When I remodeled, I wish I could have included a clothes chute and a dumb waiter. Both were prohibitively priced. Wish I had at least left space for them open.

We did put a clothes chute in our master closet and I love it. I have always had a clothes chute and it was a must. We do have a mudroom equipped for laundry but I prefer my laundry facilities to be in the basement. The last thing I would want is for people to see my laundry or more like the mess I create by doing laundry. We did make sure that our mudroom/future laundry room could someday be accessed by removing a wall or just make a doorway in our master closet. We really tried to keep aging in place in mind. For example our doorways are all wheelchair accessible and first floor master bedroom.

We have been in our house for about a month and so far the only I really dislike is my dishwasher. The layout of our house is working really well. I love that everything has a place and there is no clutter. We still have to put up cabinets/lockers in our mudroom. We opted to do our closets ourselves. I really wanted wooden shelving and not wire. We got wood shelving material at a steal so we saved by doing it ourselves.

I grew up in house with a clothes chute from the kids bedrooms uostairs to the main floor bathroom. Since it was as much effort to get the clothes to the chute (near the back stairs) as actually down the stairs, and just as easy to open the chute in the laundry and stow things like extra linens and beach towels, I'd ixny the chute.

i wish the original owners of our house had incorporated a sight line from the front facing kitchen to the back yard.

One thing that we did, which I now can't live without, is planning for a second washing machine in our basement mechanical room (we just needed to install a drain when building). We have an inexpensive washing machine down there and a utility tub; they don't take up much space. It isn't the prettiest set up, but I appreciate having the second machine so much more than I thought I would. We wash all our "grubby" stuff in there - all the washable rugs, car towels, yard clothes, car seat covers, sports equipment and jerseys, sneakers, etc. I would have a really hard time giving it up!

As already said, so much depends on your location and your household. It was a huge priority for me to have a decent size mudroom which you don't have to walk through to get to another room (but I live in a cold and snowy climate, and I can't stand walking through a rug full of slushy boots to get to the powder room or pantry). If I lived elsewhere, that probably wouldn't be as important to me.

The only thing I really wish we would have done is get a heated and better insulated garage with a drain. It was a significant expense to add that, and we were already feeling poor, so we figured it wasn't a need. But gosh, I wish we had just done it. It is too much work and expense now. Again, those things are a "very nice to have" in my climate, but I wouldn't care elsewhere.

CLC brings up a good point. Climate dictates so much of what is nice to have. We added a stationary tub to our garage and it's a great add on for dog washing and rinsing off muddy shoes, clothes and towels. We have four crazy seasons so it's nice.

One thing we kept in mind when making decisions was what would be really expensive or impossible to do down the road. Some things can wait but somethings were way cheaper in the build phase. That darn budget just gets in the way!

So sorry, I definitely should have included that info. I am in Northern Ca above Sacramento.

It is my husband and myself with our twin girls that will be 2 next month and maybe another sometime in the future and 2 bullmastiffs.

We are building 3700 sq feet on just under an acre. It will be single story and 4 bed, 3.5 bath with an office and a 3 car garage and a mudroom.

We did include a door to the backyard with very easy access to bathroom from the eventual pool and place for a dog door to lead out to the dog run.

For the office I was thinking about adding electrical in the floor since I work from home and struggle having cords everywhere.

I was also thinking of adding some electrical in the master bath drawers for my blow dryer, extra shower heads for the shower, a pot filler in the kitchen, a pull out ironing board in the laundry room and master closest.

Any other ideas to add to the list would be amazing :)

After a couple years in, the only thing that comes to mind is not having a hose bib closer to the garage. I'm not sure why I laid it out the way I did, but the front hose bib is on the other end of the house from the garage, so you have to drag a lot of hose to wash the car. I'm thinking about putting one in.

For the office I was thinking about adding electrical in the floor since I work from home and struggle having cords everywhere.

Absolutely. I'm doing the same thing. I would also add electrical outlets to the floor in the living room where you think you'll have lamps if your layout dictates not having all your furniture against the wall.

I was also thinking of adding some electrical in the master bath drawers for my blow dryer,

Never felt it was needed but that's personal.

extra shower heads for the shower,

What we have is a main shower head and a hand held shower on a sliding bar. Works great. DH prefers the overhead with a strong rain spray, and I prefer the hand held with the hard spray.

a pot filler in the kitchen,

You still have to then take boiling water from the cooktop to the sink to drain. Unless you are making soups and pasta almost daily, it's really not worth it in my opinion.

a pull out ironing board in the laundry room and master closest.

Yes but that is something that can probably be added after the fact later on.

