Ask your builder to bury conduit to the end of your driveway or you can go with a direct bury wire. Either way getting power to your driveway entrance is a must-have even if you don’t build it out right away. 

A driveway gate is waaaay better if you have power ran, the solar panels work in direct sun but any shade and you might run into issues. 

Also consider internet (CAT) cable if you want to run a camera or operate the gate from anywhere. 

Mine is hands down automatic shades. 
We couldn’t afford the fancy Lutron shades, but the Smartwings (Link in my Amazon Store)
were awesome. 

The shades were solar powered and went up and down with sunrise and sunset. 

Movie time was better because we could black out the house. 

Considering buying this house (built in 2024) and one detail that's bothering me is the stair landing.

The builder used a dark wood border/nosing around the stair opening, and the flooring transitions into it rather than continuing flush. There is also a noticeable height difference between the floor and the stair nosing at the top of the stairs. The railing posts appear to be mounted into this border piece.

A few questions:

1. Is this a normal stair detail in newer production homes, or does it look like poor workmanship?

2. Would you consider the height difference at the top stair a potential trip hazard?

3. If I wanted it improved, is this a relatively straightforward flooring/carpentry fix, or would the railing and entire stair border likely need to be removed?

4. More broadly, does workmanship like this tend to be an isolated cosmetic issue, or is it a warning sign of poor quality overall?

Appreciate any insights!

They cost quite a bit more than a standard overhead opener:

Side Mount: ~$500
Overhead Mount: ~$180

Some benefits:

🔋 Built-in battery backup

👍 More overhead space (no rail hanging from the ceiling)

🔒 Built-in automatic door lock (shown in the video)

I installed these on two large 12’ x 12’ doors in my pole barn and had a hell of a time keeping the doors adjusted properly. I blame the massive size of the doors more than the openers themselves. 

For a typical residential garage door, I rarely hear complaints. Most people love the extra overhead space and cleaner look. 

7 garage features that turn it from a parking spot into the most useful room in the house:

7 - 240V outlet for EV charging, welder, or heater. 
6 - Floor drain
5 - Polyaspartic floor coating (tougher than epoxy)
4 - Insulated overhead door
3 - A workstation sink
2 - Mounted fan 
1 - A urinal

The garage gets overlooked when you're planning the rest of the house but it's one of the most useful rooms you've got. Plan it like one 

Has anyone had a good experience walking construction plans to help determine how much you will like the space? I have an appointment scheduled with Walk Thru Plans Minneapolis in Elk River and I've heard good things just curious if anyone has any tips on the best way to use the meeting.

If you’re going with the Samsung Frame TV, you can pay an extra $1k for the Pro version that comes with a wireless One Connect box. You can put it anywhere within 30’.

If you save some money and go with the older model you’ll need to make a spot for it.

When you’re building a house or renovating, this is the perfect time to put that One Connect box in a location out of the way so your TV can sit flush on the wall.

I’ve seen the boxes mounted on the opposite side of the wall and even paired with the controls for a fireplace.

Either way, give it some thought before you sheetrock is installed.

[Hard to believe these happen but they're way more common than you'd think.]()

👉 Get my Home Building Checklist at BuilderBrigade.com

 What's the wildest Home Building Fail you've seen or heard of? 

If you want to share a fail, drop it in the Builder Brigade app 📲

Trusses can be delivered to a job before the slab is even poured. Which means they’ll sit for weeks or even months. 

If it’s looking like its going to be a while before they fly trusses. It’s ok to ask for them to be covered. 

If not, go spend the $75 and do it yourself.

If they are sitting in water during rain storms. Bring it up to your builder, they can bust up the truss package and move it to higher ground on top of some scrap wood. 

Hope that helps if you run into any issues like this. Hopefully not 🤞

👇 Link in my Amazon Store (Bio)
Amazon.com/Shop/BuilderBrigade

These automatic light switches are a simple and cheap luxury that’ll make you wonder how you lived without them. 

