My favorite quirky thing is that we skipped having a foyer and instead built a HUGE (16 x 18) covered front porch. With rocking chairs and a porch swing and all sorts of houseplants, the front porch is my favorite "room" in the house.

Hard to pick one as there were so many things that were unique to our needs, but not sure how qwerky they are...we find them practical or useful. Like our glass railing on our deck so we can enjoy the view unobstructed.

@annie - that's very interesting!

Does the glass railing cost a lot extra??

We were having trouble with the placement of our mud room, bathroom, and stairs on the first floor. I must of looked that the first set of drawings for 3 days before I sent them back to him and said I didn't like the way it was. I explained and little further of what we were looking for, and next thing you know he sent the 2nd set back wrapping the stairs around the bathroom, something I would of never come up with. That is when I realized that is what he gets paid for, and I need to let him do his job!!! :)

Our home is still under construction, but I was going to eliminate the butler's pantry in order to have a walk-in pantry so I'd no longer have to keep the deep freezer in the garage. Our builder suggested enlarging the laundry room instead. That allowed me to keep the additional countertops/cabinetry from the butlers panty, gave me an unofficial folding area in the laundry room, enlarged the master bath since it's on an adjoining wall, and created space for a small linen closet in the master bath.

logastellus, it was expensive, but I have no idea how much. The carpenter had to template it and get the custom tempered glass panels cut and the brackets to hold the glass made. But whatever it was, it was worth every penny to us as the view is down...I couldn't stand it if all I could see were balusters and rails when I was sitting there.

I am curious how your builder was able to verify that the top of a custom designed glass railing met the horizontal force requirement. Usually these structures are fabricated by a company that has already tested the design.

I suspect it's would need to be laminated glass to pass.

This post was edited by Renovator8 on Mon, May 6, 13 at 18:48

It is hard to name just one. The following three come to mind:

1)We found cream colored light reflecting window wells that make such a difference to the back basement room that is underground. They sure beat metal window wells in appearance both inside and outside the house.

2)We built a flat roof over the garage that will also serve as a deck accessible from the bedroom over the garage. It will have clear railing like Annie's.

3)We are finishing and conditioning a portion of the attic complete with a triangular dormer window. This low ceiling area will be accessible via a ships ladder and will serve as a kids' hideout.

Carol

This post was edited by OntarioMom on Mon, May 6, 13 at 23:16

Builder came up with the idea of opening the gable over the back porch allowing for a modified cathedral ceiling vs. having a flat ceiling. This also allowed us to make the most of the view of the mountain in the backyard from inside the family room.

Designer came up with great master bath layout that gave us everything we wanted in a very efficient footprint.

We had the idea of making as much use of the space under our U-shaped stairs for a large walk-in pantry that forms a J-shape. The builder was able to modify the original plans slightly to allow minimum 6' ceiling clearance throughout the entire finished pantry space. When you're looking at the pic below, the pantry extends the full width of the stairs to the left and then goes up under the stairs that are descending to the first floor another step or two to form a backwards 'J' shape.

We had the idea of incorporating full height double trash pullouts in the laundry room to serve as hampers. We have 3 sets of them for a total of 6 hampers. Each bin = 1 full load of laundry. They make sorting and gauging a full load size so easy & when you're in between loads, the dirty laundry just disappears!

Our builder had the idea of using the accent tile for the shower as the transition strip between the carpet in the bedroom and the bathroom tile floor. The only thing I wish we had done different was to use 2 strips of the accent tile vs. the 1.

We had a media/print center added to our cubbies--the printer is housed on a rolling shelf in the middle of the unit, printer/school supplies are stored in the cabinet above, and various electronics components are in the bottom cabinet.

We wanted as much storage space as possible in the kitchen island, so we made it double sided--standard 24" deep cabinets on the work side & 12" deep cabinets on the seating side.

We designed the kitchen to have 2 dishwashers, a concealed microwave & concealed outlets. I was so tired of filling the dishwasher to capacity and still having leftover dishes to wash. 2 dishwashers solved the problem. I hated having the microwave on display, so we had the builder add an outlet in the cabinet above the double ovens. The microwave resides there and is completely concealed when not in use. Our kitchen outlets are actually mounted to the bottom of the upper cabinets so they're completely out of sight and won't interfere when we put in our backsplash.

Last but not least are the flush glazed doors we used for the back of the house and the door into the garage from outside. We wanted a 1/2 lite door for the garage and full lite doors for the back doors. We really liked the look of the patio doors from the window companies, but they were VERY pricey. The standard steel/fiberglass models most supply houses and the big box stores carry have a chunky raised plastic frame that screws onto the door unit to hold the glass in place with screw hole fillers that are never lined up right--next to the patio doors the window companies make, these were a poor imitation. Looking at another supply house, I found Plast-Pro flush glazed fiberglass doors. When they came in, the builder and his supply house (who had never seen these) were impressed with the look and the price was reasonable--just a little more than the imitators they usually order. No cheap looking plastic raised frames with screw hole fillers that never line up right that yellow & crack over time! They make me very happy every time I walk or look through them.

Hope this helps!

Reno8, not sure as I wasn't involved in that decision. But it has passed inspection. I believe it had to do with the glass being tempered and of a certain thickness and the spans between the posts. It isn't laminated AFAIK.

The "coffee bar" which is a short span of counter next to the refrigerator is 32" deep. This allowed us to have a regular depth refrigerator that is counter depth. The cabinet above the refrigerator is regular depth which created a secret hidden pocket behind the cabinet but above the refrigerator.

mydreamhome, what are the dimensions of your double trash pullout? Does each hamper equal a load or each 2 hampers? I love it!

aurorasar--the pullouts are Rev-A-Shelf full counter height double trash pullouts (50 gal each I think). I'm not at home to measure right now, but I want to say the cabinet fronts are 16" wide. Each individual bin equals a full load--so I have 1 bin for lights, 2 for darks, 1 for DH's work clothes, 1 for towels/whites and 1 for bed linens.

Hope this helps!