Things I'm glad I'm adding:

The fact that every main room in the house is only one room deep which allows for lots of windows and light in every room. Great also for cross ventilation.

Induction cooking instead of gas.

A separate coffee/bar cabinet for DH who tends to like to leave his "droppings" on the counter. Now I can just close the door and forget about it.

A garage door on the counter for the dog's stuff. The dog eats RAW and when finished, DH cleans up the bowl but then leaves it next to the sink. Now I can just shove it under the garage and lower it so all her stuff is out of sight.

Counter height island vs a bar height island

Plug mold outlets in the kitchen so I don't have to see the outlets.

All doorways 3' wide. (We're old and thinking of the hopefully never to come future)

Smart home technology.

3 zone AC with a variable speed blower. The variable speed blower doesn't shut on and off as frequently so you don't have the freezing throw on a sweater feeling, then hot and remove the sweater feeling.

Mantle Mount for the TV in the great room over the fireplace.

Lots of closets.

A utility sink in the garage.

Hose bibs on each side of the house

cpartist thanks for supplying that link to the mantle mount. I'll have to show this to my DH. We don't have a fireplace but have 2 beams on the wall where tv will go and this mount may work. I like that you can get it with the sound bar attachment.

I've seen a few of these mentioned already, but here are the things that make me happy we included in our new build:

- Dog door to the backyard. I'm positively giddy about this! The amount of times I get up to let our dogs in and out keeps me at almost 10K steps a day per my fitbit. ;)

- Outlets in the baseboards and outlets under the kitchen cabinets. I'm a bit OCD about visual clutter and outlets in walls bother me a bit. So I'm happy to have them blend into my white baseboards and be hidden under my kitchen cabinets with an uninterrupted tile backsplash.

- Extra hose bibs, specifically one by the garage and one by our chicken coop.

- Downstairs/main floor office. We have one upstairs now and I hate going up and down to print something, find glue, find tape, find an extra envelope, shred documents, etc....

- Mail/clutter drop zone outside the kitchen. I sure hope this idea works as well as I need it to. Our current kitchen island is the default landing zone for everything and it drives me bonkers.

- An actual foyer. I don't mean a fancy, grand foyer, but just a room where you enter the home that doesn't drop you smack in the middle of the living room. The single biggest thing I hate about my current home is our lack of a foyer.

- Big front porch. I'm a sucker for a front porch, complete with rocking chairs and a porch swing. It makes me nostalgic for my grandparents farmhouse and I love to sit and read and chat with the neighbors that are out and about. I'm a bit of an introvert so this porch will keep me engaged with my neighbors I hope. Yes I know everyone says they add a lot of money to a house and rarely get used, but this was one that I just had to have, extra cost be damned.

- Electrical outlets in the eaves. Perfect for Christmas lights.

- Electrical outlets in the family room floor. Not so much for lamps with us, but a place to keep the laptop plugged in while sitting on the couch.

- Mudroom lockers for my kids shoes, jackets and backpacks.

- Doorless shower. No glass in the shower period. I can never seem to keep ours clean so I'm constantly looking at water drop stains.

- Windows with less Lites. Our windows now are 6/6 double hungs and to clean each individual pane of glass is a PITA. New house are either 1/1 or 2/1. I don't like grills between glass windows but I can absolutely see the practically of them.

- Separate mudroom and laundry. Actually in general the space big enough to fit everything that should stay 'hidden'....lockers, washer/dryer, spare fridge/freezer, dog bowls, broom closet, drying rod. I'm a big believer in dedicated plenty of square footage to spaces that get used, really used. Give me a small master bedroom and big laundry room any day of the week.

The best thing we did was put in a central vacuum with Hide A Hose. Hide A Hose was in its infancy when we installed ours but I am so glad we did not miss the opportunity while the walls were open! The worst mistake was installing a microwave under the counter in the island, in the most used part of the work area! Duh!

Meghann I'd love to see your floor plan if you are willing to share it!

I wish I could have included a clothes chute and a dumb waiter.

Okay, I would've expected a dumb waiter to be expensive ... but a clothes chute, really? I'm surprised. You're talking about a hole ... a duct. I'm curious. How much did it run?

For the office I was thinking about adding electrical in the floor since I work from home and struggle having cords everywhere.

Every time this subject comes up, electrical outlets are heavily discussed. I think this is an area everyone should consider carefully. My own specifics:

- Plenty of outlets by the desk

- Outlets at nightstand height by the bed

- Outlets in the pantry, master closet, and cleaning closet

- Extra outlets for the entertainment center; I'm married to an engineer, so we have loads of boxes attached to our TV (and 4 remotes)

a pot filler in the kitchen,

I put this in the category of "nice to have" ... and I think a deciding factor is whether you already have water running through the wall behind the stove. Personally, our kitchen's going to back up to the bathroom, so the water's "already there" and we're going with a pot filler. If a pot filler required us to run a water line across the kitchen, we would've skipped it.

