New House Wish List

Re: Wish List for New House

Wide Corridors espcepially where there are stairs and wide Landings
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Great Guys - These are the ones i need and i want. Any thing else ?

Thanks again.

4 Bedrooms
Attic that can be converted in the future
Solar Panels
Wood Chip Burner
Sound Proof System between the Floors.
Two Story with Stone on three sides.
Two Bay windows at the front.
Under Floor Heating
Going to just Use Tiles or Wooden Floors (No Carpets)
Living area on the south and West side of the house.
Granite Sills and Heads
Walkin Wardrobe
En-suite in 2/3 Bedrooms

Master bedroom en-suite a good size
Higher ceilings on ground floor
Huge utility room
Central Vacuum System
Wet Room
Pull-out Ironing Board
Self Cleaning Windows
Kitchen – Dropdown TV
Low Level Lighting on Stairs
At least three different Socket points in every room down stairs
6 Sockets behind TV in Sitting Room.
High Level TV& Socket points in all bedrooms
Electric Gate Access
Monitored House Alarm
Pressurised Hot Water System
Kitchen Island with Sink and built in Dishwasher
Network Cables – Cat6 Cables
Socket on Soffit for Christmas Lights
Outside Sockets
Electric Deadbolts on Front Door
Motion/Heat Detectors for Lights (Not Bedrooms)
Mirror in shower that doesn't steam up
Ledge in shower for shower items
Wired for surround sound
Alarm keypads at front & back door & master bedroom
Driveway lights that go on/off automatically as you drive up the driveway
Zoned heating
Sensor floodlights in all required places on your fascia
Walkin Hotpress
Waste disposal in the kitchen sink
Natural Slate Roof
PVC Windows with a Wood effect.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Pump and NOT electric showers
make sure sound proofing between floors is good.
 
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Rainwater harvesting system - Anyone use this system ??
 
Re: Wish List for New House

In my house in the shower cubicles i have 2 showers. one ias an electric pumped shower (fed from waster storage tank) and the other is a power shower fed by booster pump from the hot water cylinder.

Idea behind this is: if the heating is being used, i will have hot water in the cylinder and can have a power shower. If heating not being used (eg. Summer) or if i come back from holidays i can use the electric shower. I've found it very handy. Not too difficult to do at construction stage.

Also i would pay attention to zoning your heating and hot water systems. Use a telemechanique plc which can easily be programmed and is an interface for changing the settings for your system. Using a plc allows you to program your heating/hot water for all the zones. Eg. you could have heating in bedrooms coming on at 7:00 for an hour in the mornings, hot water also. In evening times heating on at 6:30......Also you can program Summer and Winter modules so everything becomes automatic.

Another system i would like is a cctv and alarm system that can be accessed from the internet. So if you have telephone extender, u will be notified of any alerts on your mobile. Then you can log onto internet and see whats happening.

Pay great attention to the insulation to be used and quantity. This is very important and don't scrimp on this. You can usually get sonme of the fancier things for the house later but difficult to upgrade insulation. Aim for a lot better than the curren building regs. Workmanship and sealing very important in this regard, otherwise ur very expensive insulation will not be performing as it should be.

Run satellite cabling to every Tv point. digital Tv is going to be the future.

Try and leave channels in floors for running cables or look into the skirting whicha has a cable[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica] hole at the back
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Re: Wish List for New House

Also don't get too carried away with all these things either. The layout and design of the house is probably more important than any of these things. If the rooms are too small, this fact will annoy you more than anything and even these fancy extras won't make up for that. You should ask for previopus work done by ur architect and have a good consultative process going. Don't be afraid to change things if ur not happy. Now is the time, not when the house is built. Be fair though and try and give him as much info as possible to base his design.

Also pay attention to the externals. i have stone on the front elevation and dashing/timber cladding on all other sides, so I have no maintenance!
 
Re: Wish List for New House



I'm building my house at the moment, I put in granite cills and quoins - they look really well, I'm also using granite colums/pillers at my front door and when house is finished I'll use granite pier caps.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

I should have added ... wheelchair/buggy access ... may be a planning reg already. Also if the site is big enough to drive around to the back door to bring in the shopping.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Others I'd include are...
- Indoor swimming pool
- Observatory
- Solarium
- Home gym
- Jacuzzi
- Cinema room with 100" plasma TVs
- Panic room with escape tunnel
Are the centralised vacuum systems the ones with tube running through the walls? If so it's fine as long as you don't have young kids who will inevitably use it as a hiding place for toys and other items that will stop it working.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Your correct about the large rooms and as much light coming in to the house as possible, all these extras will cost more cash but why build a house in the first place if you want a basic shell !
 
Re: Wish List for New House

You've left out the wireless network throughout the house, as well as at least 6 plugs where the desk will be in the study.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

I don't want the pain Concrete Footpaths also, what has people used that looks well . Slabs ??
 
Re: Wish List for New House

cobblelocking or the concrete texture mats
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Just a fe ideas in my opion.

Central Vacuum system
I put one in, and to be honest, not really worth it. The hose is very long, and to be honest takes away any of the benefit iwth regards storage and having to lug it around. There is no difference in my opinion between luggin around my long hose (ooh err) for my central vac, and lugging around a standard vacuum. The same goes for storage. The only advantage in my opinion is no bags required, and the dust storage is very big, but this does not outweigh the cost of the system, and also when it does eventually breakdown, I think I will just go out an buy a normal hoover.

Phone points
Phone points are a bit redundant around the house these days with dect phones and dual or multiple handsets. I would not put more than 2 in any new house, and use dect handsets spread around the house to give you the same benefit.

What I would do, is as you mentioned with the catf/cat6 cabling, I would distribute this to the points where you had planned on putting phone points. Plan this well, and also bear in mind that you will or should be using wireless lan for this type of stuff also. Saying that, you will never have too much cat5. All your cat 5 should route back to a common point where you will have either your main phone line comming in for DSL broadband or cable or wireless bb, depending on your area etc.

Try to put some cable ducts around the place, specially in the common rooms, where you will have tv, computers, routers etc, so that you can add to later. You will always find you need to add cables in the future, whether it is for broadband, sky chorus etc.

Run two coax cables to each tv point, and 3 to 4 in the main rooms, so you can distribute tv easily. Again, all you coax should return to the one point, again preferrably to where your sky or cable box will be.

Alarm monitoring system
These are a bit overpriced in my opinion, and the annual fee often does not cover the extra discount that you will have. You can get self monitored systems, which will phone you, or a neighbour etc if one of you can not be reached. The only time I woul drecommend self monitoring is if you are living alone or something and you want peace of mind.

External wiring
Make sure you allow for external wiring to the garden, including power, phone, and speaker cables if you want also. Try and have a duct under your footpath so you can add more in future if you want.
Also, have an external tap plumped away from your house. We have two external taps, but they are attatched to the gable ends of the house. I would love to have some at either end of the garden, but will have to go digging up my footpath to bury the pipes comming from the house..

Home entertainment.
Have you cinsidered distributing music and/or video around the house ?
If you think it is something you would be interested in, consider speaker cable etc to tghe rooms you would want it in, (living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom etc).

Wexfordman

Thats my 2 centws worth, enjoy your build
 
Re: Wish List for New House

A built in Water Filter for the drinking water taps.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Another one to add - any pumps or electric motors should be away from the house ie in garage or pump house, to reduce noise
 
Re: Wish List for New House

I would seriously consider a passive house so that you don't have to worry about fuel costs at all in the future:

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Re: Wish List for New House

Some great ideas guys and i have a nice list to work off - Thanks again for your help.