Are you sure that the door swinging out is so bad? There have been discussions here about having bathroom doors swing out so if someone collapses against the door the door can be opened. I know that you cannot have a shower door that only swings in and I'd think that having a bathroom door swing out is maybe a good thing.

I'd probably just let it swing out. Someone on here suggested a little bell that "rings" when the door is opening, so those in the hallway passing by won't get knocked out, down, whatever. :o) LOL!

Sorry that happened. I had a "mistake" as well ( whispering.... actually, we've had a few!! SHHHHH!!)

My office has a large opening. When I can find some extra cash I want large handcarved doors going to that room. But realized the opening was too large for "standard" doors, so we had carpenters frame in the door to "shrink it down" to a standard french door sized opening.

Meanwhile, electrician had already wired and placed outlets/switches in my office.

Now, to turn on the light, you have to enter the room, turn to the left, and reach about 2 feet down the wall for the switches. That's bad enough, but to make it worse, the french doors need to open "in" to the room, since our breakfast table will be in the space outside those doors, so they can't open "out".

Great. NOw I'll have to walk into a dark room (that is down one step!!), go around an open french door, and fumble around for a switch. I think at some point I'll be tearing into drywall and having electrician back to place a 2nd switch to the room on the outside wall (in the kitchen). Then I can turn it on/off from either location.

Yep. Mistaked happen. Hopefully (and with lots of help from this forum) we figure out how to make the best of them.

I wonder if there's ever been a "flawless" design and then execution of that design? Hmm. I doubt it. :o) LOL!

My mistakes: Ordered a door to swing the wrong way into the boys' room so it would've blocked the light switches. Thankfully, that was an easy fix...but the expense of another door. The other was having dh install the kitchen window 1 ft to the right of where it should have been. Now I have a cabinet in a place I don't need it and my dish hutch has to be a foot smaller. Big :-(

Also, I designed the main bath so that you can see the toilet from the front door when the bathroom door is left open. Ew, but oh, well. My option would be to have the door block the vanity, which I didn't want. An architect friend wanted us to move the already rough plumbed toilet. There wasn't really room, and we didn't want the hassle.

Out of your options, I think I might leave the door swinging out, although moving the light switches to the outside is a creative answer and not as bad as blocking the vanity, I don't think...

Mistakes definetly happen....My most bothersome one - DH centered the dining room window to match the exterior. From the front of the house, the windows are perfectly centered between the front porch posts. BUT! This matters not one whit on the inside where the windows are about 3 inches from a wall, & off centered. It will be impossible to center a table in that room. It didn't dawn on me, how messed up this was, until they hung sheetrock. :( I don't know how I am going to do window treatments on that window.

Other mistake - Kitchen window width is too small. I got confused on the measurements. :(

I designed the upstairs bedroom window to be centered above the Master double windows. But the way the roof framing ended up, the window had to move a couple of feet. Not a huge deal, but I wonder if I will always notice it, or if I will forget all about it. I'm sure that there are worse mistakes, but I have blocked them from my mind! ;)

The only thing that I noticed and it is not a flaw is that DD's light switches are on the opposite wall as you walk into her bathroom. They were suppose to be on the right as you walk in. Now she has to walk into the bathroom when it is dark to turn the lights on. Not sure why our electrician did that but we never noticed it until it was all wired and drywalled in.

We had a door banging problem in DS1's bathroom. We had to replace the door and eat the cost. Stuff happens and I considered that one rather small!

scwwren, I suffered the window placement nightmare. First of all I wanted a kitchen window, had to have it. Now we're making ourselves crazy trying to get the stove positioned on the small island as there is no other place for it.

The architect had 2 windows that met up in a corner in the master bedroom. I had to have a door in the master bedroom so I had my DH just put one window. Problem was, it couldn't be centered on the wall because there was the extension from the bath that wraps around the back of the house so the windown ended up off center. My solution, take out all the windows and just leave the glass door out to the back porch. Rather than waste the window, (it was custom), I had DH put it in the office which limits my design options because of having 3 windows in the room!!!

It's just something I have to live with now!! If I knew then what I know now, I would have realized looking at something on paper is an entirely different story than looking at it in person. That bedroom window ordeal really messed things up and I wish I had more natural light in the bedroom, but I don't. So I have to be creative with fabric, paint color and lighting.

That kitchen window I had to have, big deal, it looks out to the side of the garage. HA! I can see who is coming up to the side door though so I guess that's a plus.

oh, kelntx~ I too just noticed that dd#1 has to walk into her bathroom and fumble on the wall to find her switch next to the vanity. I don't know why I had him put the switch over there. When we were walking thru and planning everything, I must have been dreaming of an iced mocha or something (it was soooo hot this summer!). LOL! :O) Anyway, of the 4 kids baths, hers is the only one I did something bizarre like that in, so I guess I'll give myself a break and say "yep, mistakes happen". :o) he, he

Well, we have had many that come to mind:
A few to mention- I didn't think about wiring for electrical outlets in the MB vanity sitting area between the two sinks- I may still do this if the cost is not too much.
Next, the MB potty room door had to be reordered (custom door) to fit the space it opened into. Ie, it hit the potty.
Our DD's bathroom vanity is not centered on the window directly above it. We had to move it over to the right about 3 inches and refab a vanity top since I had already purchased a prefab top with the sink that fit it perfectly.

Getting thru this build one day at a time, can't wait to be finished.
V

Just this week I discovered DH installed a double light switch on the wrong side of the window. You would have to walk into the room and past the window to switch on the outside light. He was able to move it though.

My plumber "forgot" that we have plank floors and drilled a water line into my kitchen ceiling. Ack! I spent some time Tuesday mixing sawdust and glue and filling the two holes. I nearly cried when I saw what he had done but it's only noticeable to me now.

Phone placement. On our first house, we did not specify where we wanted the phone jack. It went in nearly in the middle of the dining room wall.

Right up where you could reach it conveniently, and see it first thing when you walked into the room.

There was no point in trying to move it, as the sheetrock had already been cut and any repair would have been as visible as that phone was, hanging there with its cord in the middle of the dining room wall.

Something so simple, but it created a huge problem for me.

Another thing that happened was that a light for a flat ceiling was installed over the kitchen sink (cathedral ceiling) where we had already specified a florescent tube affixed to one of those pieces of trimmed wood that go from the cabinets on one side of the window to the other.

We forgot to specify that the light over the kitchen sink should not be placed.

They took it out and repaired the ceiling, but it never did look right.

Assume nothing, they say. Be very clear with your architect and your builder about light and phone jack (and outlet and switch) placement.

For the person whose daughter's bath is dark?

Could you put one of those light sensitive night lights into the outlet near the mirror?

Barbara

Barbara~ good idea. I'll try that when we move in... hopefully a few more weeks. :o)

Totallyblessed, we had a similar design flaw in one of our past homes. As a temporary fix, we installed a motion detector on the light switch. When you walked in the room the light came on. We set it on very sensitive so that just about any movement in the room would continue to trigger the light to stay on. Sometimes if you were sitting still at the desk, the light would go off. You'd have to wave your arm to get it to come back on.

Not a great solution but it was okay for a temporary fix.

The electrician placed a light switch in the middle of a wall. It is the light switch in the back hall off the master bedroom We have to fumble around in the dark to find it.

We do not have enough lighting in the Master bedroom. The first light switch turns on the trey ceiling rope lights which barely light up anything.

All the flood lights are on one switch. When on, it looks like a break out at Alcatraz!

A mistake that has already been built is called a "feature".

Welcome back, Mighty Anvil! Happy New Year!

Claire