Twice so far.
Third time coming up.

You never get it right, unless you have more money than you need.

Yup - we are on our second build too. First was with a more typical development builder. We were young and didn't have a ton of money so we didn't really do too much special. But it was a great investment that enabled us to build again 6 years later.

This time we are going more custom. We know more of what we want, what worked for us and what didn't. Still don't have a "ton" of money but more than we had before! I am sure we are still making some mistakes but hopefully less than the 1st time!

I wouldn't be shocked if we buit again down the road. It's hard to live in a resale after building and everything being new and what you picked out.

We just finished our 3rd and last. The first....we were very young and had no experience. There were many things wrong with that house...too many to list!! It was poorly designed with no storage space at all. So on the second go-round, I modified some plans I ordered from the internet. It was 2 story (3 if you count the bonus room in the attic), 8' ceilings, formal living room, and I hated it. This time, I designed it again and fixed everything I didn't like about the second one. It is open and roomy, lots of large common areas but only 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Lots of porch area and a huge sunroom. Vaulted ceilings, one story (with a bonus craft room over the master bedroom) LOTS of color on the walls. I didn't "settle" for anything....I waited until I could afford what I really wanted and got it, especially in the kitchen. I have loads of storage throughout the house and tons of drawers in the kitchen (26 to be exact). It took almost 7 years but we moved in on Christmas eve and I cooked for 13 people on Christmas day. What a wonderful and memorable Christmas. This is my forever home and it is just perfect. There is nothing I would have changed.

Cindy

Wow, I would love to see pictures of these second or third timers!

Here's a link to some of my finished house pictures. None from the outside yet....it still looks like a construction site and our temporary home (a 1986 mobile home) is still parked in front of it. Hopefully I can get that thing moved out within the next month or so.

Cindy

Here is a link that might be useful: my house pictures

Yep. Current house is build #3. Like others have posted in this thread, we did not really understand the building process (it was a semi-custom plan that we tweaked) on the first shot. Too many dumb mistakes (penny foolish) to list. In our first house, we were so concerned about the dreaded mortgage that we went waay too conservative on the budget. Within 2 years we spent $25k and a ton of sweat equity labor to make it closer to what we really wanted. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Our experience is identical too ccoombs1.

Our second house came out very nice as we knew what to include. Grad school changed the plans on staying in that house. Have you ever met a rich grad student? :) Thank god that's over.

Our current build is very similar to our first house with all the mistakes corrected.

We have learned to despise the upkeep of wood/PT lumber. I'm very picky about not having wear marks too my front door. This house will have granite steps front & rear. No deck, but a patio.

Upstairs laundry. I workout 6 days/week training for triathlons, cross country so it generates a lot of laundry. Our current build will have a second floor laundry and there should never be a reason to carry a clothes basket up and down stairs.

More outlets than I could ever need. Cable TV outlet in kitchen for an under cabinet TV for my wife. Extra water spigot.

Sconces in the entry hallway for a more distinctive look.

More powerful bathroom fans.

Framed and finished hallway corners. Other than in the bedrooms, there are no corners in the house that are just drywall & mud.

Taller baseboard trim.

Gas fireplace. Soooo much cheaper to add when house is new.

Quality flooring. First house had contractor grade stuff that was total crap.

Upgraded furnance. Current build is near top of the line with several energy efficient add-ons. Cold start boiler with indirect tank and outdoor return.

Grilles in the windows. Out first house had the snap in kind. They were Andersen but the snap in grilles just sucked.

Current build will have flood lights to illuminate all four sides of the house. First house was front and back and the sides were like the dark side of the moon.

Master bathroom. First house was two full baths but no Mbath. This is something we'd never buy a house without again.

I could go on for an hour about how we hosed up our first build.......

Great pics ccoombs1! Thank you :)

nc_lawn_nut I really enjoyed your list. We have some of the things like yours already - I have already broken a snap in window grill from Andersen, next time they'll be inside the windows or not at all. What phase of building are you in right now?

