in a small sauna (one neighbor did).
 
timwinters said:
Cool, thanks!

Oh, one other thing...central vacs. One word in response: ROOMBA!

I have three, two on active duty and one in reserve. The two are programmed to run for an hour every day. Each does 1/2 of a 2,000sf house and are separated by a "lighthouse" gizmo that comes with the machines.

All I have to do is:

* clean the bins every other day.
* clean the brushes every few weeks.
* rescue one of them every few days when it either gets lost or stuck.
* I vacuum manually about once every month.

They keep the house pretty spotless and the great thing about them is they're low profile and vacuum under the bed, nightstands, dressers, tables, chairs, couches, etc., places that rarely get vacuumed when doing it manually.

I love my slave vacuums, because even with a central vac you still have to do the work yourself!!

Pets: My shepherd husky mix is a house dog a leaves his undercoat everywhere he goes, roomba handles it nicely.
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I had a Roomba, what a waste. It took more time to clean the tiny bin and underside that it did to hand-vac a whole floor. Maybe the newer gen are better.
 
pet washing space (if you have a pooch)
220v electric in garage for welder, compressor
consider garage floor pitch or drain option
 
I wish we had a much larger kitchen sink.

I really wish we had an overhead vent above the stove that exhausted outside rather than right back into the kitchen.
 
Matthew said:
I wish we had a much larger kitchen sink.

I really wish we had an overhead vent above the stove that exhausted outside rather than right back into the kitchen.
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Those were two important things for us when we redid our kitchen as well. Our previous house in Ohio had neither.
 
Matthew said:
I really wish we had an overhead vent above the stove that exhausted outside rather than right back into the kitchen.
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The nuttiness of energy star homes.

My mother in law is nigerian and likes to cook fish stews. I now have a commercial vent hood that can suck 1200 cfm of heated or air conditioned air out the house through a 10in duct :-0
 
weilke said:
The nuttiness of energy star homes.

My mother in law is nigerian and likes to cook fish stews. I now have a commercial vent hood that can suck 1200 cfm of heated or air conditioned air out the house through a 10in duct :-0
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In our house the stove has an overhead microwave with integrated exhaust. It pulls through a couple of stainless steel filters that catch airborne grease, but there's really no way to catch smoke if you decide to cook certain things - it just blows it around the house. The garage is on the opposite side of that wall. I suppose I could re-work it all to exhaust into the garage, but to vent it outside might be a problem with duct routing and length. I have decided that when I cook things that smoke a lot, I put a cast iron skillet on the grill right outside the kitchen door and let the neighbors deal with the fallout.
 
In the house where we had the 48" "professional" range we had a massive hood that vented through the wall. Very handy.
The new house will have to pipe the hood 20' or so over to the outside vent. Not a problem. Still better than nothing.

Our cooktop will be induction this time, but if I was going to do gas again, NO DOWNDRAFT vents. That is such a pain as it sucks the burner flames sideways (at least the crap GE one we have).
 
Matthew said:
In our house the stove has an overhead microwave with integrated exhaust. It pulls through a couple of stainless steel filters that catch airborne grease, but there's really no way to catch smoke if you decide to cook certain things - it just blows it around the house. The garage is on the opposite side of that wall. I suppose I could re-work it all to exhaust into the garage, but to vent it outside might be a problem with duct routing and length. I have decided that when I cook things that smoke a lot, I put a cast iron skillet on the grill right outside the kitchen door and let the neighbors deal with the fallout.
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That's how it was set up when I bought the place. There is a small attic above the single garage that backs against the kitchen. I had them install the actual blower in that attic. To avoid having a roof penetration, the duct dives back into the garage and comes out the back wall. Preferable over having the smell of stockfish blown all through the house ;-)
 
This thread is great. For our next house, I plan to buy a large lot (hopefully on air park) and build a custom house on it rather than buy preexisting or a cookie cutter. Several fantastic ideas on here that I hadn't thought of. I'm adding these to my list that I have going.
 
Absolutely gas cooking, and a second oven big enough to cook a 20lb turkey.
 
