[gmcneill]

To those of you who have recently built new or who are in the process of doing so, I am asking for your input and ideas regarding making revisions to the standard home and home site.

I have read previous posts/strings on the topic…I am just trying to keep up with current activity. I am being told that the Design Team folks are becoming more generous in granting their “Mother-may-I” lately.

I know about the room/garage/lanai extensions (get as many as I can afford and what the site can handle) and about having the choice of floor plans and elevation options.

I am interested in hearing about changes additions, revisions, improvements and enhancements, both large and small. Things such as larger hot water tanks, adding/moving windows, light switches, outlets, etc, ceiling fans, high hat lighting

Basically, ANYthing and EVERYthing that you did/are doing or that you have heard what others did/are doing!

Please and Thank you very much!

George

[chiefrose]

Originally Posted by gmcneill

To those of you who have recently built new or who are in the process of doing so, I am asking for your input and ideas regarding making revisions to the standard home and home site.

I have read previous posts/strings on the topic…I am just trying to keep up with current activity. I am being told that the Design Team folks are becoming more generous in granting their “Mother-may-I” lately.

I know about the room/garage/lanai extensions (get as many as I can afford and what the site can handle) and about having the choice of floor plans and elevation options.

I am interested in hearing about changes additions, revisions, improvements and enhancements, both large and small. Things such as larger hot water tanks, adding/moving windows, light switches, outlets, etc, ceiling fans, high hat lighting

Basically, ANYthing and EVERYthing that you did/are doing or that you have heard what others did/are doing!

Please and Thank you very much!

George

George:

We are currently having an Iris built in TV. Besides all the stretches that we did, and you mentioned, we also had a couple of minor things done.

1. had them do radius turns on the concrete walkway instead of 90 degree turns.
2. Had the driveway extend to the street in front of the golf cart garage.
3. had a 10 x 10 pad poured in back for a BBQ
4. had them raise the lania floor
5. had a small wall removed in the kitchen so as to open it up into the living area (you do lose one upper cabinet)
6. had the laundry room tub put in the garage so that an extra pantry cabinet could be put in there
7. deleted some ceiling fans so that we could put in better ones.
8. moved some outlets up the wall for televisions
9. had the sliders off the kitchen nook removed and put in windows.

I'm sure there are a couple of other things but that is all I remember right now. Hope this helps and good luck.

Rich

[Happinow]

I think it depends on your designer how much you can do. I've heard that some were very limited and some were very lenient. Our designer was wonderful. There are previous threads on this subject so they may be of great help to you. But, we added many outlets ( not enough outside), put extra outlets outside, we added recessed lighting in the dining room (our sitting room), added recessed listing in the master, pendant lights in the kitchen,added a window and French doors in the master, additional "nook" for soap, shampoo, etc. on the bathroom showers, additional towel rack on the master, took out a medicine cabinet in the master, stretched the house as far as we could on garage, guest room side of the house and lanai, put additional lighting on lanai. Basically, if you have an idea for something, push to get it done! Ifs a fun but tiring process and is totally worth it in the end. You will get many ideas on this forum about what to add or subtract from your new build. Best of luck!!

[batman911]

You may want to check out the "New Villagers in Gilchrist" thread. You will find lots of info there.

[Houselover]

Originally Posted by gmcneill

To those of you who have recently built new or who are in the process of doing so, I am asking for your input and ideas regarding making revisions to the standard home and home site.

I have read previous posts/strings on the topic…I am just trying to keep up with current activity. I am being told that the Design Team folks are becoming more generous in granting their “Mother-may-I” lately.

I know about the room/garage/lanai extensions (get as many as I can afford and what the site can handle) and about having the choice of floor plans and elevation options.

I am interested in hearing about changes additions, revisions, improvements and enhancements, both large and small. Things such as larger hot water tanks, adding/moving windows, light switches, outlets, etc, ceiling fans, high hat lighting

Basically, ANYthing and EVERYthing that you did/are doing or that you have heard what others did/are doing!

Please and Thank you very much!

George

George,
We just finished with design for our Sanibel and were able to get sliders where windows were, changed the front elevation, changes cabinet configs. etc..Basically we got most of the changes we wanted but these changes are not cheap..Bring your fat checkbook..

[keithwand]

We have a Sanibel in Fernandina.
Did you add the slider in the kitchen nook to the lanai?
What did you change in the elevation.
We extended the 3 car garage (now 1,000 sf garage) and had taken out 1 of the doors from the kitchen to the garage and added pantrys which are now standard.
Added extra outlets, can lighting over pool table, deleted medicine cabinets and 1 large mirror over MBR sinks to put in dual wall hung framed mirrors; deleted pool bath but kept lanai screen past that area for "storage".
Wish we would have thought of a shower with glass block wall instead of the guest bath.

[Roaddog53]

Originally Posted by chiefrose

George:

We are currently having an Iris built in TV. Besides all the stretches that we did, and you mentioned, we also had a couple of minor things done.

1. had them do radius turns on the concrete walkway instead of 90 degree turns.
2. Had the driveway extend to the street in front of the golf cart garage.
3. had a 10 x 10 pad poured in back for a BBQ
4. had them raise the lania floor
5. had a small wall removed in the kitchen so as to open it up into the living area (you do lose one upper cabinet)
6. had the laundry room tub put in the garage so that an extra pantry cabinet could be put in there
7. deleted some ceiling fans so that we could put in better ones.
8. moved some outlets up the wall for televisions
9. had the sliders off the kitchen nook removed and put in windows.

I'm sure there are a couple of other things but that is all I remember right now. Hope this helps and good luck.