The fact that every main room in the house is only one room deep
which allows for lots of windows and light in every room. Great also for
cross ventilation.

We've windows and natural light a priority ... the master's even going to have windows on three sides. The negative: those windows are going to cost us our attached garage.

Ceiling fan in laundry room to assist in hang-drying clothes.

Interesting thought. I hang-dry a lot of things, and my husband HATES my Walmart fold-up hang-dryer (probably because I'm not always quick putting things away once they're dry). I'm definitely going with some sort of built-in item for his sake ... but a fan might help things along.

lots of closets

I am so excited about the cleaning closet we'll have in our new house. I have this-and-that in various place around the house, and I'm looking so forward to getting the vacuum out of the coat closet ... a place to keep my hand-held Shark vacuum and my Roomba plugged in ... a place to store bottles of cleaning products and brooms. It's going to be in the dead center of the house, convenient to every other room.

- Dog door to the backyard. I'm positively giddy about this! The
amount of times I get up to let our dogs in and out keeps me at almost
10K steps a day per my fitbit. ;)

Our little fellow is trained to ring a bell when he wants to go out. I get SO VERY TIRED of hearing that bell.

Coming into the foyer from either the front door or the garage. Since we
had to have an attached garage, I wanted to come home and be dumped
into the foyer.

Bouncing off this thought, we're very tired of people coming in our side door. In our current house, the driveway is situated in such a way that visitors see that side door, so they head straight to it. I can't remember when I last opened my front door, which opens in to a nice foyer. Our new house will have only ONE door visible from the driveway, and it'll lead to a nice foyer.

In general, I think people don't spend enough time planning driveways and the whole "approach" to the house.

First, I assume you're working with an architect to design a home that fits the way your family really lives, instead of trying to dictate how you SHOULD live. :)

The only "wish I had..." I can think of is the kitchen island outlets -- I wish I had planned these from the beginning, instead of adding them in at the end. They are required by code. I love the pop-up outlets we ended up with, but we had to shorten a drawer box and can't push the dishwasher fully into its home because of the space the outlet boxes require.

With young children, you might like pocket-door baby gates. We have one at the top of our stairs. We don't use it all the time, but it is SO handy when needed.

If you do floor outlets on hardwood or tile, think about where you might place rugs, and whether you're willing to cut holes in your rugs to run cords through. I have some well-placed floor outlets in my house, but wasn't willing to cut into my rugs, so I've never plugged anything into them.

For the outlets in your master bath cabinet, I'd recommend putting it in the "cabinet" area, and not the drawer area. We have these in all of our cabinets, and it's SO handy for electric toothbrushes, my husband's electric razor charger/cleaner, and my blow-dryer. Sometimes my blow-dryer needs me to push the "reset" button, and it's easy to reach the reset button in this area, and we don't have to worry about what happens with the cords when the drawers are opened/shut. I keep my blow dryer plugged in, and it lives in a drawer. The cord just dangles out the top edge of the drawer, and down to the outlet right next to the sink pipes.

Pot fillers -- to me they seem silly. If you were incapable of carrying the pot of COLD water from the sink to the cooktop, how will you get that pot of BOILING water from the cooktop to the sink for draining? Also -- a pot filler is one more nook-and-cranny to scrub around when you have a spaghetti sauce incident on your backsplash. ;)

In our previous semi-custom build (~4 years ago), we had "lockers" in the mudroom for each of us. The locker dividers made it uncomfortable to sit on the bench (they were too narrow to fit a behind between the dividers, so you had to sit on the front edge of the bench) and they reduced the amount of storage space available. In my custom build (moved in almost a year ago) we just have a bench with a big wall of hooks (IKEA's BJÄRNUM folding hooks) and it's SO efficient. The junk hanging here is constantly changing -- snow gear, bike helmets, beach towels, and of course my purse and everyone's jackets -- and it rises to every challenge. This foyer works HARD -- it's where both residents and visitors enter our home and it manages to be beautiful and efficient at the same time. Besides the wall of hooks, we also have a bar cart that is the "clutter catcher." A lot of homes have a "mail station" for incoming papers, but don't have a home for the other in/out clutter like packages, presents, library books waiting to be returned, etc. I'd encourage you to look at any clutter piles in your current home and analyze what kind of "home" they need in your new home. When people visit me they comment on the views, the light fixtures, and the lack of clutter -- the lack of clutter is 100% because I accepted that my life has clutter in it, and I designed homes for the clutter to live. :)

For my laundry room, we have a super-powered super-quiet fan in laundry room -- its purpose is to aerate my husband's hockey gear (hanging on a pegboard in the laundry room). I think he is the only man in the world to have hockey gear that doesn't reek!

