Hey, I build houses as an investment and am looking for some ideas for some unique features to put on a house. Like to pick the brains of the upper middle class. Any ideas?
Here are some I've had (from my list where I've taken some irrelevant ones out so my numbering isn't perfect):
1) Wood beams and/or crown molding throughout
3) Steel frame
4) Built-in humidifier
5) Hydronic heating and/or ground source heat pump
6) Indoor pool
7) Sauna and steam room
8) Indoor hot tub
9) Half indoor basketball court
10) Fully stocked exercise room
11) Interior brick
12) Brick oven
13) Master bathroom shower to have open tiled wall rather than glass or curtain
14) One of the bathrooms to have large classic bathtub and classic deep colored, hard tiling
16) Office with built-in shelves and built-in desk with cement/concrete tops; sitting area
17) Hardiplank deck (to give the appearance of cedar wood)
18) Hardwood floors throughout the entire house
20) Detached shed
21) Exterior basement entrance
23) Hot water dispenser in kitchen
24) Significant unfinished basement storage (about 500 sqft)
25) Whole house energy back-up
26) Highest grade insulation material
27) Energy efficient windows throughout
28) Speakers in master shower
secret passage ways hidden rooms
definitely, secret library/study behind a fake wall or bookshelf.
Indeed, hidden elements of design here and there are ready to work with using the special equipment or just simple utilities. They will help you to choose the best view and to enjoy the receive view after all the variants you try online. So, I like to work with such ones.
My brother is a national-level long-distance runner and is saving up to have his room converted to an altitude tent. Though that's admittedly something that's not universally useful to everyone.
Other cool stuff: -Solar panels if you can find a place that doesn't look terrible/if you're in a region that gets decent sun exposure. -Wine cellar. -Nice kitchen materials for countertops, floors, cabinets, etc. More detail is better and for some reason nice kitchens turn middle-aged women on (they can convince their husbands to buy). -Walk-in closets! (So baller)
^ Second the walk-in closets.
I'd count on selling "green" features to start. you mentioned a few, but I'd do some research on some new technology
One cool feature I've seen is integrated ipod/iphone wiring (as in each room has an iphone/ipod dock integrated into a wall). From there the ipod can be used to stream music through built in speakers, play video etc. You could even look into further smartphone integration (eg blinds, garage doors, pool controls). You really can't go wrong with technology, although a lot of people prefer to have it concealed so it still gives the house an old world charm with new world conveniences.
You mentioned a basketball court, I've seen a couple houses with squash courts. Not too common, but it is doable
Also read a cool article in the journal (poss NYT) on the emergence of the "man cave." apparently its pretty common to design elaborate getaways for the man of the house (think wood panelling, walk in humidors, old school poker tables). the journalist also reported on female equivalents
Feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions. always happy to talk real estate
Each bathroom have a urinal and regular toilet. At first I found it weird but I love it now...
Waterfall showers
an outdoor firepit is a pretty cool place to hang outdoors and drink when friends are over. Of course one needs a decent size backyard for this to work.
high quality toilets - I think some of the best are made by Toto. Some even have remote controls, but personally I think the ones with a ton of features are straight up weird. Also very high quality bathroom/kitchen fixtures area must. Can't go wrong with Waterworks although there are a bunch of other high quality producers
This website might be worth a look as well - http://www.geberitnorthamerica.com/web/appl/us/wcmsus.nsf/pages/index
A home bar! My grandfather had one before and I thought it was just the coolest thing. Even a small one on one side of the living room would be pretty nice.
To the OP, are you building a spec home or a place for you? If it's the former, don't be an idiot. If it's for you, do whatever the hell you want.
As to my thoughts, where do I begin... How much are you willing to spend to do this, because if you want to do this right, you will be spending a lot of money.
Before you even begin planning your house, you need to discuss the electronics if you really want to make an impact. This is essential because if you are really going to make a modern day smart house, you need to account for the rack storage, cooling and features at the ground level on any housing design. Realistically, if you go the route of Home Automation, be prepared to spend a ton of money to do it right.
The first question is how much technology do you want in your house, as that means you will be looking at a few miles of Cat5e/Cat6 to power the entire place? Are you doing a theater, which has its own set of hangups? Distributed video and television? Obviously you want speakers, so have you thought about what kind of sources you plan to use with those speakers? Are you using lighting and heating controls? Are you planning remote access and security functionality? Do you want to have iPod use everywhere? XM/Siruis/Pandora streaming across the house? What do you want!
This is important because it factors into how you design your house. With technology in mind, you can better plan how you want to cool what will become your server room, get a rough idea of how much wiring will need to be installed to run everything you plan to install and, most importantly, to make sure that there will be no issues before you realize that the electrician is running high voltage lighting instead of low voltage because you didn't decide whether you wanted the integrated lighting control or not.
