To ask: if you could design your house, what would be essential for you?

[theDudesmummy]

Hi, I know this is not really an AIBU, I am posting here for traffic, but I really would love some thoughts on this. Essentially we are renovating an old derelict stone house completely by ourselves, we have got to the stage where the roof is on and we can start to design the interior. It is basically just walls and roof at the moment, no plumbing, electrics, nothing. So we can put in anything, wherever we want.

The kitchen will be built on at the back, entirely from scratch, it will be big (40 square metres).

So we can put in absolutely anything we want, how we want. If you had the choice, what would you deem essential to include in your dream house. It may be relevant to note that we are older people (50s and planning to grow old in this house) and have only one child left at home, DS is 11 and has special needs (no physical disabilities).

I am looking for ideas not just about big important things, but maybe little features/lifehacks that people have put in their homes or would have put in if they had had this opportunity.

If money were no object and I was designing a house?

Downstairs:
-v large kitchen (with room for large table/dining table in the middle) and plenty of work spaces, storage. Those cool cupboard/drawer storage things with open out shelves when you open the doors/drawers.
-pantry
-good sized living room
-study
-a room for me to fit my treadmill, exercise bike and power plate in, and for my kids to have space to practice sparring (they do martial arts).
-utility/boot room.
-downstairs WC/wet room.
-a downstairs spare bedroom (for when I get too old to climb stairs!)
-decent porch at the front, and a well insulated sun room thingy at the back.

Upstairs:

• 3 or 4 double sized bedrooms, maybe one with an ensuite.

-decent sized family bathroom

Attic:
-has electrics for lights, and flooring so it's easier not to risk my neck when I go up there to put things away/take things out

Flooring:
-I can't remember the name of the stuff, but my bro and SIL have amazing tiled (vinyl - but a special type of vinyl) flooring that is pretty bombproof, easy to clean, looks great and has a really long guarantee on it. I'd have that in kitchen, bathrooms, hallways. And wooden floors in the other rooms.

If it was an old house that I was redesigning, then I'd have quarry tiles in the kitchen/hallways/kitchen, and original floorboards in rest of house.

Garden: Driveway at front, powerpoint to charge my e-car, double garage. Large back garden.

You can tell I've thought about this A LOT!!! Think I need to buy a lotto ticket!

Utility room with a storage area for boots/shoes/costs/backpacks/sport equipment

Sheila maid (that think you can hoik up to the ceiling for drying clothes!)
Upstairs drinking water tap
Outside yard for laundry airer, bins etc.
Cupboard for coats shoes
Consider how suitable sides of windows are for the kind of curtains/blinds/window dressing you need
Stairs in several flights for safety, not one long one
Glass splashbacks not tiles
His and hers bathrooms!
Porch
Outside tap and power point

A small cozy library with chesterfield chairs behind a hidden door

A properly big hallway with double height and gallery from landing upstairs down into entrance and windows that let loads of light in. Is the idea that I always cover one house makeover programmes.

A slide from the top floor.

Thanks everyone! I am going to start drawing some sketches of the kitchen as there are so many good ideas here! I am so glad I have been advised about putting in an ethernet network, we hadn't thought of that and it will be good to do it at the same time that DH is doing all the electrical wiring. Re the American fridge freezer, I know some people don't like them but when I did have one in the past I loved it! DH takes ice in his wine, so ice always on tap is great for him. As we have a huge chest freezer already the problem of the freezer space being too small/inconveniently laid out will not apply...

DH is not keen on a whole laundry room but is prepared to go for a large cupboard with the washing macine/dryer and space for laundry baskets and some hanging space. We don't iron much these days, in fact the only thing we iron is DS's school trousers!

What would people choose for flooring? We are leaning towards tiled kitchen, wood in main lounge and carpets everywhere else.

Sockets to include usb sockets in key places like the kitchen where you may be recharging tech like iPhones.

Big smart kitchen leading to garden space.
A view
A veranda
Sockets everywhere
Lots of thought gone into lighting.

My current house has none of those things!

We have a long coat rack about 6 ft in the boot room which has a radiator underneath it
Lovely warm coats every time in the winter for walking dogs when we go outside
I wouldn’t have an aga if you paid me but they are a marmite thing
Put some real thought into lighting as it can make such a difference have a look at John Cullen on google
A quiet study with a east facing window for morning sunlight
I would make sure that any en-suite is soundproof and helped with a wardrobe or dressing room between that and the bedroom
Underfloor heating but electric or dual heated towel rails so when the heating is off the towel rails still work
Did I mention sound proofing
Good design is about layout and functionality and it’s ability to work well with things well thought out that you don’t notice they are there u til you need them

@speakout. A laundry hatch is genius, love that! 👍🏻

@theDudesmummy we have tiled floor in kitchen, utility and hallway. Wood in living room and dining room and then carpet elsewhere.

