I like the thread idea, although I'm guessing there will be lots of disagreement (for example, I really like double vanities-- it means two people can get ready at the same time without stepping on each other.)

My things to avoid:

Pocket doors into bathrooms/toilet rooms that get used in the middle of the night. They're noisier than regular doors and there's no way to close them more quietly.

Conventional smoothtop electric ranges. Any little drip burns on and has to be scrubbed off with lots of elbow grease.

Kitchen cabinets with doors that block doorways. Our rental has a nice big pantry cabinet, but if I'm getting things out of it, no one can enter the kitchen. It's annoying.

Roof eaves that drip onto the front stoop. Another lovely feature of our rental.

two front door issues in our rental:

-it's a fancy custom cypress-glass-iron number which is pretty and very popular right now, but so impractical unless you like living in a fish bowl.

-the master bedroom door faces the front door, so the bedroom is also on display and you'd better be careful about your clothing when walking out of the room at night if there are lights on in the house!

Haphazard placement of thermostats, security system elements, etc. They can look unsightly.

Pocket doors that, when open, offer a view of a toilet. If you have kids you can assume pocket doors are always left open (we've not had the noise issue).

Someone had mentioned that the ever popular Shaker cabinet doors were an issue to clean, and, frankly, I pooh poohed it because I don't do my own housework. But that was wrong headed ... I have to remind people all the time to clean those and it isn't easy to do.

"Wet room" bathrooms. These sound great but can be hard to make work properly because you need certain slope for the water to drain, and you also need a flat area for the W/C. Just be sure the GC has experience.

Shiny nickel faucets if you have (hard) well water. I used to have city water, and I really didnt understand what people were talking about when they complained about water spots. We have well water and everything spots. Nearly impossible to keep up with it.

I am not sure what combination of factors drive this, but we have less water pressure and a wait to get hot water, which we did not have before renovation. We went from 5 to 7 bathrooms so that may have something to do with it, but this drives me batty.

I'm sure there are more but for now...

Yes, I did expect there'd be some disagreement. About the sinks, I can't say that my husband and I are in the bathroom at the same time even once month, so getting ready at the same time sounds quite overblown to me.

I should've said pocket doors myself. I have two of them, and although they have their good points, the prevent you from hanging things on those walls and are apt to break inside the wall, which is difficult to fix.

We discovered the cleaning problem with doors, too. Our current kitchen is raised panel cabinet doors with beadboard panels- talk about a cleaning nightmare!

Right now, in the midst of building our new home, I am consumed by construction and energy mistakes. Putting A/C duct work in the attic is a biggie. About 95% of houses in FL have the duct work in the 130 degree attic. I'm a big advocate of researching energy-efficient construction methods, and spending the money on a good, durable building envelope, even if it means giving up some square footage or fancy accessories (gasp!)

Paneled doors. Yes, they look great, but dust collects on the bottom edge of the panels.

Are you saying to stick with slab doors? Aren't they the only ones that have no place for dust to collect?

Yes, pretty hard to have a colonial or colonial revival house without paneled doors and cabinets isn't it?

And it would be pretty ridiculous to have an International School house with paneled doors and cabinets, don't you think?

So one is left with the question, "Am I attempting architecture, or simply a collection of personal objects?"

Everyone has their own personal response of course, but architecture, like life, comes with some responsibilities.

Just a thought.

And courtesy of building scientist Joe Lsituburek:

Ten Dumb Things to Do in the South

Ten Dumb Things to do in the North

But, of course, these are boring things do with construction as opposed to architectural cosmetics on which 95% of building design decisions are based.

W, you got your terms mixed up:

Architecture: the art and science of planning, designing and constructing a building;
Design: the guiding concept, or big idea, for how a building will be created and developed, sometimes called the "parti";
Decoration: an effort to make things visually interesting;
Construction: the process of building or assembling something.

Happy to help!

I would never really give up a look unless it was SUPER hard to clean. We will have paneled doors and paneled cabinets and I am not worried about it. That look is worth any extra cleaning I may have to do. That said, I don't think my house fits any architectural style from what I can tell. Ranch with shingles, lol? I dunno. It is a simple house. I am NOT attempting architecture in every decision we make. And our house is just a mash mash of things that DH and I love. As annoying as that is to you virgil.

Another one: making exterior design decisions based on only one season. Around here it's snowy for half the year most of the time, yet there are whole communities where the houses are all shades of white. It looks beautiful during the spring and summer, but once the landscaping and roofs are covered with snow, all the houses look the same and there's not much to look at.

sweet;reverie wrote, "...As annoying as that is to you virgil..."

Actually, it's not annoying at all. I think I acknowledged that everyone has their own personal choice(s).

I tend to think that threads are more interesting and useful when they contain a diverse mixture of points of view and ideas, rather than everyone thinking alike. Hope you (or anyone) weren't offended.

We didn't build our house but we have a couple of silly things that bother me.

-Windows in an area where it is hard to use curtains. For example, we have two windows flanking our fireplace. Part of the bottom sill overlaps with the return on the hearth so there is no room for a longer curtain. We could use shorter curtains but the rest of the windows in the room would look silly with short curtains.