We just started house number 3....hoping to get it right this time!
With our 1st build we cut a lot of corners due to our budget, and were generally clueless about building a home. Did no research whatsoever. Home was much smaller than we would have liked.
Our current home is nice,a little bigger but still missing some important (to us) features.
The new build will have the following changes:
1. DEDICATED OFFICE/STUDY on the main floor: this is something I have REALLY missed in our previous and current home.
2. WALK-IN PANTRY: I can't wait for this..absoultely essential for us.
3. GEOTHERMAL: Had zoned HVAC in the last 2 homes and loved the cost savings. Geothermal is a big expense up front, but I think it will be well worth it, since we plan to stay in this home for a while.
4.1.5 STORY: Our last 2 homes were walkout ranches, which I love, but right now, our home's layout does not afford much privacy to our 2 girls (now 12 and 13 yrs old). When we built our current home, we did not take into account the fact that our then 6 and 7 year olds would get bigger!
The new build will have have master on the main with girls bedrooms upstairs.
5.COUNTERTOPS: I regret getting corian in our current home...its a pain to keep looking good. We will be getting Cambria quartz countertops this time.
6. This time (unlike the last two homes) we will NOT be bricking the entire front of the home! It looks beautiful,and we gave in to the temptation! This time, with our budget, I could not justify the cost of doing this. I'd much rather spend the money on the inside spaces/finishes/sizes. We will have some brick, but not all.
WOOD FLOORS: Again, we skimped on this in our current home, which is bad because all homes in our neighborhood in our price range have wood floors. New build WILL have wood floors!
IN GROUND IRRIGATION: Have it now, and will be getting again...it is SOOO worth it!

Yes, you learn with each build, but I am sure that by the time we are done, there will be something I have overlooked! I think the key is to really prioritize your needs and wants. This time,I made a list of 'must haves, and 'nice to have but not essential'. I also put the associated costs next to each item in the list. This helps keep me on track, whenever I get tempted! Wish I could post pics of our plan...but have to figure out how. Might just get DH to do it!
BTW, we broke ground in November last year, but are already in a delay due to snow/ice :(

Our first was a tear down remodel were we did alot of the work ourselves.

The second is a custom in a small town.

Lessons learned from the first one:
- don't need sitting area in Master Bedroom. We found that it was a waste of space so eliminated it in our second home.
- had too many hallways
- had a custom front door that really set the mood of the house.
- importance of having master on main floor after DH destroyed his ankle. Recovery from the surgery would have been horrid without the master being on the main floor.
- Elfen Closet Organizers are over rated.
- Loved having a counter over my front loaders in the laundry room. Best laundry room I have ever had since it was a big square with cabinets on 3 sides and counters for wraping, etc. Had to give that up in the new house.
- that we love high ceilings
- On this house, we did alot of neat stuff that we saw on this site and others but learned that much of it was a waste because of the way we lived. 2nd house we really thought about exactly HOW we would use the house and what elements added to this expereince and what wouldn't. Example: Second house has a fantastic kitchen with a million drawers because we both love to cook but the bath in the guest wing is a lot more simple than in the first build since it only gets used 4 - 6 times a year.
- have a sense of humor. Sometimes you just have to laugh when things go wrong because anger and angst gets you no where.

Second House - Since this was the first time working with a GC, we had a whole new set of lessons learned. The house is suppose to be finish next week,
- Our first build took years so we had time to think about picking out just the right things and to fiddle with design elements as we went. With a GC, you don't have that advantage since they work at a faster pace. 5 months vs. 3 years. I don't think we did as good at picking stuff out on the second.
- we went for easy to care items instead of what looks great. example: We are building on 8 acres of sand, gravel and prickly things so instead of having wood floors which we love the look of, we chose to have tile through 75% of the house including the base boards.
- Items such as roof tiles and bathroom tiles look different when they are in a mass instead of looking at a sample. both our roof tiles and shower tiles look so much brighter in a mass than in a single sample.
- If you have a vision, stick with it even though everyone else trys to talk you our of it. Listen to what they are saying but decide for yourself if you agree. Don't listen to the "but everyone else does it this way" We found that contractors, subs and venders are most comfortable in doing what they have done before and you may have to really push to get your vision.
- this is just the opposite of the above. Listen to your subs. We worked closely with the subs and vendors (the builder wasn't use to this). They had some really good ideas that helped to keep the costs down and make things better. The Tile sub and the vendor (two different people) were great at working with us on layouts and seletion to give us the look we wanted and a reasonable cost.
- If you are making changes to your plans, be sure to go everything with a fine tooth comb. We changed the look of the windows across the back but didn't catch that one window didn't get change until the windows were in. Also don't assume anything. We always discussed how we wanted to see the view out of the bathtub so we assumed that the bath windows would have clear glass. Not so since we didn't specify clear glass, they put in normal bathroom windows. After argueing over this we ended up splitting the cost of replacing the glass.
- Plan for the future. Since this is our last house, we made it without steps, curbless shower, etc so we can grow old without making major changes. For those with little kids, remember that they don't stay little for very long.
- do your research. We had issues with the plumbing sub/vendor. We research many of his actions and found that he was cutting corners. The GC was great in making him correct them but he didn't know plumbing and this sub did all his houses this way. They past inspection since they didn't make the house unsafe but increased the risk of problems later on.