Second question is how much are you willing to spend to do this right? Now, I'm not going to justify the Kalidascape versus Fusion Media versus Axonix debate, but this is a major cost. You are limited in Home Automation by how much you spend, and buying, installing and programing these systems IS NOT CHEAP. Doesn't matter what you are doing, and there are ways to do it relatively cheaply, but you are really limited by costs, particularly when you are choosing component systems. For example, a Creston Control Unit may not like a Vantage lighting system and require you to get an infiNET integration unit, when a Crestron System would have saved you a bit more time and headache despite being a bit more expensive.
Third, how do you plan to access your control scheme? You can do a Two-Way RTI/Equivalent Remote setup in each room and a non-intrusive wall mount touch panel in key rooms of the house. And if anyone says they are intrusive, they haven't actually been in a $10MM+ Home with the full automation and the old world charm still in tact. You don't notice them until you actually walk up to use them or are actively looking for them. Do you require iPad/iPhone support for the control mechanisms? Can you deal without having them on your phone? All this matters.
Fourth, and most important, what systems and technology do you actually want? There is a very fine difference between question 1 and question 4. Question one asks the basics of what you are looking to get out of automation and you can always run far more cable than necessary, but it needs to be accounted for at the design level. Question 4 is all about the specifics now. What I ask now is about what do you specifically want to include in your tech package. Are you going to go with integrated temperature controls? Do you get the lighting system? Are you doing the Distributed TV? How many TVs do you intend to put into your house? Do you want to do Shower Controls? Are you going to do iPod docks throughout the house? Every component you choose will have an effect on the "server room", both from a size and cooling perspective. Same goes with component selection. Each different task either requires its own separate subsystem within one particular design or an integration controller for the Automation CPU.
If you are going automation, don't skimp on the home theater. Make sure it's done right, and by a guy who can show you want a Million Dollar theater looks like. We're talking 7.2 Surround Sound, a rear mounted projector with a perforated, slightly concave silk screen on an SMX Blackboard with its own portable panel control.
What else would I add?
Make sure you have a place for the Wet Bar... that is a must. Also, consider making every toilet in the place a Toto.
Some really great suggestions so far. I'm reading this all in detail, so thanks for everyone who has posted.
Frieds, I'm going to build the "it" house for myself, so I've been writing a lot of ideas down. Since I also build spec houses in upper middle class infill areas, I was also trying to think up some cool, cost efficient features. Kind of complementary goals.
Frieds, how the hell do you know this stuff? Do you work the the NSA? WTF? LOL. I guess I've been operating in the middle market--you're talking about some high quality sh*t. Umm, wow.
I guess I'm thinking about a legacy house I want to build, a house that will stand for hundreds of years. The electronics is cool, but that'll be dated in about 5-10 years. But that is some great info. I'm definitely taking notes on this.
LOL, very informative post Frieds. I think I'll hire you to build my dream home in 20 or so years. I was thinking of buying an old European castle (preferably one of historical significance) and having someone come in to renovate it and give it all the cool gadgets the 21st century has to offer.
VT,
Almost everything is going to run on Cat5e/Cat6 and you won't see much change in terms of technology until a major revision comes out, and even then, they are fairly interchangeable. The interfacing will remain the same for the next 20-30+ years until a major wiring revision comes around and moves beyond using a CAT interface for data transfer. Using a rack mount system, you can easily upgrade your cabinets without major retrofitting, and even then, the legacy technology in some of the houses I've seen still works perfectly and on point with its newest competitors. Yes, certain rooms like the theater would be a bit more dated than other parts of the house a bit sooner, but you are still talking about being able to produce a high quality home theater experience that will not be easily replicated even after 20 years if it's well maintained.
Once you progress past spec into the land of "Custom Spec" and play multimillionaire designer, you're talking a whole new ball game. The name of that game is truly "Custom" and no two homes being exactly the same.
The bedroom and master bathroom seperated by a walk thru closet.
i'd be hesitant to add any custom features unless it was presold. Too many variables, which I'm sure you know, to what may or may not change a customer's mind.
OP, do you build just specs or presolds?
A FIRE POLE!!!!
txjustin, I build specs. Buy land in cash and use my contact at a local community bank for construction (even though my builder has terrible credit, he has worked with this bank for 25+ years so it doesn't impact his ability to build when I'm using this bank--my builder gives me obscene discounts, so I have a built-in competitive advantage in pricing). I guess I'm relatively soon looking to build the "it" house for myself so I've been trying to get some ideas. Also, having some unique, cost efficient features might be a way to speed up sales of these spec properties in the future.
SB to you, Frieds. Although literally 90% of what you said is like a foreign language to me, I've copied into a Word document for future use (I'll get my Rosetta stone out).