Consider a true commercial under counter ice maker in your kitchen. We have a Hoshizaki AM50BAE 15" wide. You will never use traditional refrigerator/freezer ice again. These units flow water over a chill plate and the impurities run off so you get crystal clear ice. Putting in an outlet and a floor drain where it will go will make a huge difference. We had to install the optional pump to connect it to our sink drain. In the last 10 years we have had no issues with the ice maker, but have put in 2 or 3 pumps. They run around $250 for the pump. The ice maker is around $1,500. It makes a great cube shape. Stay away from the home brands of under counter ice makers and stick with the commercial brands. Hoshizaki, Scottsman or Manitowoc are all good choices.

We are putting in a Scottsman icemaker. Saw the tiny ice cubes and decided I couldn't live without it.

i would also love to have a switch in the master bedroom that will turn off all of the outside lights.

I love all these comments. They are very helpful. I've already planned many of these ideas, but there are several I hadn't thought of.

Things we are doing:

*Doggie door. Our dogs are bell trained as well. That bell can get VERY annoying. We are going to build in dog crates into cabinetry that also allows access to the dog door. :)

*Landing Zone- right now it is our kitchen peninsula and DW HATES it. so, we will have a homework/sanding zone area in our mud room.

*Ice maker- as a kid I grew up in a house with a dedicated commercial ice maker under the counter. It was wonderful. I can't wait for this!!! Thanks for the brand recommendations.

*Pocket baby gates- we're past babies, but to keep our furry babies confined to certain areas, we will employ pocket baby gates.

*Kitchen windows- LOTS. no upper cabinets. We are short, they don't work for us. And, our current kitchen has one dark window. DW cant wait for this!! Windows will be flanking the range.

*Clothes chute- YAY.

Things I've just considered after reading this:

*Sink in the garage- one of those why-didn't-I-think-of-this moments.

*Fan in laundry room- DW often brings things into our bedroom and turns the fan on to dry them.. this is brilliant!

ODD- I'm curious why inswinging versus outswinging casement windows. We are planning casements and I hadn't considered inswinging at all. Never thought to.

arialvetica, I'd love to see a picture of your mudroom and bar cart! I'm wanting a mail/clutter area, so I'd love to see something that's different than a built in cabinet space!

I would put an electrical outlet inside every bathroom vanity cabinet and one behind every toilet. After moving into our newly built home we decided we wanted a heated toilet seat and on-demand hot water pump, both of which required creative solutions to get access to electricity.

Hey Doc!

I like in-swing casements (that lay flat against the wall when open) for a few reasons:

• Easily clean both sides of the glass from indoors
• Curtains/drapes are "pinned" against the wall when the window is open
• Bug screens are on the outside (I live in Texas; I need bug screens, lol)
• Makes sense with exterior operational shutters
• Won't disturb flowers in my window boxes :-)

Honestly, the thing that got me thinking of in-swing was when my husband outright vetoed casements because he didn't want the bug screens on the inside of the house. At the time, I had no idea they could be swung inside.

Casement windows are my "Hill I'm Willing To Die On" so I had to come up with an alternative (he vetoed "invisible" screens, as well as retractable screens)... And discovered in-swing. :-) And then, of course, I found other "pros" to add to my list, and now I've convinced myself that in-swing is the way to go!!! lol

I will second @casualexec's recommendation. We planned and installed a commercial grade ice maker, it is fantastic! Just put it in a room where the door can be closed, it gets a bit loud.

Pot fillers -- to me they seem silly. If you were incapable of
carrying the pot of COLD water from the sink to the cooktop, how will
you get that pot of BOILING water from the cooktop to the sink for
draining? Also -- a pot filler is one more nook-and-cranny to scrub
around when you have a spaghetti sauce incident on your backsplash. ;)

Two points:

- A pot filler cuts your heavy-pasta-pot carrying by 50%. Even though you still have to carry the hot pot back to the sink, that's not a bad figure.

- You use water at the stove fairly often when it's not a big pot of pasta: Making soup, you want a little more water for the pot. Making tea, you fill the tea pot at the stove, nothing ever gets dumped back to the sink. You want to fill a watering can or a water bottle, and someone else is using the sink.

As I said above, I don't think it's a make-or-break item by any means ... but if you already have water running through the wall behind your stove, it's not all that expensive for this small luxury.

