Build Your House Yourself University

Because of the odd, but real, pandemic-driven toilet paper shortages, more and more homeowners have added, or are considering adding toilet seat bidets to their homes.   So, this week I thought it would be valuable to revisit an episode about bidets.  Keep in mind, bidets won’t usually completely eliminate the need for toilet paper, but will usually reduce your need to just a few squares per bathroom break.    

As you’ll hear, you’ll want to tell your electrician where you want to include toilet seat bidets so he can install an outlet near the toilet to power the bidet.  But what I’ve learned since that show, is that you’ll also want to instruct your plumber to plumb those bidet toilets with both cold and hot water.  Typically a toilet only gets cold water, but if you’re adding a bidet, you don’t want a shocking blast of just cold water on your bottom when you activate the bidet.  You’ll want comfortably warm water, so make sure you tell your builder or plumber that you want a cold and hot water mix for your bidets.    We’ll also discuss radiant floor heat for master baths.  

Show notes at BYHYU.com

This week I have part 2 of the list of the best things homeowners did when building.  The information comes from a couple of posts at Houzz. com.  Homeowners who had built previously listed the favorite features they included in their builds—features that made life in the house easier and/or more enjoyable.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

I was recently on Houzz on the “Building a Home” forum in the gardenweb.com section of the website. One of the discussions there caught my attention. The homeowners were asked to list “The Best Things You did When Building.”This was a forum discussion where homeowners who had built previously listed the favorite features they included in their builds—features that made life easier and/or more enjoyable.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Although I’m not particularly interested in having the very latest gadgets, electronics, or technology in my house, one techie element I do want to invest in is fast, reliable internet service.  Having high-speed internet is nice for those of us who mainly shop online and visit various websites and social media platforms, but a fast internet connection is especially important if you or your family members are gamers or movie or tv buffs who regularly use streaming services like Netflix or Hulu. Or if your household has multiple people using the internet simultaneously.  So in this week’s mini-lesson, I’ll tell you about fiber optics internet, the fastest type of internet connection available. And we’ll also compare it to the other internet options.

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Since we can often learn from the project of others, in this week’s episode, we’ll be reviewing a modern-style, green home with Lake Washington views in the Seattle Washington area.  It’s a 2 story house that’s almost 3200 sq ft.  There are 4 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, including a mother-in-law suite. The house has solar panels and is certified by the DOE Zero Energy Ready program, the Northwest Energy Star program, and EPA Indoor air PLUS program.  And this home costs the homeowners only $21 per year for utilities.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

For years Fort Worth magazine has teamed up with an area builder and local designers and vendors to build a house highlighting the latest in home design.  Called the Dream Home,  it’s been a showcase house charity fundraiser that many in and around Dallas, TX look forward to every year.

This year, for the first time, 3 homes were built to be showcased in an event called, not Dream Home, but Dream Street.  The 3 luxury showhomes were in all on the same street in Southlake, TX, a suburb outside of Dallas. Each house had a different builder and designer so I knew it would be interesting to see the similarities and differences that showed up in the different houses.  Going to these showcase homes often lets us in on what’s up-and-coming and tried and true in homebuilding and decor.

Some of the most prominent design features were those that I’ve talked about before and ones that I’ve seen in previous parades of homes.  But to me, it’s always helpful to know what’s still trending and what has gone by the wayside.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

A couple of weeks ago, I took a road trip to the Vesta Parade of Homes in Memphis, TN.  As usual, there were several new construction houses in the same neighborhood that were open for tours.  I think this was my third year going to the Vesta parade of homes, and it never disappoints.  The houses were transitional in style, meaning there was a mix of traditional and contemporary decor.  Patterns and colors of furniture, rugs, and art leaned just a little more traditional than contemporary, probably because of the southern sensibility of the homes, buyers, and designers.   But materials and fixtures had mostly clean lines and sleek finishes and were similar to what I’ve seen used throughout the country and on design websites and in magazines.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Choosing the right hot tub entails more than picking out the prettiest unit that’s within your budget.  It’s important to know the basics about a hot tub’s construction, jets, water pump, filtration system, and maintenance in order to choose a spa unit that will be enjoyable and energy-efficient. Here is a list of things you should consider before buying a hot tub.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Email me at michelle@BYHYU.com if you’d like to be a guest

At the end of August, I released episode 212 where we talked about what features to choose if you want a quieter garage door.   In that show, we focused mainly on the garage door opener, track, and apparatus. This week, we’ll focus on the outer shell of the garage door— the material the door is made of (steel, wood, fiberglass, aluminum, and glass, or vinyl) and how that material will effect the door’s look, price, durability, and level of maintenance.

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Average lumber prices have more than doubled from mid-April to late August 2020.  Prices moved from a low in April of $348 per thousand board feet to over $900 per thousand board feet in August. This price surge is adding over $16,000 to the price of the average single-family home according to the National Association of HomeBuilders.  And it’s adding several tens of thousands of dollars to higher-end homes.  The extreme increase in lumber prices have been made worse by tariffs of more than 20% on Canadian lumber imported into the U.S. The U.S. typically gets quite a bit of lumber from Canada. 

Given these historically high lumber prices, many homeowners and builders are currently wondering if prices are likely to decrease back toward normal, and if so, when. Folks are further questioning whether now is the right time to start a build or whether waiting is a better option.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

We've all heard how loud opening a garage door can be, but what you may not realize is that opening a garage door doesn’t have to be that noisy.  There are garage door features you can choose that can make opening your garage door much quieter, which is particularly important for attached garages and garages with rooms above them.   

