We have been doing some major renovations to our house. And when I say major renovations, I mean we basically gutted our house, room by room, in the last seven months or so.

While we haven’t built our own house from scratch, we have learned quite a few things about what we would have done differently if we had built this house from the floor up on our own.

Essential: Shut off valve for every toilet! There is nothing worse than seeing a toilet start to overflow. It’s worse if you know there is no shut off valve for the toilet and you have to get to the main shut off valve… if you even know where that is and can get to it!

Seriously, this is an absolute must. If you don’t have one on every toilet, you really should install one or have one installed. None of our toilets had one and there were times we really could have used them! (What with 3 kids plus all the nieces and nephews around, something that shouldn’t be flushed ALWAYS gets flushed!) Luckily, during our renovations, hubby installed shut off valves, so life might be a little easier now.

Nicety: Shut off valves for the sinks. Sometimes you need to shut off water to a sink to do a small repair, like say, change a faucet. If you don’t have a shut off valve for each sink, you have to shut off the water to the whole house.

Essential: False wall to access ALL plumbing fixtures. One of the problems that arose that forced our renovations was a leaky tub faucet. To get to the pipes to fix the faucet hubby had one of two options: Tear out the WHOLE shower-tub combo. OR Tear out half a wall in the room behind it. Neither was a nice option, trust me.

After fixing the problem, and tearing out half the house anyway, hubby found out some houses have a false wall or a door to get to the plumbing just so you don’t have to pick the lesser of two evils. This time around, hubby is in the midst of creating a false wall that can easily be removed to access the plumbing if we have a repeat performance.

To create this, he’s simply cutting a fairly large area of drywall, one that would allow him access to the pipes, and instead of taping and patching it like he normally would, he’s going to finish the edges of each piece and screw the door area in. Once in, it’s not too noticeable and well worth the hassle in case a problem arises.

Nicety: Door to access plumbing. Hubby could have also created a door, rather than a false wall. With inside hinges, and decorated inconspicuously, a door would be almost invisible or could be part of room decor. Depending on where your shower pipes are, you might want to go for a door. For instance, a friend has a bathroom and the back of her pipes are in her dining room. It might be worth it for her to invest in a door rather than a false wall so it’s slightly less obtrusive.

Essential: GOOD subflooring (or subroofing). Since you can’t see it, the frame and subfloor and subroof are things most homeowners do not think about…until you have a major problem. However, if you have a good foundation, you will have less major problems. We did not have a good subfloor and a small amount of water damage created a major problem. If we had had a good subfloor, we could have had a small water damage problem…PERIOD. Even though you can’t see it, trust me on this one, make sure you have a good subfloor and subroof.

Nicety: Good flooring. Whether it’s hardwood, carpet, vinyl, linoleum or whatever, good flooring is nice. Good flooring lasts much longer, puts up with wear and tear better, and will help many times over with any resale value. However, if you have to choose between a good subfloor and nice flooring, go with the subfloor. Flooring is something that can (and probably will be) replaced a few times over if you live in a house long enough.

Essential: Good duct work. Years ago, we had to replace our duct work. It’s another one of those out of sight, out of mind things. Duct work is something people don’t think about until it isn’t working properly. For us, it happened that hubby had seen our duct work and knew it needed replacing. And when it turned out that under our house was warmer or cooler than our house, we had passed the point of REALLY needing to replace the duct work.

Good duct work will save you money in energy savings. One winter we had a heating bill averaging $400 a month for almost 5 months. OUCH! The following winter, after we replaced our duct work, our heating bill was $200 a month for the same 5 or 6 months. BIG difference for only a few hundred dollars worth of materials.

Nicety: Nice vent / registers. Yesterday, I was at the hardware store and saw vent s that you can use to help climate control certain rooms of your house. It was a great idea… for a larger house. And, of course, there are all sorts of fancy wooden or decorative vents for houses. When building a house, just get your basic metal ones for now. You can always spend a few bucks later on and get them.

Essential: Good outlets and light switches. Unless you really like replacing them every other year, spend the few dollars more and get some pretty good outlets and light switches installed. The nicer ones aren’t that much more than the cheap-o ones and are well worth it.

Nicety: Pretty outlet and light switch covers. Just as with the vent covers or registers, you can replace these easily in time with just a few screws. Or replace them to match a newly remodeled room. Get the plain old white, cream or black ones for now and go for making them pretty later on.

Essential: Good cabinet framework and shelving. Before we remodeled our kitchen, the cabinets (what few there were) were literally falling in on themselves. I had too much stuff (because I had so few cabinets) on real cheap material. Get some nice, solid wood cabinetry, even if you have to go a little cheaper on the “extras” for now. You can always replace those later on.

Nicety: Fancy cabinet doors, hinges and knobs. If you have the money, sure go all out on cabinets. Get the doors you want, with the hinges you love and the knobs that are to die for. But if you don’t have the money, just get the basics, while making sure the cabinets themselves  are of GOOD quality.

Essential: Good paint. There is no nicety for this one, just one essential. Make sure you use good paint. Good paint isn’t always the most expensive, but make sure you get something that can handle a good scrubbing. Or if you have kids, several good scrubbings a month!

Essential: Good weather-proofing and insulation. A final essential. Again there is no nicety. A house that is soundly weather proofed and insulated will save you money year after year. It is truly something you should spend the money on if you are building or remodeling. Even more than spending the money on good paint!

So, there you have it. A substantial list of several things you really must have if you are building a house and a few things that are nice, but you can do without if you must.

What are your thoughts? Have an essential I didn’t mention? I’m sure I didn’t cover everything.

~BarbD