I'd
encourage you to look at any clutter piles in your current home and
analyze what kind of "home" they need in your new home. When people
visit me they comment on the views, the light fixtures, and the lack of
clutter -- the lack of clutter is 100% because I accepted that my life
has clutter in it, and I designed homes for the clutter to live. :)

I don't know that I've put it into these exact words, but I've thought with a similar process. I've tried to go through my house looking at "problem spots" ... and then looking for ways to solve those problems. Examples: Lost keys and no place to store the mail, no place to store the vacuum, awkward recycling storage. Good design can solve these problems.

Consider a true commercial under counter ice maker in your kitchen

If I weren't the only person in my house who really consumes ice in large quantities, I'd consider this; however, with only me hogging the ice, the refrigerator makes plenty.

Casement windows are my "Hill I'm Willing To Die On"

Sigh. I'm so stuck on window selection. :(

One of the things I am so glad I did was having a drying closet in my laundry room. This is a closet with multiple rods that can be switched around to air dry clothes that I don't put in the dryer but out of sight. It has louvered doors for circulation and it has the wiring for a heater with a fan but we haven't done that. It gets enough heat from the heated floor. Even sweaters dry within 2 days. Love it.

also hot and cold taps placed just inside the garage door for car and dog washing in the driveway.

I should have gone for extra storage area in garage for lawn mowers and other stuff, I might build a detached shed for that.

However, I think we did make a couple of choices which I can't wait to enjoy.

1. Scullery like room/Kitchenette between breakfast nook and kitchen with dishwasher and blender/microwave etc plus some counterspace. We have a door we can close to hide the mess or reduce the noise.

2. Ditched formal dining room, instead opted for flex open space between kitchen and family room to put extra folding tables for big family get togethers.

3. In our previous home we made some drying racks using 1" pvc pipes so we don't see the wire on the dried clothes, we will make that contraption again in our new build. Might even put a fan in there for faster drying

4. We are going for 2x6 instead of 2x4 construction.

5. We are planning to go for recessed LED's

You have mastiff's?? I love a ' dog room'. As I have both dogs and horses I like an extra clothes washer-heavy duty, for dog/horse towels, horse blankets, horse leg wraps, anything dirtier than usual. Dog room for washing big and little dogs. It is messy to wash big dogs otherwise and hurts my back to wash miniature dachshund in a bathtub. Elevated 'shower' with hand-held shower hose.Big cabinet for supplies, sink for washing dog dishes area for crates. Doggy door to outside. A small fenced in area where you teach your dog's to toilet only in that area. Takes some teaching but much nicer than random 'bombs' all over the yard.

Closet (huge), with many outlets for battery charged items.

For me- dishdrawers- it would take us a week to fill a large regular dishwasher.

A compact washer/dryer in master closet/bath.

Hot/cold water taps outside.

Master bath must have big doorless shower. Door to outside. Outdoor shower (I may take 3-4 showers a day when working in yard in Florida humidity/heat.) Nothing fancy- even just cold water shower refreshes me.

Outdoor outlets throughout the garden/yard. Always seem to want a hot tub, lights, etc not close to the House where outlets usually are...

Deeper kitchen counters that run against a wall. Typical are 22". I like deeper- 28-30".

Bathroom counters at kitchen height. Especially for men. Me too...

Step lights if you have a staircase.

For starters...:))

This is the fun part for me and how to really make the home custom to you. There is another thread floating on this board that had many very thoughtful and insightful responses. You may want to search for it.

Here's some of the things we are including:

-Double Island in kitchen. I love having the first island for my work zone and the second island for seating/serving. I put an electrical outlet in one of the top drawers of the second island for a charging station so we don't have electronics always on the counter. The island also has a designated cabinet for each child's homework/art/supplies.

-Lots of drawers in the kitchen. They are so versatile. Some specialty drawers my cabinet maker made were: cutlery drawer, spice drawer, dish drawers, oils and cooking utensil pullout, cutting board pullout, knife drawer, trash/recycling pullout with a blum servo drive, 2 places of vertical storage for baking items, etc, an appliance area that can be closed off when not in use but doors recess within themselves when in use. Double dishwashers.

-Pantry with light that turns on by motion when you enter.

-The vanity pullout for curling irons, straightener with electrical you mentioned, but also one in the top of each of our vanities to charge the electrical toothbrushes.

-Heated floors in master bath.

-Outlets in the eaves for Christmas lights.

-Laundry chute. Hanging rod in laundry. Pullout for drying. Shelving to store 6 laundry baskets (each person comes and gets their basket of folded clothes and replaces with the basket from their room).

-A pullout shelf in the home office for the printer with electrical so printer doesn't have to sit on counter. Locking filing drawers in the office.

