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.

Walk in pantry, hot water tap , one of those fridges with double doors and the freezer part is a drawer at the bottom, build the kitchen cupboards right up to the ceiling like they do in America.
5 amp plugs for all your lamps so you can turn them on at the wall. We have these and they are fantastic. I always recommend them to anyone building a new house . Also put in a back boiler if you have a stove or an open fire as you’ll always have means to have hot water.
Storage for logs , kindling etc
A beam vacuum system. Or set up your home for a couple of robovacs with hidden places for charging points ?
Put a wooden hockey stick around your door frames , makes them look finished. Yes,it’s called a hockey stick ?
A walk in hot press to store all your bed linen and towels etc. Have the entrance to the attic in here too so it doesn’t spoil your ceiling.
An outdoor plug and an outdoor hot and cold water tap.
An office space , a craft room, a large window beside your bath so you can look out at the garden. Self cleaning glass in the windows.

oh & measure/photograph where the outdoor drains, elec, water, telephone lines are, as you will never remember & its brilliant being able to measure & find the septic tank etc....

No problem, just remember to put power sockets next to the cat 6 socket where you want to plug a device in right there. We forgot that one!

Do you have solid floors? If not, and you can dig down to insulate,I recommend underfloor heating (with a double loop at the door to keep it warm).

If you plan to have a cat or small pet, cut a cat/dog flap in the wall before you finish the walls.

Also celotex/metal backed insulation really interferes with Wi-fi, so add some extra sockets for repeaters.

To cut down on draughts, add a small lobby in the hallway.

Put all the fuse boxes/meters and stop cock in the same area and fit isolation taps next to the washing machine and dishwasher.

Just read that you will have oil central heating . Definitely make sure you have a back boiler to heat your water and which can heat some of the the radiators. If you’re rural put plain glass in the bathroom windows.
What about solar panels on a barn roof?

IDK if this has been suggested, but I'm not as nimble as I used to be and I wish the electricity sockets were higher up the wall instead of behind the furniture.

If you can’t have underfloor heating then don’t chose traditional radiators inthe kitchen . Go for the long thing ones up a wall. Take up less space .

Oh and a stable door for the back door . Especially if it’s on a farm and you decide to have chickens some day . Those little rascals will walk right in.

I don't know what wired internet means. Is that = ethernet cable?

Lucky you to be very rural & on fibre optic! We are on edge of town but best we can get is VDSL, England.

How lovely to have carte blanche to design the interior. For me it would be a large utility room, we use ours to dry clothes all through the winter without the need for a tumble drier.
We also did away with cupboards in the kitchen and have large pan drawers that hold everything, no trying to find items stuck at the back of cupboards!

Might be a long list but after 7 houses....

General:

• large cloak room or cupboard (plenty of space for coats/shoes so they are hidden away and don't clutter the hall)

• utility room with space not just for washer/dryer but items like ironing boards, hoovers and cleaning stuff plus a large sink for washing muddy boots (preferably with a tap that's extendable on a hose).

• downstairs study for home working so you have a quiet dedicated working space but are not cut off upstairs. Must have storage for important documents.

• not an open plan layout. I kitchen diner is great but I still want a separate "formal" dining room and cozy lounge

• ideally a separate "snug" for teens to hang out in

• no more than two floors (I love period townhouses but having scratched that itch I'm way over vacuuming so many stairs)

• At least one "spare" guest bedroom after all the family bedrooms have been allocated (ideally with its own en-suite) so the family bathrooms remain private

• large master bedroom with dressing area/room and en-suite

• co-ordinated hardware (drives me potty when you have a mix of brass/chrome door handles, light switches etc)

• co-ordinated colour schemes/styles between rooms. I don't mean every room has to be the same but I think houses need to "flow" and it's really jarring to go from a cozy room with with muted period colours into something super modern with vivid primary colours iyswim

• underfloor heating. Radiators are space wasting dust magnets

• don't scrimp on insulation. Get the best windows you can afford

Bathrooms:

• I like an en-suite. His/hers sinks are good if you have the space

• family bathroom to have separate bath and shower

• a really big deep bath

• no to wet rooms - sounds like a good idea but PITA in reality. I like the water contained within a "proper" shower

• Shower with both and overhead outlet and flexible one on the wall (so you have the choice of washing your hair or not).

• lots of storage for toiletries and spare towels

Kitchen:

• lots of counter space

• pantry and island if you have space (plenty of sockets on the island)

• cooks cupboard (with sockets) to store/hide gadgets like food processors but keep them accessible and easy to use

• granite or corian worktops. Expensive but worth every penny re: durability and looks

• big American fridge freezer with ice maker and filtered water

• Quooker tap

• dual ovens (in the form of a range cooker or separate integrated appliances).

• dishwasher drawers (same space as a single dishwasher but you get two separate appliances). Brilliant as you can do smaller loads and aren't waiting to fill up a big dishwasher but you still have the space if you need it by running both.

• pan draws. Much better than cupboards for stirring pans/crockery etc

• a no to integrated microwaves/coffee machines. They are more expensive and bloody expensive to repair. By standard small appliances like this and put them in the cooks cupboard.