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I'd like a kitchen based 2nd fridge (no freezer), and then put a freezer in the garage. Right now, the "beer fridge" in the garage handles all the overflow from the freezer in our current kitchen fridge. The 2nd fridge can be small, hold drinks, and maybe the occasional turkey, ham, pork butts, briskets, or whatever doesn't fit in the main. Yeah, I know there are some huge refrigerators out there - double and triple wide - but a "drink fridge" and a dedicated freezer seem more practical.
 
Who knows, after I get the main hangar/residence built, I may list the garage/apartment as a fly-in vacation rental. It's on Route 66 with one of the area's state-run trout fishing areas nearby. And Lake of the Ozarks, Branson, Bass Pro, etc., are all less than an hour's drive. I have plenty of vehicles to be able to include one as a courtesy car.

Maybe, just maybe, it would be the first true "air property" listed on Air BnB! :)

I imagine insurance would make that plan cost prohibitive though.

Oh, well.

I guess you all will just have to come and enjoy it for free.
 
When I'm not on this forum, or a photography forum, I love to check out the Garage Journal Board. If you haven't found it already, it's an awesome source for endless reading about garages, etc. Go to gallery for tons of inspiration.
 
paflyer said:
Absolutely gas cooking, and a second oven big enough to gook a 20lb turkey.
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And look into getting two separate ovens rather than a 'double oven'. They are expensive and if the controller goes TU both are disabled.
 
timwinters said:
It's on Route 66 with one of the area's state-run trout fishing areas nearby. And Lake of the Ozarks, Branson, Bass Pro, etc., are all less than an hour's drive.
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And....don’t forget that the World’s Largest gift store is just up the road!
 
weilke said:
And look into getting two separate ovens rather than a 'double oven'. They are expensive and if the controller goes TU both are disabled.
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Yep. Good point. Plus double ovens tend to be smaller.
 
After looking into a senior living place for my folks, I've decided I like the way they did the dishwasher and oven - mounted the DW on a short platform so you don't have to bend over as far, and they have a wall oven to also help with having to bend over.

We have a separate cooktop and oven, but they are mounted together. The cooktop is above the oven, like a conventional range. The problem with that arrangement is that the oven ends up lower than what you would get with a range, and I have to either really bend over or get on a knee if I want to reach something in the back.
 
Low ovens are a pain. We are having two ovens mounted but in deference to my shorter wife, they will have doors that swing like a car door rather than like a tailgate. This allows her to reach all the way in without having to lean way over the door.
 
flyingron said:
Low ovens are a pain. We are having two ovens mounted but in deference to my shorter wife, they will have doors that swing like a car door rather than like a tailgate. This allows her to reach all the way in without having to lean way over the door.
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Another design that works well is the one where an entire 'carriage' with the oven front and the racks slides out and you access the cookie sheets, turkey etc. from the sides.

With the double oven we have one that is too low and one that is too high ;-)

A friend has what was mentioned earlier. Two different size ovens. One large enough to roast a small pig and the other one smaller just to bake a pizza for the kids.
 
I've been thinking a lot about the one big open space design that seems popular as opposed to the traditional kitchen separate. Our current house has the open design, the kitchen is on one side separated by a large counter at which we have bar stools, and the living area is right there, so that someone working in the kitchen can also watch the TV or participate in the conversation happening in the living area.

But what usually ends up happening is whomever is trying to cook or clean up in the kitchen is banging pots around and cabinet doors and making noise to disturb whomever is watching the TV. Also I think some cooks don't appreciate guests hanging right there in the kitchen while you're trying to cook.

My mom's house on the other hand has the kitchen separated from the living room with the dining room in between and a door to close to boot. Two sets of door actually because they installed folding doors between the dining room and living room. So whomever is cooking can make all the noise they want and not disturb the TV folks. They may also order everyone "out!" if they get too bothersome while you are trying to cook.

But that traditional arrangement seems dead, I speculate because people assume nowadays the cook wants to be included in whatever is going on in the living area at all times.

In my case that's a false assumption. Am I alone here? If I get the chance to design a home, there will be a way to close off the kitchen from the main living area.

Maybe this is addressed by having a "den" that is away from the kitchen but not all homes have that extra bonus room.

I know you are asking for smaller ideas not grand design concepts, but I can't get this question off my mind and wandered what others think.
 