-Bunk built into the attic space next to one of the kids bedrooms...makes a great bed and leaves space in the room.

-Stair lights.

-Wired the home for security, electronics/music/cable and internet. Even wired for projection tv and direct tv so we have the option.

-Reinforced the ceiling of the front porch where we are putting a porch swing.

-We put in a huge walk in closet right off the family entrance/mudroom. Shelving for shoes, hanging for coats/jackets/sweatshirts, sports equipment, Costco overflow, some drawers for batteries, tools, first aid, etc. Then, lockers in the mudroom themselves for backpacks, jackets and a pair or two of shoes. We also included a bunch with drawers for socks.

-Built in heaters in the ceiling of the outdoor living area. Wired for phantom screens and ceiling fan in case we want in the future.

-Gas start for both wood burning fireplaces.

-When having landscaping irrigation ran, think about garden area if you plan on having one down the road.

-We put in a boot washing station with hot/cold right outside the garage. The hot is nice for washing cars as well.

-Hide a hose central vac.

The post Jaimeeap mentioned is here. I saved it. Lots of good stuff.

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/2286771/small-things-that-get-forgotten?n=171

so most of the functional stuff has been mentioned. We just finished drywall so most of this is to late for me. I just realized where my my front of house hose bibs are and Doah! it's nowhere close enough to the garage/driveway. How did I miss that?!?!

We have a lot of great stuff, but there are 2 things that I wish we would have incorporated. The first is herringbone pattern somewhere with our tile. I love our designs, I wouldn't change anything, but I have no idea how I don't have a herringbone pattern anywhere in my house. The second is a waterfall granite island. I love that look, it just didn't work with our design and I didn't force anything.

As far as things I love? that's my whole house. I love how this thing is turning out. Can't wait until it all actually comes to life,

Herringbone is the. best. pattern. ever.

Ever.

I have many of these in my home, but one that has not been mentioned and it was fairly inexpensive if you cannot do an entire drying closet in a laundry. I have a "drying wall" with a waterproof clear coating (yes I would have loved it tiled!) over the painted sheetrock and have several layers of hooks, etc. to hold and dry bathing suits. Above that we have a wall-mounted 4 arm bathroom heated towel rack. The arms swivel out individually. I did not get it hardwired; I put an outlet right around the corner it is mounted on and have it plugged in. It is only a 3.5 foot wide wall and is terrific for drying bathing suits, sweaters, beach towels, etc.

One thing I added in our plans: I recessed the wall behind the refrigerator so that I could purchase a regular, full-size fridge yet it will look counter-depth and won't stick out 6" into the kitchen. I "borrowed" the space from the pantry.

we've revised our kitchen backsplash to be subway tile herringbone. Couldn't not have it. plus it saved us a couple grand. Ain't nothing wrong with that!

One
thing I added in our plans: I recessed the wall behind the
refrigerator so that I could purchase a regular, full-size fridge yet it
will look counter-depth and won't stick out 6" into the kitchen. I
"borrowed" the space from the pantry.

Yet another way to do this: Our refrigerator will be on the "back wall" with two dishware cabinets ... we're making the dishware cabinets extra-deep. More storage and a standard refrigerator will look "right" next to them.

No better or worse than recessing ... just another option.

I decided to check Houzz for ideas as we finish up our custom home. A few more things we did that I haven't seen mentioned (or missed seeing):

Clothes rod above the sink in the laundry room for drip drying. Clothes hangers take at least 14 inches of depth, so the rod is hidden behind a panel that flips up so that my upper cabinets only had to be 12 inches deep.

Drop zone in the mud room (NOT the kitchen) with a pull-out trash bin in a cabinet for sorting the mail there. (Junk mail doesn't get carried further into the house.)

Outlets on each side of the bed in the master bedroom that are switched to light switches on BOTH sides of the bed. DH has an annoying habit of turning on his nightstand light and then leaving the room for hours. This way I can reach up and turn off his light without getting out of bed. (We did this in another home and I LOVE it. We also put high-intensity recessed lighting above each side of the bed for reading in bed in that house and didn't like it. Not repeating it in this house.)

LOTS of outlets (8!!) on each side of the bed since the number of devices to be plugged in seems to keep growing. (I know that sounds excessive but start counting -- lamp, alarm clock if you set two alarms like I do, electric mattress pad, phone, iPad, cpap for DH, plus two spares for periodic stuff like heating pad, etc.)

Insulation around the master bath tub (keeps water hot longer.)

Extra insulation in the powder room and bedroom walls for soundproofing.

24 inch wide upper cabinet on the double sink vanity in the master bathroom that has two doors hinged in the CENTER so that each person can access it easily when standing at their sink. We recessed this into the wall 4" so it doesn't protrude as much into the vanity top. (DH doesn't like using drawers, this was the only way I could avoid counter clutter.)

