I thought I could fill out my building permit application in just a few minutes, but I couldn’t because I didn’t have all the information I needed. Learn what information is needed for a building permit application and how I went back and forth with the builder I wanted as my consultant.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
When choosing kitchen and bathroom cabinets, you already know you’ll need to consider material, cabinet sizes, paint or stain colors and style. But what about the cabinet sheen or finish? Have you thought about whether you’ll choose flat, matte cabinets or shiny, high gloss cabinets?
No matter what material your cabinets are made of, you have a choice of whether to go with a glossy, matte or semi-gloss finish for the end product. What sheen you should choose for your cabinets initially seems like a trivial decision that is based purely on aesthetics.
But the sheen of your cabinets can not only dramatically affect the way your kitchen and bathrooms look, but also how well the cabinets function and how durable they’ll be. Plus the amount of cleaning they’ll need. So, this week we’ll compare and contrast flat, matte surfaces with shiny, high gloss surfaces. And we’ll end with some facts about semi-gloss finishes.
Before making any final decisions about the sheen of our kitchen and bathroom cabinets, it’s a good idea to familiarize ourselves with the pros and cons of each. That way, we can make an informed decision and prepare ourselves for the cleaning and maintenance requirements of our selection.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
This week I have a few quick tips for dealing with contractors. These tips come from a 2017 article written in Consumer Reports called “Home Renovations without Aggravation—Learn how to combat shady contractor practices and avoid common and costly mistakes many homeowners make.”
Although the article addresses home renovations, most of the information in the article is also relevant for those of us who will be building new homes.
That consumer reports article highlights information from a recent survey of 300 general contractors from around the United States. The survey was conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center.
In the survey, contractors admitted to some shady practices that are found in the construction industry. Some of the shady industry practices include:
-contractors using unskilled laborers to carry out their work
-winning jobs with lowball bids and then jacking up the cost later with “unforeseen problems”.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
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The kitchen stove is a visual and functional focal point in many kitchens. And there are several options from which to choose. This week’s mini-lesson will give you an overview of many of those options, including, ranges vs cooktops, plus electric, gas, induction, convection, and dual fuel cooking. This lesson should help you choose the best stove for your new kitchen. We’ll also talk about the very basic differences between cooking with gas versus cooking with electric.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
I’ve been wondering for a while now about the current trends and rules for crown molding, baseboards and other types of interior trim and molding. In my internet search, I didn’t find a lot of articles on the subject. There’s some information defining the different types of trim, but not a lot of hard and fast rules to go by. In this week’s episode, we're going over the few rules that I did find, I’ll cover whether it’s acceptable to paint the trim in different parts of the house different colors and I’ll discuss some less traditional trim options that you may not have heard of or considered.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
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This week I want to give you a quick update on the status of my project. My structural engineer finally completed my foundation plan (kind of), I got the official plot plan done and my POA approved my design.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
I’ve hesitated to do an episode on the cost of construction because homebuilding costs can vary greatly from house to house and region to region. But, “How much does it cost to build a house?” is a question that comes up a lot. So I decided to give you some information collected by the National Association of Home Builders. They did a cost of construction survey which asked builders from around the United States to break down their construction costs for the typical home they built in 2017.
This week’s episode will cover a lot of numbers that you cant possibly remember, but I want to give some points of reference for our own project.
I’ll not only share the average cost for each major category of the building process, such as site work, framing and the foundation, but I’ll also tell you what percentage of the total cost of construction each segment represents.
Here are some quick averages:
The average single-family home built in 2017 was 2,776 square feet, so almost 2800 square feet.
The average lot size was about 11,186 square feet.
The average construction cost of a typical single-family home in 2017 was $237,760.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
This past week in my area, it rained almost non-stop for 3 days. And although I haven’t started building, I was thinking I’d pretty nervous if I had started and my house was being framed and exposed to all that water.
It got me to wondering… Is it ok if it rains while your house is being framed before the house is dried in? If it’s not ok, what can you do if it does rain? Do you need to wait for the lumber to dry?
Show notes at BYHYU.com
Outdoor living spaces are more important than ever. Most folks building new homes want a deck, porch and/or patio where they can entertain or just relax as a family.
When choosing the materials for the construction of your porch, deck or patio, the style of your home and your personal preference should definitely be considered. A traditional colonial-style home would look nice with a brick patio, for example, whereas a more contemporary house might look better with an outdoor space made of poured concrete or sleek pavers.