Guy who lived in my neighborhood in HS was a geological surveyor who'd made a ton of money essentially prospecting and partnering with energy companies. His countertop was made of this rock with fossils in it-mostly fish, plants, and mollusks. Pretty awesome and completely suited to him, not just some huge look-at-me expensive item.
VT, don't hesitate to PM me if you have any questions or need/want a non-technical translation for what I said.
Author's Note and Edit: I've actually been extremely interested in home design. Odd fun fact about me is that I like going to open houses, looking around and seeing/figuring out what I would do. Almost always, regardless of the layout, the first thing I do is a gut the entire house, open up all the walls and rerun all the electrical as single run lines to a multiunit subcircut tied into the main breaker and run hardwire ethernet in the house, so I try to keep current on that stuff.
Bidet
Walk-in closet is baller. Wine cellar that is big enough to have a couple people hangout in and have a table for wine tasting and cheese and crackers. Waterfall shower is going into any house that I build, no question...and I don't mean 'rain' I mean fucking Niagara waterfall style just pouring down, lol. I think a large entertaining room that can have a wet bar in the corner some sort of area for a pool table/poker table and then some seating with multiple tv so you can have the guys over and watch a couple different games, etc.
This house has one of the greatest man caves in history, and that counts prehistoric kindergarten. Starts getting fucking unreal at pic 18, I think all of the pics starting at 18 are on the same floor...it's basically one giant room (minus the gym and hot tub).
http://tinyurl.com/689dmyh
Regards
meh... it's a bit to "california" for me.
this is more my style: http://www.masonmorse.com/properties/details?Mls_Num=118070&Asking_Pric…
What about 'custom' matching furniture elements.
For example, if you have brazilian walnut floors - accessorize with custom brazilian walnut stools, made on site to match the flooring. Trust me from experience, it sucks trying to match different wood types, looks/sounds slick if it's custom built to match.
On the same line of thought - built in custom game table - big for like 8-10 guys, for poker / board games etc, with leather padding, drink holders.
And 3rd floor office with leather tile floors
Indoor movie theater
1) tennis court / hellipad combination (to save space!)
2) personal office facility outside the main house, but connected via heated walkway (so you don't slip in the winter). all baller personal office facilities should have triple tall, vaulted ceilings made from imported woods (Austrian is safe)... you're gonna be in there a lot and don't wanna feel trapped!
3) super-thick soundproof walls... you don't really like the neighbors, but you don't want to piss them off when you're partying at 3AM otherwise they might no invest in your next fund :P
LOL. Go to bed, weirdo. :)
I think you saw that before i took it down... I was afraid what the others might think so I shortened it... lol
Haha, I liked the long version. It gave this insomniac a good laugh.
hehe... sigh... it's 2:57pm in China and I'm putting off finishing a DCF.
Oh yeah, I'm in Kansas. It's pretty late here.
Only 15k square feet?! Where are you going to raise your children?!
15,000 square feet? Why, that's only 3 McMansions! Ugh, the poor...
A guy in Kansas and a guy in China talking about where to put their Helipads...oh I love you internet.
7 would be amazing, but i imagine the costs wouldn't be worth it 13 & 14 doesn't sound like as much trouble, but would still be amazing!
Wine cellar! Can be small (standing room), or bigger with a tasting table etc... I've seen people do it and it could be done at reasonable costs, and it's a rather more commonly desired feature than say, indoor basketball court.....
Entertainment center with surround sound built into the walls? Very realistic as well
Walk-in closet FOR SURE. Like in Sex And the City (not that you would've seen it) or more descriptively, what the dude in Family Guy has in the beginning scene. Very practical, cost can be controlled depending on what kind of wood you use
Start with the basics: 1. good layout (don't put a window next to a fireplace, or a door directly against the door) 2. good room flow and position in relation to each other - i.e, don't put a laundry room next to the bedroom, because noise from it won't let people sleep; don't put master closet in master bathroom instead of master bedroom or a dressing room area, because the humidity and temperature change is not going to be good for clothes; don't put another bedroom next to the master bedroom - last thing people want is to have their kids hear them fuck 3. Good looking hardwood - pick nice grain and color, something classic with a personality, not discount timber Think this:
,
DON'T add crown molding and crap like that unless it goes with the style of the house. If you are building greek revival/classic colonial, then you do things like crown molding, wainscotting, etc if you are building spanish colonial revival, you use stucco walls and crown molding just looks FUCKING ODD
Indoor pool is very high maintenance, nevermind expensive comparing to an outdoor one. You can't just stick it anywhere, gotta humidity and pressure control the room, etc etc. The people I know with indoor pools have multi-million dollar houses, for upper middle class an indoor pool might be a turn off.
