House... (again)

Ok, I know I've thought about this before but now I'm really getting serious. I'm going to build a house. What are things I need to look for in a lot. I know you generally want a fire department and police department nearby and you need a grocery store within 10miles. I'm just going to build a starter home. A 3 bed 2bath 1500 sq. feet on a concrete slab. I believe that I'm going to put thremal heating in the floor (you know the polypropolene tubing that you run hot water through). I want a garage but I'm thinking I don't want it attached to the house. What I need to know is how do you go about finding out if the school systems are good, and about the property taxes, and the general neighborhood? I'm going to get a builders loan (that's one where you don't start payments on the mortgage until you move in) and build it myself. I'll have my dad, brother, uncle and cousins help me of course. My dad is a Heating & Air man with very good knowledge of plumbing and electrical systems. My uncle is a carpenter in the union and so are my cousins. My brother is just a lowly laborer in the union . I have tons of free time that I could spend building the house. I've helped build both of my grandma's houses and i've put in numerous heating and air systems my self. So I don't think I'll have any problem getting it put together. I guess my biggest question is do you have to have a licensed contractor do the electrical and plumbing in the city? I mean as long as it meets code it should be ok right? Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome.

<b>Agent</b> <b><font color=green>81</b></font color=green>

Go to the city hall and ask the people there about your city laws on building things. They'll give you some advice, you'll need to buy a little license to build your house too.

Make sure you rig it for good phone, cable & broadband. Oh, and make sure there's a room for a refrigeration unit for your water cooling system.





<b><font color=blue>~ BIOS SETTINGS: Fast, Hot, Unstable...That ought to work. ~</font color=blue></b>

Thanks about the city hall advice, didn't think of that yet.

<b>Agent</b> <b><font color=green>81</b></font color=green>

ooo you can also wire the house with cat 5 cables, i've seen actual outlets. that way you can have some serious lan partys and it is a whole hell of a lot easier than running all those damned cables under the carpet or taping them to the ceiling. mmmm power outlets, phone jacks and cat 5! every house should have it.

Life (n). A sexually transmitted disease which afflicts some people more severly than others.

Cool, but rather useless in my house, not enough PCs in one room for that.

My watercooler contains so much water that the moon has influence upon it .

Yeah, that is a good point.

I vote to build in LAN cables in new-build houses.

My watercooler contains so much water that the moon has influence upon it .

....at the risk of stating the obvious, plan the location of electricity, telephone and cable sockets carefully....

....in my apartment the cable TV socket is about 5 metres from the nearest electricity socket, which means we have cables all over the place....very poor planning....

I'm very good
at licking my wood

..and while I'm on the subject, give a little consideration to light reflections and acoustics when deciding an ideal spot for your computer......nothing worse than a great PC in a lousy location.....

I'm very good
at licking my wood

Just get a plot on the otherside of city limits...you will be in town in no time!

<font color=red>God</font color=red> <font color=white>bless</font color=white> <font color=blue>the</font color=blue> <font color=red>U</font color=red><font color=white>S</font color=white><font color=blue>A</font color=blue>

I absolutely hate crawl spaces. I've been in about all types that you can think of. I've worked in HVAC for prolly around 10~12 years. I'm EPA certified to work on and install ac's. I agree that a slab is a bitch to work with but look at it this way. I'm going to design everything I want originally. This is going to be my starter home. i'll prolly sell it in 4~7 years. My next house is going to have a basement.

<b>Agent</b> <b><font color=green>81</b></font color=green>

*squeak!! *squeak-itty-squeak!*

[dont forget the insulated plumbing pipes to the basement cryogenic cooler for your computers cooling needs]

<b>Small. Cute. Fluffy. Evil.</b>