Designing a House

Hurling Fan

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Starting the process of designing a house on a green field site. Just wondering if people could tell me the best feature of their house or alternatively what they wish they hadn't done or what they wish they had done. Thanks.
 
I wish I had put in a seperate linen closet- a large one. I also wish I had asked for the landscaping of the site to be incorporated in the building quote.
 
Double sink vanity unit in main bathroom.
Walk in wardrobes
Large hot press area
Laundry chute
Pebbledash exterior (lower maintenance)
Underfloor heating
Solid wood for internal doors
Loads of sockets
Internal LAN

This is just some of my wishlist when I eventually self build!
 
Door out from the utility room so you can go directly to the back garden with wet clothes to hang them on the line rather than lugging them through the kitchen....
 
Good
Large windows to let in lots of light.
Best and most insulation you can afford.
Use of hollowcore as opposed to joists.
Build a small plant room (Fuse Board, Water Cylinder, Boiler, Central Vac unit, mains water inlet etc)
 
Is there any + or - 's to having your cylinder downstairs in a utility type room ?

Does it mean an extra pump ?

Never thought of it - but it sounds like a good idea ?

Any negatives to it ?
 
Definitely a seperate utility room for washing machine, tumble dryer, etc. It's great to be able to close the door and leave the noise behind.

If you can allow a bigger than 'normal' space for your hot press, this would be invaluable. It would be great to have a bigger space to store towels, sheets, spare blankets. These things take up so much room!

And definitely loads of sockets!
 
Best feature in the house, (many visitors agree), is hallway. Gallery effect, i.e. full height up to ceiling under roof in the front "A" of the house. Gives a height of maybe 18 to 20ft at the highest point, awkward for painting but nice to look at. Straight stairs and confortable landing to view the hall below. A chandelier would finish it nicely .... eventually.

The above is however a spacewaster/luxury but if building own house then not such an issue.

Put sinks in bedrooms to take pressure off bathroom. - dont agree with every room being en-suite, seems excessive to me.

Consider conservatory/sunroom - seem to be all the rage. No real regrets re our design, the process for us was tour around look at the outside of houses, take digital photos. Find a "front" you like, then think about how things would work inside based on that front, then ask architect to draw it up.

One tip, try to think of absolutely everything for the quote, pick out sockets then add 15!, clarify issues like fitting of timber floors, the space under the stairs if boxing off, maybe even landscaping if you builder does that.
 
Hallway - Large cupboard to store shoes, coats, golf clubs, football boots and gear, bags, umbrellas, etc

Downstairs toilet essential. I would make it a shower room that could be accessed from the outside of the house particularly if you are sporty. Great to be able to walk in and shower without straggling through whole house.

Utility room - Don't skimp, go for good size. Great to have somewhere to put wet clothes on a rainy day. Make it big enough so that you could iron in it. A press large enough to take brushes, hoover, large washing power packets, shopping bags, laundry basket and other bumph

Kitchen - I would combine kitchen and dining room. Underfloor heating in this room if tiling floor. Decent appliances. Big larder for all food. Make room for informal eating such as island and then table for formal eating.

I would put all bedrooms en suite and skip a main bathroom.

Large walk in hotpress.

I would build wardrobes into the design of the house as they used to do years ago and not add them later, ie, shape the walls of the house to incorporate wardrobes and add doors. Saves thousands.

Put electric cable to back and front garden when building house. Put water pipe to back and front garden when building.

PLUMBING, PLUMBING, PLUMBING is very important. Get a good plumber. It can be disastrous if this goes wrong.

Power showers - need extra pump and larger pipes but worth it. Needs to be done at start.

Insulate and then insulate again.

Make sure back garden will get sun.

Telephone sockets in most rooms.

Playroom/Den for young children downstairs with plenty of storage. Cheaper to do at start.

Spotlights are a pain and are expensive. Keep your lighting simple with lamps.

Think where you are going to put your furniture in each room and plan your rooms around it.

Oh I wish it was me building!!
 
TV system set-up fully, i.e. 4 good quality lengths of coax going back from every room to attic so you have potneital to set up TV distribution system from attic. Also, something to consider, maybe wiring for CCTV camera in kids bedrooms/any potential nursery?

Wiring the house for sounds might be a good idea to allow you pipe music?

As mentioned somewhere outside wiring very good idea.

Wiring for alarm system.

Wiring for computer network.

As mentioned, a double socket in every corner of every room.

Largest cylinder for hot water with best insulation you can get. Extra large bath if you are 6feet+ like me and end up with yoru knees around your This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language while trying to fit into normal bath!

Hollowcore means you do not have joists suporting your floors upstairs, i.e. big long 6X2 beams of wood with floorboards hammered onto them. its concrete based slabs. Fire(i think) and noise benefits as the concrete is a better blocker.


To be honest, any of the wiring stuff you should be able to do yourself....in the cases above anyway, just ask electrician for advice, source good wires yourself and just run them up and down before the plastering. Might cost you 300 quid for the wire, invaluable in the long term.


Aside from all of this, if you really want to do it right, here is what i would do. Aside from structural stuff that is. Draw a scale plan of every room. then create little same scale creations of furntiture and fittings. And put them on your drawings and then see what room sizes you have. For example, draw scale of your bathroom without fittings. Then create the little model of your sink, toilet, bath etc. Then add in the space you need around them to use it. See how small yoru room is now. Same with bedroom. Draw it to scale. then create a model of a 6 foot bed with lockers. A chest of drawers. All of a sudden check if your room seems small...
 
Can it be done ?

Legend99 - I like the idea of running all extra wiring.

I'd like to run TV Coax to all rooms, also CATV & music around the house, but
I'd like to be able to run more wires or replace existing ones down the line, rather than the wires being burried within the plaster.

is it possible to run some sort of ducting that will take all the wiring, with some sort of service panel ?

Would I be able to chase enough room for this ducting, into a 4 inch block to cater for this ?
Cant you only chase 1 inch into a 4 inch thick block ?
if so then would the ducting be too thick for when the plaster is put on ?

Any advice ?
 
well, we bought in an Estate, but the walls are not plastered straight onto the blocks. There is a hollow in between. You'd know this from drilling or just tapping the walls. i think they have up plasterboards with 2 inch foam behind it on the inside of every external wall. In that case then, ducting is not an issue me thinks
in terms of service panel, i suppose the ultimate problem would be how it would look....
 
Piped music?? Whats the chances of everyone liking the same music or do you really want supermarket cover versions in the background

methinks wireless computing may be the new thing so unless wiring for the short term may note be worth it.

Also talk of services being supplies through electrical cable and if so then abundance of connections. Important to get the huge number of sockets included in the quote.
 
Betsy Og said:
Piped music?? Whats the chances of everyone liking the same music or do you really want supermarket cover versions in the background

methinks wireless computing may be the new thing so unless wiring for the short term may note be worth it.

Also talk of services being supplies through electrical cable and if so then abundance of connections. Important to get the huge number of sockets included in the quote.

Speakers being powered from remote system is something I have seen in many expensive houses!

Wireless is of course less secure, subject to interference.

Internet over ESb is/has been trialed with mixed results. You can currently but connectors to power telephone points off your sockets....i.e. make your sockets connectable for a telephone but really only any good for voice. The data rate through your plug on this system is only about 30k i think.
 
Re: Piped music

Speakers in the bathroom must be a great luxury for the bathtime alright.
 
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