[stinkyfj60]

Originally Posted by Jman

That could be good, or bad. Do you ever take business trips?

LOl, the couple that "plays" together, stays together...

[Jman]

Or, the couple that stays together, never letting the other one out of sight, can't play separately. . . .

[stinkyfj60]

You know, we are still pretty effecient at taking down threads, I think the Govt. could learn something.

[Jman]

Originally Posted by stinkyfj60

You know, we are still pretty effecient at taking down threads, I think the Govt. could learn something.

Are you saying we need to start visiting the al-Qaeda website?

[albee]

cat-5 cable in every room, Install tube in walls for central vac(for future use) Run extra central vac line from basement to attic( for future wire chase). Put two 3/4" copper from basement to attic(for future solar pannel or a/c). If you have to put a septic tank, size system for one more bedroom then you plan. It makes a future addition very easy. Try to define rolls with your wife and give her final say so on some parts of the house. Lots of give and take on both parts. If something is really not important to you let her choose.

[Azrocks]

Originally Posted by Jman

Time savers for housework:

1. Put the washer/dryer on same floor/near bedrooms. Why lug laundry to the other side of the house?

2. Bathrooms that have tile floors should have a drain in them; better yet, have a walk-in shower with a slightly sunken floor so that you can mop the bathroom floor and push the water down the drain.

3. Screw that seat up/seat down bullshit--next house, the bathroom that I use the most is getting a urinal.

Another thing that I do that people seem to love is when installing a central vac, put a kick plate in the kitchen. They are awesome! I'm thinking about putting a kickplate in the garage as well.

[Azrocks]

Originally Posted by tcb

stripper poles????

You laugh but a client I do high-end A/V for has just that in his master bedroom! Totally classic!

[Jman]

I think my next house needs a dungeon for Dita. . . .

[whodat]

Dammit, stinky and JMAN...would one of you change your avatar.

[TX_TLC]

Here are a few things we did on our house now in progress:

12' ceilings in main living area
Large laundry room (couple plans we looked at had the master closet connected to the laundry room- kinda neat)
Outlets in the floor
Outlets under the outdoor soffits (sp) for Christmas lights
Wash tub in Laundry room/close to garage (for Birfield job )
Instant hot water "tanks"
Semi Walk in closets in spare rooms
Closet in Bonus Room to market as another Bedroom
Surround Sound wiring
Cat 5 in everyroom (INCLUDING KITCHEN AND GARAGE - it is cheap now...)
Slave co-axial cables from room to room

[LoveTractor]

Originally Posted by TX_TLC

Surround Sound wiring
Cat 5 in everyroom (INCLUDING KITCHEN AND GARAGE - it is cheap now...)
Slave co-axial cables from room to room

Ditto x2(albee too). Future-proof for any electronics you may want down the road. Cat5+, coaxial, speaker, and phone(although it's pretty much the same as Cat5+) wire to a every room. Much more convenient then fishing/pulling cable through the walls later.

I'll be waiting for some sexual joke about "fishing/pulling cable through walls."

[Cookiemonster]

Already built it.

[Azrocks]

My current company does high-end residential low voltage. The house I'm building is over the top when it comes to wiring.

Here's some of what I have in place. The home should be finished in about three months (hopefully!!)
- Central vac w/ garage kit and kick plate in kitchen
- exterior cameras
- distributed audio in kitchen, den, bed1, bed2, bed3, masterbedroom, master bathroom, master sitting area, garage, hallway, stubbed out for rock speakers, patio (x2), entryway (holiday music!), guest bathroom (drown out embarassing noises)
- over the top security cabling
- 2 cat5e, 2 rg6 quad on at least three walls of every room.
- surround in great room, w cabling for projector, drop down screen
- separate tv locations in masterbath tub area, behind mirrors (use 2 way glass,only see when on), master bed sitting area. These locations are higher and have power available.
- all low voltage wiring for gate control, irrigation, etc. all home run into common area.
- Door strike control on entry and exit doors

Everything home runs into a closet where I have two 42" structured wiring cans. There will also be a slide out rack to house all the audio gear for the house, media servers, surge control, etc, etc.

Instead of a plasma over the fireplace in the great room, I've decided to go with a motorized projection screen (110") and projector (In-Focus) and motorized blackout shades and/or shutters.

The distributed audio cabling is 4 conductor with a category 5e for touchpad control and/or IP speakers.

There's a whole bunch more stuff but needless to say, it's a rediculous amount of cabling!

[Benson]

We are in the process of designing a house right now, and will break ground in July. A few things not listed so far:

-"Mud room" off of garage including lockers for the kids to put their shoes, coats, backpacks and other crap when they get home from school.

-"Trex" material for exterior decks - no staining required ever.

-Gas line to patio for BBQ grill - no more propane

-240 volts to garage for big compressor/welder

-Humidifier/air cleaner for HVAC systems (dry and dusty in Utah)

-LOTS of energy savers (2x6 exterior walls, upgraded insulation, lowE glass, manablock plumbing, high efficiency heater, etc).

-9 or 10' ceilings in basements

I'm sure there's a lot more/cooler stuff to do, but it's amazing how quickly the money goes.

EDIT: I've seen some homes with slides from floor to floor for kids, as well as laundry chutes so you don't have to carry dirty clothes around. Sport courts/home gyms are also big right now.

[PromontoryCruiser80]

Heated garage floor.

[Azrocks]

Benson,
I wasn't able to get it on my current house but I thought it would be pretty cool to run air compressor lines in the garage walls to have air outlets on all sides of the garage. Also I think it would be nice if you use your garage that is attached to your house as a shop to house the compressor in a sound deadening enclosure.

[45Kevin]

Some things that I put in:
Sound insulation on interior walls, especially the bathrooms
Powder room near garage and back door, don't need to tromp through house to use
Co-ax to every room, home run
Home run to all taps-consider reciculation for the hot
As many separate circuits as possible
Some switched outlets
Solid core interior doors for sound dampening - brand name Safe & Sound
12ga wire in the garage - even for the 120V cicuits
Low-e glazing
36" front door
Bring all your utilities into the house underground - use conduit if possible
If you have future plans that you can't afford now,at least get the rough-in done. I am thinking about gas fireplaces in particular
Put an outlet in the masterbath vanity so the can easily use and store her curler, dryer, shaver etc. without having cords all over.
And something I see on a lot of the homes I work on is a pop-up mechanism for flat TV's. I see them in bedrooms, master closets that are BIG and dens, built into cabinetry. They take up about 10" at the back of a desk or dresser or on a kitchen counter. You can also get flip down flat TV's that go under the upper cabinets in your kitchen. High end stuff though.

[archie]

Security Safes in every walk in closet. That way if anybody breaks in it would be very hard to chose the safe that has the important stuff.
The other safes could have all the sex toys.

[DSRTRDR]

Radiant heat in the floor

geothermal - the ultimate energy saver !!!

[Poriomania]

Originally Posted by 45Kevin

And something I see on a lot of the homes I work on is a pop-up mechanism for flat TV's....
They take up about 10" at the back of a desk or dresser or on a kitchen counter. You can also get flip down flat TV's that go under the upper cabinets in your kitchen. High end stuff though.

I find this amusing becasue back in '98 I worked on an upper end house that had a pit formed in the foundation about three feet deep so that the owner could have his TV sink into the floor. Now you only need ten inches in the wall. Never saw that coming.