• a decent bookshelf(s) for cookery books (it's a PITA going to another room for them)

• integrated bin with at least two bins to separate rubbish and re-cycling

• ideally french doors/bifolds out to the garden with a lovely patio, outside dining, BBQ area and a mini herb garden I can use for cooking and just grab some fresh herbs

I think that's it 😂

Definitely hard wire your internet. Stone walls are a pain with WiFi. In a few places in our house the walls were 1.5m thick and WiFi couldn't get through. Before we hardwired it we could get WiFi in the kitchen (where the router was) and the room directly above it. Elsewhere was useless even with boosters.

Sorry another for the utility - wall airers.

Agree with those who've mentioned about kitchen counter heights. My mother, who is not especially tall (? 5'7 when younger) nevertheless comments that she liked the kitchen in our house because it was slightly higher than standard - and in particular the sink was higher so less strain washing up. I now really understand this (being 5'11 + myself), I get backache if we ever have a lot of washing up to do at once.

Have you considered whether an air or ground source heat pump could be appropriate?

Air conditioning

I am short and DH is tall, but we have not noticed any problems with kitchen counters. Air con really would not be used here, it is generally about 5 degrees colder than London on any given day in the summer (and often about 5 degrees warmer in the winter! That's the effect of the Atalantic Ocean for you!) I speak as someone who always used a portable air con unit in my bedroom in London. Fans are nice though.

I will think about underfloor heating, but I am the kind of person who always feels too hot, even when it is cold, so it makes me feel rather nervous. What is a heat pump? We are intending to have those tall thin radiators in the kitchen (and possibly elsewhere too).

We really don't like ensuite bathrooms, but def yes to the separate shower and bath in the main bathroom.

All the hardware will be brass, we think, including all switches, plugs etc, so will all match. Because of the stone walls there will be some piping, conduits etc on show, we will make a feature of it (not quite Pompidou Centre level but some things will be visible as we are not plastering most of the walls but simply limewashing the stone).

We would never use a formal dining room, but yes to a cosy room/lounge. That will be the TV/Xbox etc room.

Just to say thanks so much to everyone for all the ideas. Even when I have not commented I have taken notes of all the ideas and will be having lots of discussions with DH about them!

I’d have a big utility room, with 2 washing machines and 2 tumble dryers 🤣

A proper walk-in pantry. We had one built when we did up our house five years ago & it’s still both mine & DH’s favourite change that we did. It meant we didn’t need loads of kitchen cupboards & it’s just so useful.

Also: utility room, a boot room, a good size airing cupboard (ours is tiny & its so annoying), a log burner. I also wouldn’t make the living room very big, especially if it’s only going to be three of you most of the time. Far nicer to sit in a cosy room than a massive barn.

I will think about underfloor heating, but I am the kind of person who always feels too hot

I understand but in a way that's why it's better as the heat is more uniform and thus you can set it lower for the same result.

With radiators to warm up the whole room the heat pushes outwards from the rad so you inevitably end up with colder/hotter spots so tend to set the thermostat higher for the warmth to reach the coldest parts of the room - leaving pockets of overly hot zones (or vice versa).

I know it might sound a bit counter intuitive but underfloor heating is actually much easier to control and enable a consistent temperature that is right for you.

When we had our kitchen done, things i'm so glad we got are:
Double sink not butlers (pretty to look at but easy to smash glasses etc)
Tap with extendy hose end
Vacuum fitted into kick space under cupboards
Food prep/chopping board above fitted bin cupboard- so handy to just open bin & sweep breadcrumbs/ veg ends straight in.
Welly area/passage between back door & kitchen with door to separate.
A NOT American fridge with the slim freezer space to side - my Mum had one & it was bloody annoying. Spaces too narrow & deep, stuff always falling out of the freezer. Got a lovely wide one with freezer drawers at bottom.

Laundry room with big washer and dryer - like 12kg size! Space for airers and ironing board to be up all the time!
Boot room
Lots of storage
Wood burning stoves in kitchen diner and lounge
Dressing room in my room
Lots of bathrooms
Office
Boys room with all their crap in - bar, pool table so it's out of my way!

• Big kitchen with american fridge freezer with water/ice dispenser

• laundry/utility room with a built in drying rack with enough space that a couple of loads can be left up for a couple of days. This room needs both a dehumidifier and a source of heat and to be big enough that tumble drier won’t overheat

• depending on what nearby, consider adding a thin layer of sounproofing to some walls. I wish I’d done this with the utility.

In order of importance:

Indoor swimming pool
Garage (because I have a much-loved very old car)
Enough space somewhere to point a video projector at a blank wall and have a sofa (much nicer than having a huge tv screen, and you get an even bigger picture - home cinema, basically)
Walk-in wardrobe
Guest annexe with bathroom and kitchen - lovely to have guests but not have them under your feet all the time
Spare room just for storage
Other than that, just lots of space everywhere

I don't care about anything else, personally - I'm not bothered about what kitchens are like or whether there's a utility room, etc.