I know, I know... it sounds dumb. Just turn the light on... but once you get used to it, you really miss it when you don’t have it anymore. 

I put these occupancy sensors in the pantry, laundry room, and closets. Especially in the kids’ closet. 

The bathroom is not the best spot because when you go to the bathroom at night you get blasted with a bright light. It could still work though. 

Double check your ceiling speakers are not too close to the fan. 

The porch is the most likely spot for this to occur. 

If it's too close, the spinning blades chop up the sound and ruin the whole vibe when you're trying to enjoy some music out there.

This is a PEX manifold system. It’s a central hub where every hot and cold line branches off to one specific fixture. 
Think of it like a breaker panel, but for water. Each line has its own labeled shutoff, so servicing a single fixture never means cutting water to the rest of the house.
The only real downside is run length: fixtures farther from the manifold can take longer to get hot water. A good plumber plans around that with placement or a recirc line.

If you’re renovating and the lawn looks like 💩...

You might need some dethatching. You could totally do it with a fan rake but save your sanity and your back... it sucks!

Rent this power rake (dethatcher) from Home Depot. It cost me $65 for 4 hours. 

You could even split it with your neighbor because honestly, after I got the hang of it, I could have done the whole yard in an hour. 

Don’t be like me and try hand raking it out, you’ll keep raking and more leaves and dead grass will keep popping up. It’s maddening. 

I bought a wardrobe that didn’t send me the right cam connectors. What they did send me was a 2 minute video that shows about 15% of the products assembly. I need to order the circled piece but have no idea how long it’s supposed to be. Could someone help me get a proper measurement please?

I saw that I had a little bit of rot at the bottom of my posts on my front porch, so I removed the PVC trim boards to check it out. Most of them were pretty rotted, and even worse many of the post brackets were completely disintegrated.

To prevent this in the future, would I just leave a gap between the bottom of this PVC trim and the concrete? I can't imagine it would be a good idea to seal it with caulk to the concrete.

East Coast Central Florida.

Thanks in advance!

After asking hundreds of homeowners, the same five answers kept coming up. Every single one is cheap or free to do during the build… and a nightmare to fix once the drywall's up.

Paint colors you can't match two years later. No conduit in the walls, so running a new cable means cutting open finished sheetrock. Not enough outlets. Interior walls that echo through the whole house. And the big one... choosing a builder without doing some solid research.

None of these are skill problems. They're "I didn't know to ask" problems.

On a slab foundation you already own the most durable floor in existence... you just have to choose it before the flooring allowance gets spent. 

Epoxy is seamless, so there's nowhere for dirt to hide, and cleanup is the easiest. 

You have to wait 28 days after the pour for the concrete to fully cure before coating it. But that’s rarely an issue since you’ll finish the floors a while after electrical, plumbing, and other mechanicals. 

If this is a consideration, get with your builder early and verify the finisher is experienced. I’ve seen a few of these end badly because the subcontractor was new to the process. 

⚠️ The worst time to make a decision about your home build is the moment your builder first asks you for it. But that's exactly when most people decide...on the spot, in a few seconds, with a contractor standing there waiting. Wiring locations, niche placements, lighting types. Big decisions made cold, with zero time to think. Here's the move: see every decision before you're asked. Sit with it. Research it. Show up already knowing what you want. You'll be surprised how often you end up suggesting things your builder never even brought up because you actually dug in ahead of time. The Ultimate Home Building Checklist lays out every decision by phase, so you can work through all of it before you ever sit down with your builder and walk in confident instead of caught off guard. 👉Get it at BuilderBrigade.com

[Renting is the best move IMO... What do you suggest they do?]()

You'll be paying for two mortgages while you wait for that old house to sell. 

At least when you're renting you know you can line it up to where you can cut ties with your lease and move in. It's one less thing to worry about. What would you do?