One thing I forgot on my wishlist would be a spice cupboard that actually works! So where you can actually see each jar, reach them easily and they don’t get all mixed up. We have loads and they drive me mad!

I'd definitely have washing machine upstairs. Most washing is generated upstairs so avoids carrying it up and down.

I'd have an office with space for 2 desks if possible. Work from home is here to stay.

If possible use heavier joists so you don't have lots of internal supporting partitions.
This will make it easy in the future if you want to move stuff / reconfigure rooms. None structural partitions are easy to move.

More sockets and tv aerials than you think you need. Good to be able to move things round.

@pollyglot

AND there's an acre of land, with dozens of olive, banana, orange and lemon trees, figs, apples, pears, feijoas, and a pergola covered with grape vines. A designer chicken hotel and run, the size of a small house- fresh eggs! You can tell I'm excited! Good luck with your plans-I can recommend all of those kitchen features!

That does not sound like a plot in Lancashire!

Good luck with your move.

Downstairs loo.

Utility/laundry/boot room.
I hate dealing with muddy wellies in the kitchen and hate the noise of the washing machine etc!

Decent airing cupboard/upstairs storage cupboard for towels, bed linen, etc.

Separate bath and shower.

Storage, storage, storage. Where will you keep coats, shoes, ironing board, vacuum cleaner, etc?

Living room overlooking the back garden
Kitchen/diner rather than separate dining room
Space for dishwasher and tumble dryer
2 toilets
Adequate coat and shoe storage space
Bedrooms large enough to actually fit a normal size bed in

Someone I know has a 'central vacuum system' in their house, so in each room there is a hole/holes to plug the vacuum attachment into and then it sucks the stuff into a central bit in the house.

Not really 'essential' but I always thought that sounded so cool!

Also, we have a waste disposal system in our kitchen sink (it was already here, we didn't install it) and it's so handy!

Ensure your staircase is suitable for a stairlift, as straight as possible with a landing point at the top. We will have to move as ours isn't. Oh, the more bends the more expensive to install and service (you can tell I've looked into this )

Things we have that I would definitely want again:

• large utility room
• laundry chute
• double ovens and double sinks in the kitchen
• L-shaped seating at the island vs all in a row. It is a sociable enough layout that we use it like a kitchen table for informal family meals, and it doubles as a kids’ table when we have guests
• proper entryway with good lighting, big mirror, storage for coats/shoes/etc
• induction hob
• self-contained 2 bedroom flat for guests
• big glass doors with either a Juliet balcony or outdoor access for all the bedrooms
• a wall of glass doors to access the garden from the kitchen
• playroom
• walk-in closets
• a master suite (including ensuite and walk-in dressing room)
• generous outdoor area for seating/grill/fire pit

Things I wish we had:

• a dedicated mudroom for entrance from the garden where children can put muddy wellies, etc)
• an indoor fireplace (it’s in process but was not here originally, and they are a pain to install after the fact)
• In terms of layout, personally I think an L-shape living/dining/kitchen (where the kitchen and living are on the ends of the L and the dining is in the middle) is the nicest. It feels open, but there is a bit of separation between living and cooking. We have one enormous open plan area and it is beautiful, but it does mean I need to stay on top of the dishes.
• a dedicated home library/study
• a two car garage (ours is just one and is a bit small if we want to park our car inside)
• a charger for an electric car
• bedrooms all on one floor, living spaces all on one floor (our bedrooms are spread over two floors)

Space for all utilities. Table dryer, dishwasher (2 things I don't have, but really want) at least one main door that doesn't have steps (for kids now, and for me when I'm old. I know how much grand parents struggled with the outdoor steps). A stand alone, walk in shower, for the same reason as above. For me and dp, slightly higher worktops in the kitchen because we are tall and my back kills me doing dishes etc. Somewhere inside to dry washing where no one will see it for when I don't want to use the tumble dryer. A very private garden. Big windows.

I wouldnt have carpet due to allergies, dust, ants, ghekkos... We gave terra cotta tile floor, but recently peopke seem to put stone floors down, ( if under floor heating then its a joy) then nice colourful rugs, can be changed when you want a change of decor.
Recently revamped one of the showers. It has one massive tile on each of the 3 sides, & a swing glass door, that touches neither top or floor.. & a finger hole to pull closed, no handles, no joints, no rails. no more mould ever.

Kitchen:
Dishwasher
Massive Fridge
Dinning Table

Seperate Utility with a dryer

Living room that is seperate from the kitchen (door) but has space to be seperated into two areas. One side for toys/table/whatever and the other as a more grown up but still used by kids TV area with comfy sofas

At least 2 double bedrooms

Garden with enough room for a seating area and lawn/play area

More storage than you think you need. Plan the cupboard space, then double it