We also have windows in the corners of two of the bedrooms. They are so close to the corner that there isn't room for a conventional curtain rod.

-Some of our faucets so close to the back splash that you have to be a contortionist or have the hands of a toddler to be able to scrub behind them,

1. Having few drawers in a kitchen or bathroom. The more drawers the better! At the very least have pullouts.

2. I agree with terri23---don't be talked out of what you really want. That includes trying to build for resale, especially if you are planning on being in the house for a long time.

Garage entrances that immediately go into the laundry room. I like it when there is a "drop zone" for shoes, backpacks etc...sort of an open locker system. Keep the laundry room separate. Enter the house into a "drop zone" area.

Pam

Big Air Return Vents! You can use several small (just a l ittle bigger than the supply) vents for the return. And yes, there are small filters you can put in them. This gets rid of the big grates, and allows airflow in rooms with closed doors.

Avoid:

- sight lines from public spaces to private spaces

- pocket doors, more trouble than they're worth

- trim/molding with just a few inches of wall space between them makes future DIY painting a pain in the @ss

- crooked builders

VirgilCarter, I don't mean to say, "You should never include ___ because it'll be high maintenance". Rather, I'm looking for things that a person might not see are high maintenance . . . until they've spent money and effort in installing those things. Maybe awareness is the right term.

For example, a person who's never had a pocket door might not realize that those doors prevent you from nailing anything to that wall; thus, they're not ideal for everywhere.

I wouldn't have considered that open shelving in a kitchen would accumulate dust and grease (though I dislike the look, so I personally wouldn't have fallen into that trap).

I felt like pocket doors were a good solution for doors that you expect to mostly stay open.

1. Bifold doors.
2. Stainless steel appliances. What a pain to keep clean.
3. Ditto the smooth top ranges. Another appliance hard to keep clean.
4. Carpeting in entry ways. Always dirty.
5. Carpeting in homes with dogs. Always dirty.
6. Hardwood floors in homes with dogs. The poor dogs are always slipping and sliding. (What is good flooring for dogs??)
7. Leather furniture in rooms you keep on the cool side. The leather can be kind of chilly to sit on.
8. Few outlets in a bathroom. Our last house had one outlet in the master bath and none in the walk in closet.
9. A large kitchen that requires too many steps from one appliance to another.

But, one person's nightmare is another's dream!

Love, love, love the idea of small air vents, wish I had known about this before we built.

I have pocket doors on two small bathrooms, very handy, makes them seem bigger. I do have pictures hung on those walls, I use the 3M fasteners that stick to the wall and come off cleanly if you want to change things around. Costs more than a nail, but doesn't leave a hole and works great in situations like this one.

Another thing to avoid...a garage that is too small. Make sure there is room for storing yard equipment, etc. and still have room to open the car doors. And put in a service door while you're at it so you don't have to always open the garage door to get in and out.

Couple of questions/thoughts:
-Smooth top ranges are too hard to clean? What is lower maintainence?
-Laminate floors are good for dogs, but I like carpet for dogs, too. Best flooring for dogs, probably sheet vinyl.
-Avoid smooth black fridges, shows scratches and fingerprints. We are looking for black textured as lowest maintenance fridge.

I would avoid items that hide dirt because i don't like living in hidden filth.

Smooth top ranges are easy to keep clean...if they have a black top. If they have a white top, then, yeah, impossible to keep looking good.

The things I want to avoid in our next build:

-Semi-curved stairs. I don't what they are called but I want a landing then go up again. I hate having to hug the wall to get up and down the stairs. It is a real hassle.

-Base cabinets that are not easily accessible. I have 2 corner cabinets that are very hard to reach in to get things.

-I'm another non-fan of smooth top ranges. It's easy to clean at first, but after awhile, it gets to be a real pain. I also polish mine.

-Ditto again on the smooth black refrigerator. I have a Samsung French door which I LOVE but hate the finish. We bought it sight unseen and have regretted that part. Another thing is the ice maker broke. It still makes ice but doesn't cut off so we have to manually.

-Metal corner pieces on the drywall. If you hit it, the paint comes off and shows the metal. I would much rather trim pieces than those metal corner ties.

-Only installing ONE doorbell at the least used door. Our doorbell which is located at the front door is seldomly used because everyone that comes to our house comes to the back door. If I am in our Master bathroom or the laundry room, I can't hear anyone at the door.

-The rear entry into the dining room. There is nothing like walking into your house and taking off your shoes in the dining room. Once you sit to eat, all you smell is stinky shoes. The other side of the door is the peninsula where there is seating for three. The back door also swings the "wrong" way into the chair or counter top if the chair is not at the bar.

-Making sure your porch is at a decent depth. Our neighbor's porch is 6 feet deep which makes it hard to get to a chair at the end if someone is in the nearest chair to the front door. Our porch is 8 feet and it still feels a little tight when my boys are running around.