Floor outlets in the great room for lamps, etc. (Someone may have mentioned this, but I didn't see it.) Floor outlets in the office under the desk since the desk is floating. Outlet in the office closet so the paper shredder is hidden. Outlet by the stair rail to the lower level so I could have lighted garland on the stairs at Christmas time. Ditto an outlet next to the front door on the front porch.

Instant hot water tap on the kitchen sink. (Not only nice for a quick cup of tea, but also for cleaning sticky plates.)

Recirculating hot water pump since our house is a sprawling ranch.

Hard-wired picture lights in places where we know we will have artwork. No cords to show and picture lights take a room to a whole new level.

Customized double-oven placement. I wanted it higher than the cabinet maker would have placed it so I didn't have to bend down so far to check on food cooking in the lower oven. We put a drawer under the ovens.

Bookcase in the kitchen for cookbooks.

Built-in cubby in the master shower has customized shelf heights so tall shampoo bottles will fit.

Handheld shower wand on the master bath tub (great for cleaning the tub, also handy for kids' baths, pets, etc.)

Under-the-counter soap dispensers for both the kitchen and laundry room sinks.

Folding triple mirror on the back of the door in the master closet. No more having to ask DH for a "backside" check.

Recessed pit in the basement for furnace (humidifier) and hot water tank with a drain to prevent any flooding in case of a water leak.

Plumbing for a bar in the lower level TV room even though we don't plan on installing a bar now. You never know about later.

Electrical wiring in case we want to add a generator later. (Note - you will also need a natural gas line or propane line to a generator.)

Gas line to the grill on the deck.

High ceilings in the garage and 220v wiring in the garage for a lift if you have an old car buff who likes to work on a car.

Motion lights on the rear of the house for added security. This are switched to an outlet inside in case you want to turn them off.

Wiring and cavities that are hidden above the top of the window casing for electric blinds so these are not visible when they are not down.

Dimmable chandelier and wall sconces above the master bathtub for romantic bubble baths.

I definitely need to stop here. I didn't realize how much we had customized our house until I started writing this! Good luck to everyone who is building a home.

Thanks to all of you, very helpful.

Outlet in the mantle

Laundry chutes? Place the laundry by the bedrooms. You will LOVE it

We were told that Code considered a clothes chute (2nd floor to basement) to be like an elevator shaft and a fire hazard if it weren't "fire blocked" and a jillion other things that would have made it cost prohibitive. We'd had one in our 1936 house in St Louis - it was in the upstairs hall - and it made it so easy to get the children's clothes right to the basement, in the AM and again at night. I loved that thing! Yes, the cat did get put down it one time - nice big pile of laundry at the bottom so no hard was done (other than me giving my children a stern lecture that this was UNACCEPTABLE!), and when they were toddlers, toys often ended up down there as well. Well worth it.

Of course, a dumb waiter would get that laundry back upstairs to the 2nd floor again! There were lots of large houses in the Central West End in St Louis that had dumb waiters that still worked, and yes, sometimes older siblings put a much younger one in the dumb waiter and took it up and down and up and down and wouldn't let the little one out - rotten children.

I really prefer my laundry in the basement as I'm not a "do the laundry every single day" kind of gal - never was even when children were young. Yes, a LARGE 2nd floor laundry room would be nicer, but that would mean it had to be big enough for an ironing board to always be up, and my rotary iron also always set up, plus wash tubs and the W&D themselves. I figure about a 9x12 room MIGHT do it, but it would be a bit tight. I don't have an extra 9x12 room to spare on my 2nd floor, but would love it if I did!

@Anglophilia - we had a laundry chute growing up too (still in my parents home). Two story house with full basement but laundry was on main floor. As kids we thought it was fantastic - first thing we wanted to show any new visitors to our home, whether they wanted to see it or not! The cats never went down it, but my brother and sister both voluntarily stuffed themselves down it once or twice. Dumb, but no injuries.

We have basement laundry now and am super excited to have second floor laundry in new house (where our bedroom is). We are not laundry every day people either but the issue is we then find what we need is either waiting in basement to go in, or sitting in dryer, and we do laundry less frequently than ideal: we forget what is down there or not!

New laundry room is about 10’x11’ (with a small alcove for my husband’s sewing desk). We converted what was a bedroom on our builder’s plan since there is only two of us and we did not need so many bedrooms. I am very excited about it. We are doing a sink and lower cabinet but I plan to add PAX for more cleaning supplies, linens, etc.

