If You Were having a Custom House Built
 

What would you have added if money doesn't matter ?

I got oversized 6 car garage with 8'X8' doors
Screen room in back with rock patio etc....
Extra hose hook up all over the outside and in yard
Wired for cable and phone etc in every room

What do you wish you added to your house ?

Steamroom, outside kitchen by pool.

hidden safe room

Not enough time nor space in one message to go into all of it.

Money no option?

Server room with dedicated A/C
T3
Hidden underground smoking room with viewing window into pool. (underwater)
Gigantic 30 sprayer shower

Shit I forgot the steam room :)

I got the kitchen on the patio !


Keep em comming !

midget rodeo

Insulated and heated garage with built in shelves and in the ground outlets ?

escape pod

How big is the lot you are building on (1acre, 5 acre, 10 acre)?
What state are you building in? (basements?)

You need to watch out on the 6 car garage. You do not want a Garage-Mahal.... meaning all 6 bays facing the street. I would also eliminate the 8x8 doors and go with 16' or 20' doors. 8' doors suck and take a large garage and make it feel tiny because you have the space between the doors preventing you from parking sideways (if you want to). I would also consider putting 3 bays on one side of the house and 3 bays on the other side (side entry garages) of the house with each garage having its own hallway in the house. I did this and I would not build a house any other way. If you do it this way you do not have a bunch of garage doors facing the road and because the garages are side entry it makes the house look that much bigger from the road.

I would also consider...

1. The tallest ceilings you can afford. I put 22' ceilings in the main areas of my house and 14' on all other areas. I wish I went bigger.

2. Tallest doors your ceilings can handle. Toss out all 6'8" doors and use at least 8' doors on the entry and 10' or larger on your sliders.

I could go on forever...

Thanks - go on forever because this is good info :)

Come on there's more ?

I Lol'd :1orglaugh

Midgets are just funny

man great stuff :)

8 Car Garage
Fiberoptics & Subs under my pool
Sound proofing in every room
More closets
Floor outlets in my office
A/C the Garage (I live in Florida it's too fucking hot in there)

Some things I already did that I would recommend:
Subs in all the main entertainment area's
In ceiling speakers throughout the house
3 Tv's in the main TV & theatre Room
Pre-Wire the entire house with Cat 5 for all A/V, Phone, Etc.
A/V Closet with HDMI to every room
Heat and Cool the pool

Floor to ceiling glass
Passive solar design
Active solar hot water and heating
Solar and wind power
Grey water management
20+ scenic acres with at least half wooded

bingo.

my next house is going to be custom built to my specs and that is something i am having added.

for valuables, and a place to hide when the cops come knocking.

I will also have:

8 car garage
pool w/ cave & waterfall hot tub
big ass yard for the doggies
my own art gallery
media room
wet bar
wine cellar
huge master bath with a huge walk in shower with no doors, we are talking 10' x 15'
waterfall in the house, but not free falling, more like water running down some rocks for a nice sound and ambient lighting
flat screens in every room
central sound system that runs throughout tehouse and outside
BBQ area with tv
putting green and a sand trap to practice my chipping and flop shots
game room w/ couple arcade games, bowling, pool table, wet bar, that bad ass golf game where you really hit the ball with real clubs into a screen that has real golf ccourse holes ( you get the idea, this game rocks)
off grid solar/wind system for free power and backup system connected to the grid
2 walk in closets with plenty of room that every piece of clothing can be spaced 3" apart and no set of shoes toucch eachother

anyone like my ideas?

Private landing strip
Tennis court
WG

Generator
Hidden gun safe
Tons of heated towel racks in the bathrooms
Towel closet in the bathrooms
State of the art alarm system with multiple cameras and remote data storage
Backup communications systems such as cellular and satellite
Lap pool
Inground hot tub for 6 people minimum
Tennis court
Super insulated roof with solar radiation barrier

30000kw solar array.

You have to have a 1/4 mile drag strip in the backyard. It's a must!

hidden safe room

your neighbors would love you

LOL

i forgot to add in heated floors with marble or travertine

are you planning on nuking a country?

wtf you need 30k/kw for?
that couldd power 6-8 houses

Yes. I'm planning on collecting the solar energy into a high powered reflector beam so I can blow up Chinese spy satellites.

PS hi.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

that sounds cool :thumbsup

ummm hi..?..?

you mentioned you knew me from ST chat, who you be?

Nice I'll add this one plus heated drive way and walks!

you are going to heat yor driveway? umm, ok....


a heated garage is always nice if you live up north and the winters are bitter cold....

nothing worse than getting tono a freezing car in the morning and it takes forever to get the heat going

You aren't a real pimp unless you have a personal space elevator!

how could i forget the railing chair lift that goes up my half circle staircase to the 2nd floor

I'm only two hours from Canada so ice and snow is a bitch for about three months every winter !

I've done the backwords swan dive in my driveway several times.

ahh i get it, i lived in NH for 5 years i remember those days of shoveling the drive way and side walk....

do they make systems strong enough to thaw ice out doors in that kind of weather?

They make it but I don't know the costs ?

My list has over 60 items now and I'll add what my budget allows. I'm
starting outside then working in.

don't go with a lap pool.. takes up too much space. Get an Endless Pool. Best workout around

60 items? if you were a baller like RogerV, you would have 61 items.

if you cant pay to play, then you need to sit this one out!

Hahahah that's awesome!

The $80,000 upgrade package from the custom builder already has three pages of shit listed so I'm not counting these plus 60K in landscaping etc..

I think this is where our terminology going to diverge.

Custom Home (to me): Designed by an architect to your needs. They are no "upgrades" everything is designed to be bad ass and the builder is given a spec sheet of all of the components to be used on the inside and outside of a house. You can take this to an extreme by providing hardscape design, landscape design, etc. from a Landscape Architect.

What you are describing is taking a builder's model and making modifications.

Two vastly different things.

If I was you I would consider going to an architect with your ideas and then bidding the completed drawings out with a few builders/contractors. In the end you will have a better house and it will not be a house you Frankensteined with suggestions from GFY. To go from schematic phase (cocktail napkin) to bid sets is not that much money (depending on your location and the total sq footage).

Another issue you need to consider is the building lot you are putting this house on and the houses around you. Putting a $1mil house in a $350K neighborhood will make you king of the 'hood, but when you try to sell it... you are going to take it in the shorts. If the neighborhood can not support the house you want to build... find another lot.

Good input but I haven't selected a builder, lot or design yet.

I'm working outside in with the final design and square footage being the last
thing we'll decide. In fact the McDaddy garage may require a 100% custom design? It may require getting the plan made by a third party ? But, maybe one of the builders can adapt one of their designs with their in house team ?

One thing I do know is I see a ton of houses that cost 600K and up that have weeds for the front yards and shitty trim inside and a $300 stove with but they have a 4200 SF house that sucks.

I don't need 2 master bedrooms upstairs or three family rooms because I'll only use one of each.

Anyway it's just a wish list and we'll use some that make sense to us :)

friggin hell, some awesome ideas in this thread.

I am about to build a contemporary villa, with infinity pool, solar panels, wireless broadband connection throughout, big screen tv, etc. This thread has given me so many new ideas. Thanks!

Verizon FIOS is faster than a T3...

The master bathroom with a tiny pond with a fountain, lights and stones to walk to the bath tub. I saw it in a villa in Bali. Pretty impressive :thumbsup

Nice !!!!!!!

Any More ?

Everyone has already mentioned some awesome ideas.

For me? Secret passageways :thumbsup

I'd get a 2 story mobile home....for people with money.

A space elevator.


http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/b...ceElevator.jpg