-Situating your house to be in the best way on your lot. This one is a big one for me. I wish I knew why the people who built our house on this acre lot placed it the way they did. The house is situated with the most land on the side of the house with the least windows. There is only one downstairs and it is located in our Master Bathroom. Since this is a corner lot, it could have been placed another way. We live in a rural area without any restrictions.

-Doors on every wall in a room. This is one of my biggest "design" pet peeves. For instance, in one of our boys' bedrooms, there is a door on each wall except for one. The one wall without a door has a double window. There is only one way to place a bed and it's still too close to the windows. Another scary thought is that it is located on the 2nd floor with a straight shot to the ground.

-Having enough room in the laundry room to move around for at least 2 people. If someone is trying to put dirty clothes in the hamper while you are trying to put a load washing, it is nearly impossible to do so in our laundry room.

-Putting a dishwasher near a base cabinet without having enough clearance to open either one together. This is a serious issue in our house.

LauraJane02, I don't necessarily think pocket doors are always evil -- especially, as you say, in a place where the door will be open most of the time. I have two of them in my house, and I don't hate them; however, I'd really like to hang a substantial coat rack on the wall that contains one pocket door . . . and, obviously, I can't. The internal mechanisms of one of my pocket doors broke, and we had to call someone in to fix it. I think a person who's about to choose a pocket door would benefit from knowing these possibilities before he chooses the door -- then he can make an informed decision.

akatricia, I forgot about bi-fold doors. We had them growing up (between the kitchen and the dining room, no less), and they were a pain in the butt. With five kids and dogs in the house, someone was always knocking them off the tracks -- did it ever make my mother mad.

We have leather furniture, and you're right to say that it's cool in the winter; however, I do love that after eleven years of use, it still looks great. I couldn't say that about the tweed sofa we owned before this leather set. We combat the chill by keeping throw afghans on the sofa during the winter.

CamG -- I have a textured black refrigerator, and if you're looking for something maintenance free, I don't know how you could do better. It hides everything. On the other hand, I think ALL stovetops are fairly high maintenance -- it's not the stovetop; it's the stuff you're cooking. If you're going to cook, you're going to mess up the stovetop.

jrldh -- I am totally fine with living in hidden filth.

TiffanyLA, I don't know how common this is, but I have doorbells on my front door and my side door . . . and they have different rings; thus, when I hear the bell, I automatically know where my guest is standing. I never really considered it noteworthy, but it is a good feature.

"-Smooth top ranges are too hard to clean? What is lower maintainence?"

I agree that smooth top ELECTRIC ranges are a nightmare to clean; however, smooth top INDUCTION ranges are a dream to clean.

Bifold doors can cut small childrens fingers off. (yes very very bad)

A Problem? Wondering about my "rare" old farmhouse sink find. Hope I don't ever regret it. Its super huge which then means horrible to replace if we ever need to. I've already decided that if something happens we will just refinish the sink instead of replace it.

Jennybc. We bought a 1930's house and when they did a bathroom remodel many years before we got there, they added this huge soaking tub. It was a odd shape but fit the bathroom perfectly and it was so huge, we loved it. But it had chipped over the years. When it came time to sell, we thought about replacing the tub but it seemed impossible. We refinished and it looked AMAZING. Like a brand new sparkling white tub. So refinishing is definitely a good option. Cost us about $400. So it would cost less for just a sink.

Sweet Reverie~

Just wanted to say thanks for helping put my mind at ease over the sink!

Heating/AC ducts under windows. When I close the drapes in our family room and the heat comes on, it billows out the drapes and seems to get stuck back there. Our HVAC guys also put a duct in the MB that ended up over my side of the bed. I hate trying to sleep with air blowing on me, especially AC.

It seems that some HVAC folks don't think much about where they put ducts. One of my friends with a spec house has a floor duct right in front of the kitchen sink - so she has to stand on it when using the sink. Who would put a duct there?

I haven't built a house yet, but I've asked everybody I know they're one regret and I know what I've learned to avoid from my first home.
-In the northeast, remember that on a -10 deg day with a 20mph wind, you'll wish you had given yourself a vestibule between the outside door and your living space.
-Chargers and wires are now a part of life, plan accordingly.
-Have young kids? Plan on buying nice stuff? Plan accordingly.
-Garbage is gross, fills up fast and needs to be taken out frequently, plan accordingly.
-The grocery path from driveway to kitchen must be wide, without many turns and short.
-Garages aren't just for cars, sadly I've lived in 3 houses and they've basically been glorified storage sheds for kids toys and broken stuff, plan accordingly.
-If your a clutter person than regardless of amount of "storage" space your given, you will end up filling it up, doesn't matter if its a 10'x10' room or an unfinished basement, you will continue to pack stuff in that empty space. Organization and de-cluttering is based on discipline, not sq footage.

Sidenote: As a tradesmen(electrician), I apologize for anyone talking you out of something you want. We should value any work you have given us and gladly welcome any more, but understand that if after 6months of staring at blueprints ,2 months of an open wall, and 1 week of unfinished drywall-you decide to add a receptacle below every window for Christmas time candles, the price might talk you out of it, but I won't. Just for thoughts. Good topics today.

Love the sidenote! :-)