@edenchild - the USB outlets are a great tip! We are adding them by beds, and in places in office/den/living room. We added a lot of outlets overall - pet peeve of mine to have to arrange furniture placement, where to use Vitamix or electrical kettle, or where I can sit based on where there are outlets available. Actually a lot of our “overages” went into electrical adds both inside and outside and was probably my favourite part. Extra exterior outlets, more outlets by beds, dimmers by bedside for overheads, extra cans (with slim profile LEDs), gimbels for wall washing, extra outlets, USB outlets. We also made sure our cat had enough lighting for her litter areas...

We are not doing a custom home - just a more “customized” plan from our production builder. Nothing for me to add to all these great tips as we have not moved in yet to have any “wish I had”’a yet but something my husband added that I thought was a great idea was an extra garage door opener by the big main door (on interior) and a side mounted opener - frees up space above for more storage and no risk of chain breaking onto top of your new car as happened to me a few years ago!

Oh, and motion sensor switches in closets, pantries, etc are convenient.

We built our retirement home in 2001. It's one step up into the house from covered stoop or garage. We live in 2900 sq ft on one level, with formal stairs to a full height attic for someone else who wants 6000 sq ft. This also makes our house 'fit' into an area with much larger, older, grander homes. There is an unfinished basement where the mechanicals live; we don't enjoy 'lower levels' for ourselves...or stairs. It's a small house with a few large rooms -- enough 'public space' for that family that might add a second floor.

Floors are wood or tile; no thresholds. Passage and most bathroom doors are 36". Garage is accessed through the middle of a long rectangle back hall. It has that has laundry area at one end (w/window, shelving, cabinets) and a huge closet opposite a powder room at the other end, with windowed door to back patio. Our carpenter built a platform for my front-loaders.

If we still had a dog, we would have a small fenced and gated area with pea gravel at the back door with scooper and small pail where the dog did his business for a few minutes before being let into the yard. I do not want muddy paws,dirt and bugs in and out of my house via a doggie door -- not dog paws, nor any other critters' -- and we have plenty, living next to a creek. (I see plans without a laundry/slop tub; how can that work?)

We *use* our kitchen, breakfast room (room of all meals), screened porch, library (where we watch TV) living room (where we read), and MBR and MBA. The foyer is large; it and the BR hallway are comfortable 'routes'. Entry door is a wide wood door within an arch with sidelights.. DR and guest suite are seldom used, but still needed now and then.

We have forced air HVAC -- providing heat and humidity (flow-through humidifiers that never grow mold). North rooms have supplemental hydronic heat. There are two sets of air returns in every room to circulate heating or cooling from floor supplies.

Wide mouldings, baseboards and door and window casings eliminate the need for dusty and deteriorating window 'treatments' on our private acre-plus lot. All the french doors and casements have between-the-glass pleated shades. Roman shades darken our bedrooms. Three tall archtop windows on the north side of the house are attractive without I

I'm most happy with the *location*; the light and space; ease of cleaning; central vac; hot water circulating pump; dish drawers; air jet tub; separate shower (not oversized); inset medicine cabinets with electrical outlets and mirrors for doors; towel bars (accidentally) located over the floor heat registers; two pedestal sinks; large linen closet in MBA. Rooms are oriented to natural light and use/time of day. A short hall connects MBR and MBA; walk in closets accessed from hallway.

Brussels block on terrace and patio needs no maintenance. There are five outdoor spigots and an irrigation system for close lawn and garden beds. Rough white brick and stucco alternate on the exterior. Archtop 'carriage' styled garage doors. Bluestone chip driveway matches slate grey roof.

A few thoughts...

Downlights. I really dislike the ceiling penetrations but dislike poor lighting more. In a dining room for instance, without some downlights people will turn the chandelier up really bright which kind of destroys the aesthetic so better to have some downlights for supplemental lighting and keep the chandelier at a pleasant level. Kitchen is a workspace. However many are needed is fine.

Electric Car Charging. The advantages of electric cars are beginning to so outweigh those of petrol that few people will buy petrol cars after about 2025 or 2030. In Norway and some other countries with significant electric car populations it is beginning to get difficult to find petrol stations as they are going out of business.

USB-C outlets. To eliminate wall warts and having to find them. Allows a single-gang outlet to provide 4 devices. Yes, they will one day be superseded by something else and we'll need to upgrade our outlets but they should be good for 8 to 10 years.

4 season cold climate. Radiant heat under tile, esp. in bathroom. Heated towel rack. Blocking in bathroom for all desired towel racks etc. Central vacuum. Instant hot water in kitchen. Spotlights high up aimed down at front and back yard and switch both at front, back and in bedroom to turn them on. Great help to see what is going on outside, or just to watch it snow at night.