Rushie said:
I've been thinking a lot about the one big open space design that seems popular as opposed to the traditional kitchen separate. Our current house has the open design, the kitchen is on one side separated by a large counter at which we have bar stools, and the living area is right there, so that someone working in the kitchen can also watch the TV or participate in the conversation happening in the living area.

But what usually ends up happening is whomever is trying to cook or clean up in the kitchen is banging pots around and cabinet doors and making noise to disturb whomever is watching the TV. Also I think some cooks don't appreciate guests hanging right there in the kitchen while you're trying to cook.

My mom's house on the other hand has the kitchen separated from the living room with the dining room in between and a door to close to boot. Two sets of door actually because they installed folding doors between the dining room and living room. So whomever is cooking can make all the noise they want and not disturb the TV folks. They may also order everyone "out!" if they get too bothersome while you are trying to cook.

But that traditional arrangement seems dead, I speculate because people assume nowadays the cook wants to be included in whatever is going on in the living area at all times.

In my case that's a false assumption. Am I alone here? If I get the chance to design a home, there will be a way to close off the kitchen from the main living area.

Maybe this is addressed by having a "den" that is away from the kitchen but not all homes have that extra bonus room.

I know you are asking for smaller ideas not grand design concepts, but I can't get this question off my mind and wandered what others think.
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We have that open style. Kitchen with a counter/island that separates it from the eating area, and the open family room is right next to all of that.

Our way of dealing with distractions: if you are watching TV and kitchen noise bothers you, either turn up the volume, go somewhere else, or help. What actually DOES get to be an inconvenience - if you don't have a quiet dishwasher, you need to remember to set it to run after you go to bed, otherwise watching a movie or whatever can be a pain.

I used to live in a house that had a large kitchen, a door to a butler's pantry, then another door to the dining room. I think we ate almost exclusively in that kitchen, though.

I dunno, I can get used to either way.
 
I'm kind of surprised that 153 posts in , no one has mentioned insulated concrete form construction. For those not familiar, think super-sized Lego blocks. The finished products is a concrete wall with 3" of foam on the inside and outside, solid from the footings to the roof. Think spray foam on steroids. Very energy-efficient. Ours is a bit over 2k square feet with a full basement under it, and between the construction, heat pump, and LED lights, we use about 700 kwh a month....no LP or natural gas to the house. Temp difference between main and basement was 3 degrees when we hit -12 earlier this month. Probably added 15% over stick-built to the cost.

Jim
 
A simple thing: overhead lights in the garage.

House #1 had a light switch on the garage side, next to the the door going into the house and another switch near the main garage doors. Made it very convenient to be working outside when it was getting dark and being able to flip on the garage lights from the driveway end of the garage. If I was inside the house and wanted to turn on the garage lights I had to open the door to get to the switch, not a big deal.

House #2 has a single switch on the house side of the interior door. If I'm outside and it gets dark and I want to turn on the overhead light, I have to stumble through an unlit garage, open the interior door, reach inside, turn on the light, then close the door again.
 
Matthew said:
What actually DOES get to be an inconvenience - if you don't have a quiet dishwasher, you need to remember to set it to run after you go to bed, otherwise watching a movie or whatever can be a pain.
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Yes, I'm so glad I spent the extra $100 to get a few more dB noise reduction for our new dishwasher. It's so quiet we have trouble telling that it's actually running and have to watch the timer change down to be sure it's started. It's no factor at all with the TV.
 
Matthew said:
A simple thing: overhead lights in the garage.
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The electricians looked at me like I was crazy when I told them I wanted 8 x 4' LED shop lights in the 2 car garage.
They put them on a pair of 3 way switches one inside the man door and one inside the door to the house(garage side). After they left I replaced the outlets that they plugged into with Z-Wave controllable outlets and replaced each switch with a 5 button controller. 4 buttons control pairs of lights and the 5th turns everything all. I like having the option of "enough light to grab something" and "surface of the sun for doing work".
 
SkyDog58 said:
This thread is great. For our next house, I plan to buy a large lot (hopefully on air park) and build a custom house on it rather than buy preexisting or a cookie cutter. Several fantastic ideas on here that I hadn't thought of. I'm adding these to my list that I have going.
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You might add exhaust fans for all that hot air you spout! BOOM!
 
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