If you were creating a house from scratch, what would you make sure it had?

[clevername]

We're currently converting a building into a house and it suddenly occurred to me that I should really think about all those little things that could perhaps be thought about and incorporated that would make life easier. It's prob a bit late to ask this question (rooms are built, plasterers are nearly done!) and, frankly, budget is beyond TIGHT but there might very well be simple /easy things that we are missing...

For example, I was just outside in our current garden and was thinking how I defo need to have decent storage for outside toys / furniture in the new place because they are all disgusting from being exposed all winter.

Don't get me wrong - we have been sort of thinking about this kind of stuff (eg we've incorporated a big porch / boot room with loads of storage for shoes, coats, book bags etc) but I just wondered if anyone had any more ideas?

Cheers

@winsinbin I couldn't recommend it enough, the aerial socket is next to them, so once we've actually gotten around to decorating properly our TV will look seamless on the wall! (We bought the house last year)

Lots of electric sockets and space for an airer that isn't on view in the main living areas! Lots of storage.

Sockets! Especially the USB ones. As well as high up on the walls,at bedside table height too so no faffing with phone / Fitbit cables etc.
We have some IKEA bedside chests that we have altered so they have sockets on them and they're so handy but do need an extension cable at the back. Would be great of they were in the walls.

If you have fitted wardrobes covering a wall, sockets in there too. Our house has this and it's so handy - I have one shelf that is "hair stuff" and plug my hairdryer in the back of it. Just slide the mirrored door to the side and then it all gets put away once I'm done.

For context of lots of sockets too: we have double sockets on every wall, in every room of the house.
In the bedrooms we have fitted wardrobes so the back wall has two lots of double sockets on each side, placed so that we fit out bed between then with bedside tables. So a bedside lamp and phone charger can be plugged in on each side.

Porch with good storage for all outdoor kit and tiled floor, space for sports and gardening kit with easy access from house, large kitchen with space for big table and an ergonomic layout, walk in larder,
large utility room with space for airers/sorting laundry/cleaning kit (ideally upstairs), cleaning cupboard, two loo (inc downstairs), plenty of shelves for books/board games, USB sockets and dimmable lighting.

A pantry.
A well designed laundry room with the machine and drier raised up so you don't have to bend down.

A porch or something similar for discarding muddy boots/cleaning up the dog. Lots of toilets, one for every person living there at a minimum, and at least two showers. A big kitchen with sliding doors leading to the garden. Cabling for enough routers to ensure a good strong WiFi signal in every room. Loads of storage for things like suitcases.

@ScreamingValenta it does apply to socks too because they always seem to disappear and never be seen again?! Or is that just my house

Waste disposal in the kitchen sink.

Huge kitchen sink, I think they're called a Belfast sink nowadays.

Allocated space for recycling bins/large bin in kitchen or utility room.

Double width front and back doors.

Built in wardrobes.

Walk in larder.

Bath with built in jacuzzi.

Wet room.

Underfloor heating.

Landscaped garden with minimal lawn.

A bay window with built in storage seating.

Depending on style of house if the dining room I sswpeeatw yo the kitchen, an old fashioned serving hatch.

High storage cupboards. So much space is wasted above head height.

Laundry room with drying racks.
Bike storage racks with sockets to charge bike lights
Sockets and more sockets.
A space for family admin - post, keys, things to action with a socket so lap tops & mobiles can be plugged in. Just needs to be a bench with file storage underneath. A little whiteboard so people can write messages. I may have to design and fit one of these in my house....
Storage and more storage.
Space for recycling and bins
More sockets and storage.

A bidet (or two)

Good tips thanks. First fix electrics are all done now but we've made sure we've got shit loads of plugs (current house really doesn't and we've got extension leads everywhere which is a nightmare!). We've got some in the right place for TVs etc but none really high up unfortunately.

Storage is defo an issue - there's no loft and the nature of the building means all the upstairs rooms (bedrooms) have sloping ceilings. We're trying to squeeze cupboards and shelves in where we can though. Boot room is definitely going to help with this.

Drying clothes is going to be a problem... No room for a drying room unfortunately. So we'll definitely be back to airers in bedrooms (in the winter anyway).

If you have a lot of small tech like phones, tablets and smart watches, design a space for charging them.
We have open shelving at the end of a run of kitchen cabinets, cook books on a couple of shelves, some decorative items, then the shelf at waist height has 2 hardwired multi USB sockets and a set of tiny pigeonholes for various cables.

Laundry room up stairs next to bathroom. Pantry. Boot room/back porch type place. Toilet near back door. Lots of built in cupboards/book shelves.
Parcel delivery box thing. Not sure how they work but I need something like that.

Here's a good one. Dont put your smoke alarm in the actual kitchen like ours is. Even cooking bacon will send the fire department round in our house!

Fire and Co2 alarms in a semi accessible place.

You should probably built a brick bbq onto your wall in the garden because everyone loves a good bbq.

Get nice vertical radiators too.

Oh the family admin point from Unescorted is a good one, many homes lack this and it makes a huge difference. I am still trying to create one of these but unsure where it should be - my kitchen is already over subscribed.

Walk in wardrobe

Vented windows?

-A bidet
-A drying room (as you can't do that, would your bathroom be large enough for a dehumidifier and an airer or two?)
-Utility room
-Downstairs loo
-No ensuites. (I'd much rather have 2 bathrooms/decent storage)
-Hose in the back garden

As you have sloping ceilings upstairs, you can make loads of cuboard space where the ceiling is too low to stand up.

I wish I had one of those built in hoover things so you can sweep up to the little vent and it sucks it all up

Somewhere for bins and recycling.
(apart from at the end of the worktop...)

Bookshelf in kitchen so all my cookbooks can be where I actually cook!

Wow! Awesome tips, thanks!
In some ways this is quite reassuring because a number of the things that are frequently coming up we already have in place (sockets, sliding doors to outside, lots of light, downstairs toilet, boot room, outside sockets and lights, wet room etc).

But some things just aren't possible - separate laundry room, lots of toilets, walk in wardrobes, pantry. Also, some things we currently have but will be giving up when we move (larder, dressing room (of sorts), no neighbours!!).

Bike storage is something I hadn't thought about - cheers for that.

Haven't read full thread, but my aunt built a fairly big mansion. They have a laundry chute from upstairs.

They have some sort of a system where there are little holes in the skirting board, where you plug a hoover hose into the hole, rather than having to cart the hoover around (pretty big house).
For me, I'd like a waste disposal chute - taking the bins out is my most loathed task! Not sure how practical that is.
A utility room for big freezer, washer, dryer.

They have 6 toilets. One small one in the utility room, one sort of downstairs guest toilet, one main upstairs bathroom and three ensuites.
They used to have a separate dining room/separate kitchen/separate sitting room in their old house. In this one they have no dining room, just one massive big kitchen and 2 sitting rooms (they don't seem to use the second sitting room at all - or certainly not for my attendance!)
I'd go for landscaped gardens too requiring minimal maintenance.