But, in addition to aesthetic considerations, we should also think about maintenance, cost, and the pros and cons of each material.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
This week I have a quick episode telling you about 7 house layout mistakes you should avoid when designing your home. Most of them are mistakes that I almost made until I mentally walked through the house. Some of them are mistakes that my architect didn’t even see until I brought them to his attention. So do your due diligence, even if you are working with a professional, and literally study your house plan before you finalize it.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
I love lighting fixtures. I’d have a beautiful chandelier in almost every room of the house, if I could. But there’s more to lighting than pretty fixtures. Lighting is first and foremost functional. I briefly covered lighting in episode 25 called “8 Kitchen Design Mistakes to Avoid”. Mistake #6 was “Going Light on Lighting.” That’s not what we want to do in the kitchen or any other place in the house.
In this week’s mini lesson, we’ll go over the basic rules to follow when choosing lighting for your new home. Now, an electrician or lighting designer will be invaluable in making specific suggestions your project, but today we’ll cover some general guidelines.
As with most guidelines, experts sometimes disagree. I noticed when doing my research that one website might have slightly different guidelines and advice than another. So the tips and rules that I’ll outline today may be just a little different from what you read or hear elsewhere, but this information should help give you some basic, practical tips that will get you on the right path to a well lit home.
We’ll talk about the different categories of lighting, where to put warm white light as opposed to cool white light, and we’ll go into what size recessed lights (can lights) are best and how you should space them.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
Although I haven’t started the fun, exciting part of the building process yet, I made an important phone call this week and introduced myself to the head building inspector. In this week’s episode, I’ll give you a quick project update.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
Many of the trends that I saw at this year’s Design and construction week are a continuation of the what I saw in 2016 and 2017. I’m finding that homebuilding trends don’t typically change abruptly from year to year. So the trends that I talked about in episodes 5 and 55 still hold for this year. But this week we’ll talk about a few new trends for 2018.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
To commemorate our 100th episode, I want to give you some of my favorite homebuilding and design tips that I’ve learned over the past 2 years of this podcast. I’ve learned so much, but these are some of the most relevant things.
We’ll go over 50 tips in this week’s mini-lesson, but since this is the 100th episode, it only makes sense that I give you a list of 100 of the most important pieces of homebuilding knowledge. So we’ll go over 50 tips today and I’ll send you 50 more tips and tricks if you email me at info@BYHYU.com.
All you have to do is type the number 100 in the subject line and as a thank you for helping me get to episode 100, I’ll send you a PDF of a list of 50 bonus tips, plus the 50 tips that we’ll cover in today, so you won’t have to take notes while listening to this.
You’ll end up with a list of 100 of my favorite bits of homebuilding information. Now don’t worry about me spamming you. I wouldn’t do that. So just email me at info@BYHYU.com and put the number 100 in the subject line and I’ll send you the list of my 100 favorite homebuilding and design tips.
Before we get to the first 50 tips, I want to sincerely thank you for your loyalty and support and for encouraging me to keep the podcast going with your awesome reviews and kind emails. I especially want to thank you for sharing the show with friends, family and coworkers by text, email and on social media. You are the reason the show is doing so well. Since I’m not great with social media, I’ve been counting on you to spread the word about the podcast and you’ve done that, so thank you.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
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“Solar energy" harnesses the energy of the sun to power your house. A 2017 report from the International Energy Agency says that solar energy has become the world’s fastest growing source of power– marking the first time that solar energy’s growth has surpassed that of all other fuels.
Most people who want to install a solar panel system are motivated to do so either because saving the planet is important to them and/or because saving money on their utility bills is important to them. Either way, solar panel systems are tremendously beneficial.
This week’s episode will give you a basic overview of solar power systems, including the pros and cons of the different types of solar panels, the average cost, and the amount of maintenance needed. We’ll also talk about leasing solar panels.
Before our mini lesson, we’ll go over a few pro terms: On the grid, zero energy homes, and off the grid.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
The refrigerator is one of the hardest working, most used appliances in a house. Back in the day, all we had were refrigerator units with freezers on top and the main choice we had to make was color. Remember harvest gold and avocado?
Today, we have so many choices in refrigerators that I thought I’d do a quick episode covering the pros and cons of each style of refrigerator to help us choose the best fridge for our new homes.