Rich

Good changes and did lots of those too on our Iris. Also:
- Added 4 way switches in liv room
- Added plugs in lanai incl TV
- Added switches for fan lighting in all rooms
- Added extra bib hose in back
- Removed hall door to kitchen and put on laundry room
- Added two rows of closet shelving in all bedroom closets plus other shelving

[Rbgold]

We are currently building a Lantana, and in addition to many of the additional features listed above, we added:
- dedicated outlet in garage for an additional refrigerator
- changed the kitchen cabinet configuration by adding drawers on many of the base cabinets instead of door cabinets
- extra spigots outside
- pocket slider in place of regular slider in nook area

Prior to design appt., we put everything on an excel spreadsheet so we did not forget anything during the process.

Best of luck to you!

[hotrodgirl]

I also made a spreadsheet and prioritized my entries. I closed on Dec 5th and built a LANTANA. I stretched 4 feet in the garage, 2 feet on the kitchen side, 2 feet on the back of the house, 2 feet on the lanai and 6 feet out the front in order to accommodate a 3rd bathroom (attached to the front bedroom) added a second closet to the third bedroom, a "built in cabinet" for a wine fridge, extra electrical outlets inside and out, extra hose bib, extra outlets in the bathrooms, extra cabinets in the laundry, pull-out trash bin cabinet in kitchen and I am sure more that I have since forgotten! All you can do is ask for what you want and hope they will accommodate you to the best of their abilities! Each builder has final say, so it is up to them. But ask for what you want!!!

[Joanned]

Originally Posted by gmcneill

To those of you who have recently built new or who are in the process of doing so, I am asking for your input and ideas regarding making revisions to the standard home and home site.

I have read previous posts/strings on the topic…I am just trying to keep up with current activity. I am being told that the Design Team folks are becoming more generous in granting their “Mother-may-I” lately.

I know about the room/garage/lanai extensions (get as many as I can afford and what the site can handle) and about having the choice of floor plans and elevation options.

I am interested in hearing about changes additions, revisions, improvements and enhancements, both large and small. Things such as larger hot water tanks, adding/moving windows, light switches, outlets, etc, ceiling fans, high hat lighting

Basically, ANYthing and EVERYthing that you did/are doing or that you have heard what others did/are doing!

Please and Thank you very much!

George

Hi
We just went thru the design process and did all the above. More high hats,light switches, tv/phone outlets, 5 burner stove top vs four, taller cabinets, moved a wall,changed window, Etc they were easy to work with, of course you'll pay for the additions
Joanne

[jmac1031]

Closed on an IRIS in November. We removed two windows in the master bedroom for additional wall space. We also were allowed to have the home/lanai pre wired for sound speakers and volume controls.

[SukiChu]

We did, or wish we would have:
Insulate the hot water pipes. Takes forever to get hot water in the master bath and the kitchen.
Put in a pocket door between the kitchen and the laundry area. They can do it but they will have to move the outlet to the other wall. We have a partial wall. It helps keep some of the noise out of the living room area.
I would get wood and carpet - no tile. Tile is hard on all body parts. I have to wear shoes all the time. Upgrade the carpet if you can.
Put in your own appliances .
Avoid using the big giant mirrors in the bath.
If you want the windows with the inserts you have to get tHem when you buy. They cannot be added later.
We added an additional outlet in the attic and an additional one in the garage.
Move that little window in the middle bedroom so it is not shoved over in a corner. IMHO, it looks stupid but does put light into the closet.. ...which brings me to....
Have them put light sockets in the smaller closets its dark in there .
We put in lots of big drawers in the kitchen instead of cabinets. Easy to see what is in there with no leaning over to look into a dark cabinet. I have one cabinet with a pull out tray. No wine rack...really needed that extra cabinet. We did not get a big pantry and it has been fine.
We cut our lanai off short and added a covered patio. Love it.
Wish we would have added a cable hookup in the kitchen nook area by the slider so we could watch the news during dinner. No need to catch up during dinner anymore as we are together 24/7 right now ( aghhhhh!). ;-)
We put a cable hookup in the kitchen and we made two outlets plug s into four whenever we could. Kitchen, MB, entertainment center wall and the garage.
We insulated the attic in the garage. Have them put down more particle board decking even beyond the footprint of the vaulted section of trusses.
Have them move the dining room light. They are not where they should be in any of the homes and we all complain about it. The builder really needs to address that issue. The size of that area is hard to work with. I am talking about an Iris and those like it .
Hope this helps.

[gmcneill]

So many great ideas!!

MANY thanks to all of you responders!!

I and other current and near-future "new builders" certainly appreciate that you shared your input.

PS: Houselover, about that fat checkbook: I checked on it after reading your post.
I think that it made a New Year's Resolution to get skinny w/out my knowledge.

[jmm2760jmm]

Just finished our new home. We pre-wired for speakers in the living room and lanai. Had the living room wall reinforced for hanging a tv. Had the lanai plumbed for water and electric for future summer kitchen. Our other adds were all mentioned in previous posts. Good luck!

[Bavarian]

What you can change depends on Desinger and Sales Rep!

We built a Grandview, had walls moved in Kitchen nook to accomodate an large Eckbank group we had custom made in current house. This required windows to be moved up. Also, needed to make Lanai bathroom made full bath with no entrance from house as it would interfere. But the sales rep knew this was a major requirement to building this house.
Had house prewired for surround sound in Family Room which will serve as theater, currently have dedicated one built in lieu of a third car garage. Also, prewired for whole house audio including outdoors. Don't know if I will go thru with entire system as it is expensive, but wires there. Had garden tub put back in Master Bathroom, lost a medicine cabinet though.

Not really any others, other than making a three car garage and golf cart garage, bumped out. Got many tips on the latter from our future neighbors.
If you want something, ask for it, all they can say is "no", then reword and ask again.