FURNITURE PLANNING - Many office supply stores sell templates that portray furniture sizes and styles. Use these templates with the floor plan to draw your furniture into the rooms of your home. Ask yourself if floor electrical outlets are needed, should windows be moved, are special ceiling outlets and lights needed, are wall electrical outlets in the right location, etc.
FOUNDATION HEIGHT - Ask the builder what height above sea level will the finished floor of the home be. This should be clearly stated in the specifications of the home. All communities give minimum floor elevations that must be followed. Furthermore, you should always try to choose a homesite that will allow the floor of the home to be built well above the curb of the road. Find out exactly how much higher than the curb the proposed elevation is. You will never worry about heavy rains plus your home will have much better "street appeal". Most people want to look up at their home as opposed to looking down at it. Be very careful with this as it is expensive to raise the height of a home. It is not unusual for a builder to offer a lower price than a competing builder with the intention of providing a lower floor elevation.
Be very careful if floor elevation, site clearing and fill dirt are shown as allowance items. You can very easily have a surprise that can cost you 10's of thousands of dollars. Any good builder that knows costs should be able to give you a firm price for this item and eliminate it as an allowance item. However, unless you state in the specifications that the floor of the home shall be ______ above the curb of the road, in front of the home, eliminating this as an allowance item is meaningless.
We have found that a home that is placed 25 to 30 feet from the front lot line needs to have the floor at least 18-24" above the curb of the road in front of the home. When it is placed on a larger lot, 70-90 feet from the front lot line the floor needs to be at least 4-4 1/2 feet above the curb of the road in front of the home. When a home is placed as described above you always look up to it and no drainage problems should occur. If ever in doubt, always go higher.
FRAME WALLS VS. CONCRETE BLOCK - The traditional Florida home was concrete block and continued to be built more out of tradition than necessity. Recently, a large percentage of Florida homes are being constructed of wood frame. The wood frame home offers superior insulation properties and using pressure treated wood for the bottom plate provides minimal exposure to termites. The frame allows the builder to utilize more innovative glass and etc. The block still remains very popular and the cost of either alternative is about the same.
However, with the recent Building Code changes for the new wind loads due to Hurricane Andrew, concrete block with some combination of wood frame will be the predominant method of construction. You will typically find concrete block on all exterior first floor walls with wood frame used for the exterior walls opening to the rear porch. The area opening to the rear porch is where the majority of glass is installed and building this area using wood frame construction allows the innovative use of glass. Also, it is not unusual for Home Buyers to change their minds regarding size of windows and wood frame construction allows for cost effective changes that a block structure would not.
ENERGY NEEDS - The standard ceiling insulation is fiberglass with R30 value. The walls on a frame home are R11 and on a block home R3. According to the information given me, insulating higher than these "R" values has diminishing returns.
FIREPLACES are available in 2 different types. The first is a conventional masonry fireplace and the second is a metal prefabricated fireplace. The conventional fireplace has been virtually replaced by the prefab style. You will not find conventional fireplaces in homes priced much lower than $1,000,000.00. Even in higher priced homes the prefab models seem to be preferred by Home buyers. Prefab fireplaces comes in 36, 42, and 46 inch models. It can be veneered with brick, stone, tile, drywall banding, marble, or any other type of finish one would desire.
Today, we are seeing a strong trend to a understated fireplace using drywall banding, tile, and other subtle materials. It seems buyers are moving away from a full brick or similar interior veneer since it seems to dominate most rooms and become the focal point. In most Florida homes the fireplace is a secondary focal point with the view of the pool the primary. You should request at least a 46" fireplace. The 36" and 42: fireplaces are just too small of an opening to be used in anything but a production built home. We are seeing many customers totally eliminate the fireplace and place more emphasis on a media center in the family room.
HEATING AND AIR CONDITIONING - Most executive homes in Central Florida use electrically driven air to air heat pumps to control the homes interior comfort. In areas where natural gas is available, a gas furnace combined with an electric air conditioner offers an excellent alternative. A typical comfort system in Central Florida annually runs an average of 2300 operating hours to cool and 750 operating hours to heat. The high relative humidity in Central Florida must be accounted for in the system decision. The average person feels most comfortable when the interior temperature is between 76 and 78 degrees and the interior relative humidity is below 55 percent. As the humidity goes up the temperature must come down to feel the same comfort. To ensure proper humidity control, the system must be designed to match the heat load calculation. This is one instance where "bigger is not better".
The conditioned air is distributed throughout the home using a system of rigid and flexible duct, collectively referred to as ductwork. Ductwork is a circulatory system that uses supplies to feed air into a room and returns to complete the circuit back to the air handler. Adequate and properly placed returns will keep closed rooms from becoming pressurized which limits the entrance of supply air into the room.
A typical Central Florida homeowner can expect to spend between 40 and 45 percent of their utility dollars to heat and cool their home. This ongoing expense justifies consideration of energy saving and comfort enhancement upgrades. The investment decision made now will continue for the next 12 to 15 years or through the expected life of the equipment.
System enhancements for your consideration are:
A. Higher Efficiency Equipment can reduce the utility expense while providing better quality and comfort. A typical return on investment, "ROI", will yield above 20 percent.
B. Improved Air Filtration will improve indoor air quality. Basic filter categories are: electronic, pleated media and electrostatic. Select one that meets your needs and lifestyle.
C. Heat Recovery Units use waste heat from your air conditioning system to heat domestic hot water. A typical payback is less than 3 years.
D. Programmable thermostats allow the homeowner to program times and temperature for automatic operation, saving 30% during a typical setback period.
E. Zoning the System allows a single system to be separated into multiple zones. Each zone has individualized control with its own thermostat.
ELECTRICAL - All homes are wired to code requirements which means that plugs are installed so many feet apart, etc. If you have specific electrical needs or locations you should identify those items to be sure you receive what you need. Also, look in large family rooms or living rooms and advise the Builder long before the slab is poured if you will need electrical floor plugs. Choose the location of the floor outlets carefully as you will live with your decision a long time.