We’ll talk about top freezer refrigerators and bottom freezer refrigerators, french door refrigerators, side by side refrigerators, counter depth fridges and full refrigerator columns. Plus I’ll tell you the rule of thumb for the amount of fridge space you need in cubic feet.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
A few weeks ago I had to go to my architect and tell him I had completely forgotten to add a very important space to our new house. It hadn't even crossed my mind until I saw my husband putting up our Christmas decorations. He’s the Christmas decorator, not me. And he is quite the decorator. He goes all out, so we will definitely need a dedicated space for our Christmas decor. Just a couple of weeks ago we added a Christmas nook to our attic in our house plan.
The episode this week will give you a few quick tips to help you design and build a house with the holidays in mind. Putting in a little extra thought and planning before we build will make holiday decorating a lot easier and more enjoyable for years to come. Now, I’ll be referring to Christmas for most of these tips, but these ideas should be helpful for those celebrating Hanukkah and other seasonal holidays.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
If you’re like most of us, you’re dreaming of a spacious, well-organized master closet. A walk-in master closet is what most people will opt for, but if you’re limited by space or budget, you might have to go with a reach in closet, also called a wall closet. In this week’s episode, we’ll talk about the advantages of walk-in closets vs reach-in closets, whether flat shoe shelves, slanted shoe shelves or shoe cubbies are better, and we’ll go over the different materials used to fabricate closets.
Plus we’ll go over pro terms: Wall hung closet systems and Floor mounted closet systems
Show notes at BYHYU.com
I want to give you an update on my project and the private Facebook group and give you a few things to think about when designing your house. This week we briefly talk about window design and how I got a second opinion on my house plan.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
I recently wrote a guest blog post for a home improvement site called Kukun. I thought you might like to hear the tips that I gave them for finding good subcontractors. I’ve covered many of these tips in several previous podcast episodes, but I want to go over all those tips in one single show so you can reference this week’s show notes when it comes time for you to search for your subs. Plus I’ll give you a couple of new suggestions.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
Most of us have to consider budget when making decisions about our dream homes. And some budgets are tighter than others. So in this week’s episode, I’ll give you some tips on the best places to save when building a house versus areas where you should splurge.
Before we get to those tips, we'll define a pro-term: Value engineering.
Value engineering is a term that you might hear some architects and contractors use when talking about saving money when building a house. Value engineering is an economical way of building that removes excessive costs but preserves good design. In other words, value engineering aims to lower the cost of building without lowering functionality. That’s achieved by spending in some areas and saving in others.
So, our lesson this week will focus on value engineering.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
Since we compared front load washers and top load washers in last week’s mini-lesson, it only makes sense that we cover dryers this week. We’ll talk about gas dryers versus electric dryers and cover some of the more popular dryer options, such as steam settings and moisture sensors. Plus we’ll go over some best practices for installing the dryer vent system— practices that will decrease your risk of a dryer fire.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
Too often I hear homeowners talking about washers if they are solely decorative items. I’ll often hear questions like “Do you like the Burgundy or the navy blue washer better?” Listen, I like beautiful appliances as much as anyone else, but I think it’s also important to strongly consider functionality and performance when purchasing an appliance that’s as hard working as a washer. This week we’ll compare traditional top-loading washers with front-loading washers and I’ll tell you about the pros and cons of each.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
I’ve spent more time away from the internet and library this month and done more research out in the field.
At the beginning of the month, I went to the Kansas City Parade of Homes and this past week I had some time off from work and ventured out to different homebuilding job sites in an attempt to gather names and contact information for some subcontractors who I could potentially hire for my project. So this episode will cover some lessons that I’ve learned this past month.
Show notes at BYHYU.com
This week we’ll learn some interior design basics, especially as it pertains to new and remodeled homes. You’ll hear my conversation with Betsy Helmuth, owner of Affordable Interior Design and host of her own interior design podcast called Big Design, Small Budget. It’s one of my new favorites. I just love it and here’s why: In the same way this podcast simplifies and demystifies homebuilding concepts, Betsy, on Big Design Small Budget, simplifies and demystifies interior design. So, to go along with BYHYU’S tips and tricks for building your dream house, Betsy gives strategies for decorating your dream house.
Today you’ll hear Betsy's expert opinion on what to do and where to start when designing rooms from scratch. She will tell us what fixtures and finishes should stay consistent throughout the whole house, and when it’s ok to add in different color palettes and styles. We’ll also hear why Betsy says that investment furniture and all-neutral rooms are no-nos.
Shownotes at BYHYU.com