We’ll also cover when choosing 2 single garage doors is better than choosing one double-wide garage door.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Between having to regularly endure the weight of heavy vehicles and varying outdoor elements such as driving rains, sweltering heat, ice, and snow, driveways get lots of use and abuse. Therefore, it’s important that we choose the best driveway surface for our circumstances.

There are several options to choose from and each has its pros and cons with respect to durability, maintenance, aesthetics, sustainability, and price.   Keep in mind, when considering price, you want to be sure to factor in not only the initial cost of your driveway but also the long-term costs associated with maintenance.  You’ll also want to think about how the material will perform your area’s climate.  Some driveway materials may be better for your region’s weather conditions than others.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

In the last episode, we started discussing how to compromise with our partners when designing and building a house.  This week, we’ll complete our list of tips that will help us come through the home building process with a home and relationship that both partners are happy with.  Now remember, not every suggestion will work in every single situation, but you should be able to find at least one or two tips on the list that will help you come to a compromise for almost every disagreement.

Show notes at BYHYU.com

Building and decorating a house should be and can be, a really happy time in your life. But it can also be a time of stress.   One of the major sources of stress can come from having to make a number of decisions that both you and your partner have to agree upon.  How do you design and decorate a home when you and your significant other have completely different styles? Even when people have very similar tastes, there will inevitably be some areas where one person’s first choice is different than their partner’s. 

In this mini-lesson, we’ll go over tips on how to compromise with your partner during the homebuilding journey.  Not every suggestion will work in every single situation, but you should be able to find at least one or two tips on the list that will help you come to a compromise for almost every disagreement. 

Show notes at BYHYU.com

When deciding on which contractors to use for your project, you’ll need to compare prices, which means asking each potential contractor how much they will charge. There are several ways a contractor or supplier can outline cost:  an estimate, a quote, and a bid. 

Although the terms are used interchangeably, there are important distinctions that we should understand. That’s what we’ll talk about in this mini-lesson— the difference between an estimate, a quote, and a bid. 

Show notes on BYHYU.com

Do y’all remember that episode of Seinfeld where the girl Jerry was dating looked either really pretty or really unattractive depending on the lighting she was in?  That bad lighting is what we want to avoid, especially in our homes.  Although I don’t consider myself to be overly concerned with looks, I’d rather avoid the spooky, ghoulish shadows on faces that can show up because of poorly designed lighting. 

It used to be that only models, actresses, photographers, and entertainers were aware of what type of lighting is most flattering.  But in this new era of selfies, social media posts and youtube channels, lighting our homes in a way that flatters us and our surroundings has become top of mind for even the average Jo(e). 

I’ve come up with a list of tips that we can incorporate into our homes to not only make the lighting design functional but also flattering.  If we can do relatively simple things in our homes to make us look and feel our best, why not?  I mean, we need to include lighting in our houses anyway, so why not use and place fixtures so that they shine the very best light on ourselves and our guests. 

Show notes at BYHYU.com

n the last episode we began a mini lesson on range hoods, also called vent hoods and exhaust hoods. We talked about how you should properly size and position your hood and what amount of power you’ll need. And I strongly recommended that, if at all poss

We typically give quite a bit of thought to most of our kitchen appliance choices. But exhaust hoods… they get much less love.  Most people don’t give range hoods the attention they deserve. They might think some about the aesthetic design of the range hood, but not a lot of people think through how to size and position a hood, and what features they should look for in a range hood that will give them the perfect balance of suction power and quietness.

If you think about it, the range hood, also called an exhaust hood and a vent hood is one of the more hardworking appliances in the kitchen.  Because it removes irritating fumes, smoke, heat, odors, and potentially damaging moisture, the exhaust hood allows for a safer, more comfortable, cleaner, less smelly, and more enjoyable kitchen experience.   In this episode, we’ll discuss a few things that will help us make informed decisions about what sort of hood we should choose. 

Show notes at BYHYU.com

This week we have the second half of our list of design tips that should help us start thinking through the interior decor for each room of our homes.  Last week, we talked about some of the first things we should consider when starting a room design.

I suggest you take a listen to last week’s episode if you haven’t already because we discussed some foundational design guidelines that will help you know where to start decorating a room or house. Knowing where to begin is sometimes the hardest part of choosing your decor.  If we can figure out our starting point, the rest of the design will often fall into place. 

This week’s tips will help you pull all your different room designs together to give your house some cohesion and flow. We’ll also cover scale, color and contrast, and how to decide what you like if your Pinterest boards seem to be all over the place. 

Show notes at BYHYU.com

When building a home, there are so many design decisions to make that it can be overwhelming.  And even for those of us who love designing, it’s hard to know where to start, especially when you have an entire new house to decorate. So in the next two episodes, we’ll go over a few tips that should give you some general design direction, including where to start.   

Now, if you don’t enjoy decorating, or you have no interest in choosing furniture and accessories for your home, you probably want to consider hiring an interior designer.

To help you decide whether working with a designer is the way to go, take a listen to episode 132 called “Should I Hire An Interior Designer?”

Even if you decide you want to work with a designer, this episode will still be helpful to you because you’ll still have to answer the designer’s questions about what you like and dislike.  And although the designer could make all your final decisions for your home’s interior, You’ll still need to articulate how you want your house to look and live, to guide the designer's selections.

Show notes at BYHYU.com