I'll give you another consideration when building...
I just paid a plumber almost $200 to fix a toilet in our house. $200 for a toilet??? I can buy one for less than that. Here's what happened, and the lesson learned from the plumber...
The water valve in the tank would not shut off after filling the tank. Remove the tank cover, lift the lever and still no joy. This isn't right. OK, I've replace fill valves before, no sweat. So, I kneel down and try to turn off the isolation valve at the floor. Oops. It will turn, it won't turn off the water and it leaks at a significant rate around the shaft for the handle until I open it up again. OK, now what? The water is running (wasting water) and I can't shut it off. So, I went downstairs to a closet where there's a shutoff valve for the whole house and closed it. As it was getting nearly closed I heard the water stop running as the valve in the toilet finally shut. Reopening the main supply valve did not cause the toilet to start running again.
Now I have a problem. I can fix the toilet, but the isolation valve is not working and I really don't want to leave that broken. So, call a plumber.
Plumber comes out. I show him the problem. Go downstairs, shut off the house and open a faucet to drain the system. He opens up the valve in the toilet tank and there's about half of a gasket from the gate valve (isolation valve) sitting in the guts of the fill valve. No wonder it won't shut off. Replaced a couple parts from a hangar queen he carries and that's fixed. OK, now about that isolation valve...
Simple compression fitting mount on copper pipe. However, my chance of removing it without a special tool for removing the compression fitting from the pipe is non-existent. That's where the plumber and his $50 tool come into play. Removed the old valve and noted that the other half of the gastket was working its way through, getting ready to stop up the works again.
Replaced the gate valve with a ball valve. Won't have this problem again. Not now, not 10 years from now.
Lesson learned - if I'm building or remodeling a house again in the future, all valves used for isolating fixtures or the house will be gate valves. Less to go wrong, much longer life expectency.
Elizabeth, isn't home ownership fun? Only been at it for about 30 years and I'm still learning new stuff every day or so.
Oh, and I've had pipes break, too. Had a house completely re-piped when the old galvanized pipes started leaking. New copper throughout. Many neighbors were doing the same. Seems that when the subdivision was built 25-30 years earlier a substandard grade of pipe was used and a lot of people were making local plumbers happy.