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

Double sink and mixer tap. Clothes line next to kitchen door

Fabulous shower with somewhere to hang the bath towels. Plenty of space to dry laundry.

Somewhere to hide all the recycling bins. So many lovely kitchens now "decorated" with bins.
A main route to the back garden that is not through the kitchen.
A deeeeeeeeeep bath.

there's no loft and the nature of the building means all the upstairs rooms (bedrooms) have sloping ceilings
Our house is like this, it was a barn conversion. We are very short on built in storage space and have no loft. Neighbours who have the other half of the barn had a genius idea of using all the voids under the sloping ceilings as store cupboards.
I do have a loft in the garage though which is not only boarded out but has a proper staircase instead of a loft ladder.

Cat 5 or 6 cable
Large downstairs toilet accessed from the garden
Heated boot room
Laundry room with sufficent space for drying and sorting clothes
Anything that helps the environment - good insulation, efficient heating (maybe ground source heat pump), guttering that means water butts can easily be used
Lighting that can be switched off individually or one switch
Water softener if hard water area
Plus lots of other things people have said!

An outside tap but with HOT WATER aswell. So handy for washing cars etc.

A giant bookcase that opens like a door to a secret room.
A 5-floor turret to myself.
Solar panels.
Food disposal thingy in the sink (whatever it's called, v popular in the States; total brainfart!)
Walk-in larder.
Utility room big enough for washing machine, cleaning products, clothes horse, dog food, winter boots, giant toolbox, bike paraphernalia, extra stuff like 3for2 packs of 24 bogrolls etc, things bought in bulk.
Cupboards that aren't so bloody high I cannot reach them without a fecking stool.
A cooker hood that doesn't twat me on the forehead as I cook.
No ensuite, I don't want to smell poo in the bedroom.
Bloody good storage everywhere, but declutter before moving so it's not full of unwanted crap.
Space for a four poster dog bed

A laundry room and plumbing for washer upstairs!

I'd have an atrium in my dream house. Probably to late to add one of those though. You can place wireless charging spots around your home which is pretty good. I'd also have the all plug socket have USB ports. Definitely use smart bulbs and smart gas and electric meters. I'd go as eco friendly as possible. I've seen some lovely kitchens that have great appliance cupboards it keeps everything neat and tidy. I'd also have a walk in larder. And a smart fridge.

A large walk-in pantry please with room for an extra freezer.

A good size utility room with an extra sink and shower

A ground floor office on the ground floor.

Good size kitchen/diner with lots of storage and sockets for all my gadgets.

Multi-fold doors from the conservatory to the garden.

Ring doorbell.

A friend of mine had a kitchen extension built that incorporated a small hall between the kitchen and outside door. Off the hall was a toilet and shower, so children who had been playing in the garden could come in to use them without having to come into the kitchen.

Al2O3 -

Just suddenly wondered if we've thought to put a towel rail near the entrance to the wet room... DP has probably thought of that but I'm going to double check!

And yes to decluttering... Our current house is full of shit. And I WILL NOT TAKE IT WITH ME. I'm seeing the new house as a clean slate... I will be all minimal and organised, oh yes I will.

Agree whole-heartedly with many electric sockets. In houses built even 20 years ago, you would have mainly had a relatively small number of appliances in obvious places - telly and video in the corner of the living room, kettle, toaster, fridge and washing machine in the kitchen (unless you're Kirstie Allsop), possibly a single family computer and printer, for early-adopters etc.

In the last decade or so, there's been an exponential boom, though - families have several tellies, one or more games consoles and a family of 5 may well each have a phone, tablet and laptop, which they might want to use/charge in any of a number of different places in a number of different rooms. Not to mention Sky/Virgin/Freeview boxes and modems, routers and fibre-optic phone lines, which were much less commonplace or non-existent not all that long ago.

Depending on your preferences and circumstances, you may even want to consider getting the house wired with ethernet cable.

I would also suggest, if it's in your power when building from scratch (I know you're past that stage now, OP), to put a high/steep-angled roof in. Lots of houses (like ours) have a low roof void (ours is 5 feet high at the highest part in the centre) whereas many have them several feet higher than this.

I'm no architect and I'm happy to be told of any potential concerns in doing so, but it seems such an arbitrary decision to me that can effectively mean the difference between limiting yourself to having some useful storage space and potentially an extra 50% of actual usable living space further down the line.

Outdoor electricity sockets

I was about to say loads of plug sockets too!

I did a self build, designed it from scratch. Big wins were tap and electricity point somewhere on every outside wall, built in vacuum cleaner, and wet underfloor heating. Also for me as an avid gardener getting water and electricity piped to my greenhouse. Oh and chests of drawers built into the eaves in the upstairs bedrooms, and demisters behind the bathroom mirrors. If I was doing it again I would add a boiling water tap in the kitchen like I have in my current otherwise very inferior home.

Also, doorways that aren't right in the corner of the room. It's surprising how often just moving the opening a foot or so further along the wall can give room for a small bookcase or storage unit at right angles to the doorway, along the wall (if that makes sense) - but losing 12-18" on the other side will often have no real difference.

And talking of doorways, don't do what the previous owners of our house did - having doors that open 'against' the middle of the room rather than the wall (or against the bookcase behind it, as above!) - it makes the room seem and feel much less spacious.

we have four sockets in three corners in the living room. make sure you do the fourth. we regret not having done that having moved stuff around a bit.

kitchen sockets. lots. don;t forget ones for washing machine and dishwasher.

light under stairs near fuse box on different circuit to all other lights.

laundry room. washing machine, drying space sink for scrubbing those awkward bloody things that ds comes home in caked in mud and other hard to shift stuff.

airing cupboard, to finish off drying things.

my dh loves his central vac. if you can't have one throughout the house maybe just a couple (kitchen for sure).

A lockable laundry room, so. I can get stuff washed without Ds2 turning the fucking washer off.

We have the minimal roof space problem. 1930s dormer bungalow.

We've just done ours and the things I absolutely adore:

-High pressure spray kitchen tap thing (pictured)
-USB sockets
-Smart thermostat

Big windows, letting the light in. Closets for clothes. Big garden.

We have a hot and cold mixer tap outside, so when I wash the dogs the water is warm. It's nicer for me and the dogs. No more freezing cold hands for me.