Pre-Construction:
- Originally, our plan had a small screened porch in back. I starting thinking about a private entrance to the in-law suite, and that conversation led to a much larger, covered back porch with ceiling fans and heat lamps. It will be such fun to sit there and watch our son play with the neighbor kids. (pre-construction)
- We changed the type of window from double hung to single hung, and the South face windows upstairs to casement, mostly because we change the windows from standard low e to energy saver plus, and these changes made the price a little less painful. (pre-construction)
Framing:
- There was a misunderstanding about the stairs. We couldn't "see" that the stairs were drawn as hallway. We wanted them open to the great room going up. That was the only item that caused me any real anxiety, mostly self-inflicted. Todd assured us it wasn't a problem to fix and sure enough, it was just the way I imagined it 24 hours later. (early framing stage)
- We downgraded to a half wall for the stairs rather that balusters due to my vertigo issues. (framing stage)
- We originally planned to have a custom tile wheel-in shower in the in-law suite. We downgraded to a fiberglass inset with a movable bench with blocking for future grab bars. We don't need this at this point since no one has mobility issues. But the space is there to convert if we have a long term need later on. (framing stage).
- We moved the door to our upstairs laundry room from the left side to the right side so we can move our washer and dryer from the wall adjacent to the 4th bedroom to the ICF wall of the garage. This should make things a bit quieter for any guests we host. (framing stage)
- We raised the window frame in D's room so that the bottom right corner wasn't obstructed by the roof of the dinette. (framing stage)
- We took out half a wall in the kitchen to allow more light in from the dinette. We had planned for open shelves, but the light and easy access to the dinette when serving dinner was more important. (framing stage)
- The original fireplace was quite large and imposing, so we made it smaller and more slender. We also opted for an electric fireplace instead of gas. (framing stage)
- We opted against the door to our master bedroom closet. After all the tours, no one will be going into our room, and you have to go through the bathroom first, so it's really not necessary. (framing stage)
- We made a lot of changes to the downstairs laundry room, which was originally going to be a stacked unit in the in-law suite closet. We moved it to the mudroom it could be put to better use for my kitchen linens and any dirty things the boys might bring in. We went with side-by-side front loaders for universal design, and I found a really efficient design that uses the doors for storage for cleaning supplies and the central vac hose. (late framing stage)
- Since D's closet turned out to be insanely large for a boy, we added a nook for a super cool indoor treehouse now...and desk later. (framing stage)
- We increased the distance between the two islands to ensure we had enough room to unload the dishwasher. (framing stage)
- We increased the number of can lights in kitchen from 5 to 9 given my recent vision issues. (framing stage)
- We added an arch above the command center to go with the other arches between areas of the main floor. (framing stage)
- We added a walkway around the side of the house to the back porch with wheelchair access. (framing stage)
- We moved the door to the basement from the bottom of the stairs to the top for safety reasons (framing stage).
- We moved our master bath linen closet from inside the water closet (which was always less than ideal) to roll out drawers accessible from the vanity (framing stage)
- We opted against the solar tube in our closet since most of the time it's dark when Niels is getting ready. (pre-electrical/plumbing stage)
Electrical/Plumbing/HVAC:
- There appears to be cracks in two of our windows, one in the dinette and one in D's room (different floors, right above each other). Maybe they're from the earthquake? Or maybe they're just smudges. Anyway, we'll get that fixed. (08.28.11)
- D's toilet had to be changed from a dual-flush to low flow due to the fact that it sits right above a joist. We considered a wall hung dual flush, but they are not in our price range yet. (08.29.11)
- The slider door we put on the in-law suite for wheelchair accessibility is not wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair. Oops. We'll be putting in a french door instead. (08.29.11)
- We added gas line on the back porch for the grill and patio heaters (08.31.11)