Sorry this is so long. I got so much good information from the various forums on this site and wanted to repay some of it.

What great info, everyone! We are working on our first build (custom), and as much as I hate to admit it, it likely won't be our last! We knew we made a mistake on the sizing of the family room as soon as it was framed. I'm sure there could have been a way to get a little more space, but we were trying to fit everything in.

Everyone says when they hear you are building a home, "Oh you get to have exactly what you want!" WRONG! never mind budget (a huge constraint, obviously), but you also are usually planning for more than yourself (spouse, kids, in-laws, etc.).

If we get to do this another time, I'd like to think I've learned more about what will work for my family and have a better 'ideas folder' to help guide decisions.

This is a great thread!
justmeinsd.....thank you for all your great advice. You made some very important and valid points. Namely, build for the future,have a sense of humor (very important!) and do your research.
We started with a basic floor plan in Jan 2008, and spent most of the year, tweaking and changing the floorplan to really suit the way we live. We have found that its important to really think about changes you have made, and give yourself time to mull them over, and 'live' with them on paper.
Its taken us 10 months to just get it right on paper, and to make selections. With the last and current home, it took us about 3-4 months from deciding on a floorplan to breaking ground! With the current home, we ended up making many costly changes, because we did not think the plan through properly.
NEVER rush into a new build! It takes time and a lot of patience, but its well worth it when you are truly happy with the end product.

oh, boy...where to begin. We just moved into our new house 4 months ago. Our first build. Approx 3700 sq ft, farmhouse/wrap around porch. And I'm ready to build again!! We designed the home ourselves for the most part, as well as worked as GC and did majority of the work ourselves. Only lived in one house before it. So many mistakes on the design end!!
If I could do it again, I'd build the same house with the following changes:
first of all--location! I was so sure I had to have neighbors and live in more of a subdivision atmosphere. We have 1.5 acres. Now I wish we would've built on about 20 acres!! Can I just have my house moved?? :)

1. Put guest/powder room near back door/entry so when the kids come in from outdoors, they didn't have to go across the house to the bathroom (which is located across from the master bedroom).

2. High ceiling great rooms are totally overrated & make everything going on extremely loud. Would eliminate the balcony to 2nd floor and do a 12ft flat ceiling or tray ceiling instead of the vault in great room.

3. WOULD NOT put the 2nd floor kids bedrooms above first floor master bed/bath. It sounds like an army is above me in the morning when I am in bed. And we even did some further soundproofing for the walls to aid in that. I don't think it helped at all.

4. Would not have put the stairs going up on the master bedroom wall either.

5. Would not do corner whirlpool tub in master. It's too small, and impractical (I already have plans in my head to redo the bathroom someday...)

6. Would have back door in mudroom, not in the kitchen.

7. Would do all first floor windows bigger, with transoms. (they are the same size as second floor)

8. Could do without vaulted nook area in kitchen and should've put another bedroom or bathroom above instead.

9. More windows in basement would've been nice.

10. Transom above front door. I was told there wouldn't be room. Of course there was room, when it was too late to change it!!!

