Friday, November 18, 2011

What have you done or plan to do?

I have not had the chance to get out to the house yesterday, but my wife says all the windows and sliding doors are in.  AND we have steps to the basement.  I plan to swing by tonight on the way home.  Ryan has wrestling practice, so I won't be able to gander long.

So on to the title "what have you done or plan to do?"
What little thing, or extra something are doing on your own to your new house?
-I plan to add insulation to the garage cold walls (like Gina's husband did)
-I will have a PVC pipe laid under the driveway when it's poured so I can run an "underground dog fence"
-I am putting in a couple of low voltage outlet boxes on the tv wall and opposite wall with PVC pipe punching into the basement so I can run my speaker wire later.
-I am running a 2" PVC pipe from the attic to the basement in the "dead" space.  may be used in future for any type of cable, wires, etc...
-I have considered pulling out their insulation around the windows and spraying in (window safe) expanding foam.  I read a blog that someone just did this.  I can't find the post but would love to know how many cans you needed.
- We are having them leave the master closet shelf off of one (6'-ish) wall so we can install something else (Elfa system probably)

If I had the money, I would get special sound deadening dry wall for my boys room, but I will just make do with his noise. haha

So there are my ideas.  I can't think of anything I am missing.  What do you got?  If you got a great idea, let me know....I may want to do it too.

6 comments:

  1. Like you said - we added insulation. We put spray foam around the windows - I think we used 7 cans of Great Stuff Windows and Door foam. You need something that won't expand too much. We used blue smurf tube to run cable and cat5 from the basement to the attic. We also put in cable outlets in bedroom 4, loft, and bedroom 3. We also put in outlets for the family room - cable/cat5 and three boxes for speaker wire on one wall and two on the opposite wall. You can see pictures here: http://s1086.photobucket.com/albums/j449/gkcudagirl/Home%20in%20a%20Rome/Insulation/?start=all There is no wiring in the smurf tube, because we aren't allowed to do that - but they did let us put in the junction boxes and the smurf tube. You should buy 2 cans of fire retarding spray to put around any conduit you add.

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  2. Thank Gina, you rock.
    My PM did tell me to cap the PVC due to fire control.

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  3. We have a detached garage, so Ryan Homes doesn't do any tarting up of the walls. I'm planning to add drywall, perhaps some storage cabinets, and some of this stuff to the floor. I probably won't get to it until after a year or so. I'm not really into the whole do-it-yourself thing, but I figure if I confine myself to the garage I can't do too much harm.

    My wife is planning to make drapes, curtains and other window treatments herself. No doubt she'll do lots of garden-related stuff as well.

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  4. Consider putting a "whole house" surge protector in the main panel during construction... Will add about $400 in cost but worth the protection when you consider the damage that can result in a spike, surge or lightening hit...
    Dad

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  5. I think it's too late for me to splurge on a surge thingy, but I have considered getting a backup generator in the future.

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  6. Check your energy supplier. Duke energy offers to install one for a couple dollars a month

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