Sauna and steam room on the other hand are fairly cheap and easy to install and you would be able to recoup that investment easily, plus even people that don't care for it would be ok with having it and using it as a selling point down the line, and it's also fairly low maintenance.
Indoor hot tub - like a jacuzzi bath tub? definitely; but make sure you also have a separate shower stall, because jacuzzis are fairly hard to clean up (comparing to a regular bathtub), so taking a shower while standing in the tub is not an option.
Basketball court - upper middle class is probably more of a tennis court. Just leave an area big enough for people to convert into something like that if they want to. Unless you are building by a specific order, that's not really an investment feature
Interior Brick - back to #4 - are you building industrial/loft style?
GOOD BRICK
BAD BRICK
Highest grade insulation and energy windows are not even a unique feature, they are pretty much a requirement.
Agree with Nuveau Richie on wine cellar, nice kitchen, and huge closets.
Two things...
First, regarding the wine cellar, custom built is better...
Second, IP, regarding your idea of an office that is not attached to the main house, it is definitely doable, but it's much harder to execute than you are letting on. Seeing as we don't know the actual size of the property in question, we can't accurately determine the feasibility of that idea, let alone the structural needs to integrate that with the rest of the house. I mean, it's definitely doable.
I'm not sure if the Sweetwood Ranch has the underground tunnels, but it's a perfect example of what can be done and the insanity of keeping a state of the art multi-million dollar home and work complex fully wired. Sweetwood, by the way, is owned by Under Armor founder Ryan Wood, and he's got some sick schematics and layouts in his ranch. Wood has two offices, one for the Ranch business and one for himself. His personal office is the kind of place that would make most traders go insane with the amount of dataflow he gets. The thing that always got me about it is that the Sweetwood Ranch Office is on the far side of the ranch from where his home and office are and the absurd brilliance of how it's fully integrated together.
I can't believe my fire pole is getting no love...
If your pole is on fire, you should probably stop looking for love in all the wrong places and go see a doctor XD
Argonaut, you do realize that you're talking about homes that are measured in Square Meters instead of Square Feet. 800 Square Meters is approximately 8600 Square Feet, so you have more space to spread things out. The home may be absolutely gorgeous, but it has the space to do that on a property that can actually fit that size and style of a home.
Frieds, I haven't even checked the square footage of the house, I can tell its pretty huge. What I mean is that in this house everything is well appointed, vs in a lot of McMansions you have a problem of amenities being without rhyme or reason. Like for example people put a fireplace somewhere in the bedroom just to say on the ad "dream house with a fireplace in the bedroom", and not because it actually somehow enhances the place
But that comes down to the homeowner knowing what they want out of a home and building it from the ground up (or Gutting and fully renovating it) instead of buying it because it's there. I mean, I'm not a fan of the fireplace in bedroom although it can work well if done right. Then again, blame the guy who designed the house, not the idiots who buy it.
VT, pm coming your way bud.
Frieds, yup.
By people I mean builders and contractors, not buyers.
Argonaut, great run down with pictures. Thanks a lot for it. I'm mainly thinking about a house that I'm going to build on a huge Kansas lot for myself to keep basically forever. However, I'm also looking for some ideas for my spec houses, so a lot of the features--like hydronic heating or basketball court or indoor pool--would only go in my personal residence. I'd prefer indoor because Kansas is Fing cold as F.
I forgot the heated driveway and walkway.... who wants to worry about snow removal...
Dude, Heated Driveways are a bitch to run... and are extremely expensive to maintain. You do a full length Driveway with that and you're talking major maintenence costs.
VTech, you wanna do insane, do an Indoor/Outdoor with a Retractable Roof.
Didn't know that at all
Virginia Tech, if you are looking to build for yourself, I would strongly suggest to go visit historic buildings - houses, hotels, libraries, and just familiarize yourself with general directions in architecture and figure what you like and what you don't like. Also visit some really modern buildings.
You can definitely mix styles, but you got to know what you are doing. For example W in Austin has a very good mix - art deco, industrial/minimalistic, and bohemian/nomadic.
Phoenician on the other hand is bleurgh. It a 5 diamond hotel and I hate their interior style with a passion. They tried to combine art deco, southwestern/desert, and California/palm beach and it just looks wrong together.
Here's a dealer for reclaimed wood (beams, flooring, etc). There's a lot of similar dealers, but this place just opened up a showroom in manhattan. They've got some great stuff, hope it helps
http://www.longleaflumber.com/index.cfm
Dude you gotta do it right, build the entire house underground and then have a retractable roof that lets in natural light and doubles as a helo landing pad. Dont forget the security system with lasers and automated machine guns. Also if you into the whole weed thing gotta have your own grow room.
Stripper pole>fire pole.
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