11. Laundry room or area upstairs. Might still do that someday. Can't really change anything else on the list without major change.

12. Wouldn't have done aluminum siding.

Wouldn't change for the world--my white woodwork/doors/trim, double ovens, kitchen cabinets, wood floor color, or wrap around porch.

Yep, we built twice, still working on finishing the 2nd one. Both times we were the GC, and that worked really well for us. We hired the same contractor to provide the labor for both houses, same electrician, carpenters, plumbers, tile guy - great crew!

First one we hired an architect and pretty much sat on his shoulders to make sure we got exactly what we wanted. Which we did, and loved it. It was a contemporary South American style house with a large central courtyard and two long wings. It had solar hot water, solar heat for the pool, lots of energy-saving bells and whistles, and many cool features (like a secret door to a secret room, the entry to the master bedroom was by walking through a greenhouse, 2-storey sunken circular library, etc.).

But after about 6 years we decided the house (about 7000 sq ft) and garden (2 acres) were both larger than we wanted.

Soooooo... we decided to get rid of the parts of the house that we didn't use (like a huge family room that was almost always empty and a too-large living room). In San Diego County you can be your own architect if you also get an engineer to sign off on your plans and if your plans meet certain other requirements. The good news is that we were really pleased with almost all the features of the previous house, so we didn't have much trouble picking out wood (same cherry as we'd used before for all the woodwork), granite countertops, slate flooring (for about 80% of the floors), appliances, etc. That saved a lot of major decisions.

My hubby, a wanna be architect from way back), designed a very simple house which is basically a square 80' on a side with a 40' x 40' courtyard in the middle. It is 1 room deep all around the courtyard, and every room has terrific cross ventilation. It was the first house in this county to be built of Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (AAC), a kind of concrete block that is both fireproof and terrific insulation. We have solar electric, solar hot water, 14 solar tubes and skylights, grey water system, lots of other "green" features. Conditioned space is 2400 sq ft, plus there is another 1600 sq ft of unconditioned space (garage/workshop and also storage/potting room).

The new house should be done in another year or so (we're finishing it ourselves), but we've been living in it for 2-1/2 years and love it. We don't miss the larger house at all, and this will definitely be our last house.

One major change is that the previous house was very modern, with lots and lots of floor-to-ceiling windows and doors and almost all white paint inside. The new house is more Mexican traditional, with 8" thick walls that resemble adobe somewhat, and very brightly painted walls inside and outside (deep violet, hot pink, turquoise, mustard, rust... you get the idea). It would be right at home in San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and elsewhere in So. America, and it also fits well in our neighborhood, too, where there are many custom homes.

Best things about our house:
1) Kitchen counter on my side of the kitchen and the 4' x 8' central island are both about 3" lower than standard 'cause I'm only 5'1'' (on a good hair day).

2) All the house, including all bathrooms and showers, are fully handicap accessible. My sweet MIL is living with us at the moment and this is enormously helpful for her limited mobility, as it'll likely be for ours some day.

3) Our AAC masonry is so well-insulated that we don't use much heat - we have 2 natural gas fireplaces as our only heat source, only run them a short time a day here in winter (okay, so it rarely gets below 45 degrees here, but we DO have winter).

4) With all the skylights and solar tubes we use almost no lights inside during daylight hours.

5) Solar electric meant an electric bill last year of about $200. It should pay for itself in about 10 more years.

6) Altho the house shrunk by a lot, the kitchen is still about 18' x 18', bigger than in our last house, which is good 'cause we have a lot of cooks in the family.

7) All the bright colors are very cheerful. The barrel-vaulted ceiling in our bedroom also has a mural of the night sky, with stars that glow under black light, which we love.

8) Hubby has 2 jumbo clean-up sinks on his side of the kitchen, plus one of those tall gadgets with a sprayer attachment you could have water fights with someone across the street. Hey, he does the dishes and if it makes him happy it's fine with me.

9) We never enjoyed the jetted tub we had in the last house, so this time hubby got a whole bunch of sprayers and attachments for his side of our 2-person shower. Again, he's happy as a pig in mud (and a whole lot cleaner).

susi, I'd love to see pictures of your house. It sounds incredible!