Prepped House Ideas

[UndergroundPenguin]

We're in the exciting position of househunting again after a long period of not owning. I want to make sure the house has enough potential for being prepared in multiple different ways that our last house wasn't.

For example I'd like room in the garden and the correct orientation to put backup solar panels out there or a small wind turbine to charge a 12V or 24V DC system. I'd also like a basement but they only seem to come with terraces and I'd rather something detached, so I'll probably write off the basement as a pipe dream for now. I'd like a water collection system as I've lived in a few places where the water supply didn't work properly or wasn't potable. I'd like to be able to put a covered terrace outside the back or side of the house for outdoor cooking and I'd like a working stove to heat the house if needed.

If you were starting again from scratch and had a 3 to 4-bed detached budget for the area, what would your main considerations be and what features would you look for in a house/its garden layout or design to ensure it's going to work for various eventualities?

Looking for inspiration!

We have a basement, it’s only under half the house as built in hillside. But it’s detached

I would like space for a greenhouse.

Do you have BER ratings in the Uk? A thermally efficient home is very high on my priorities

Solar panels on the roof/correct orientation.
(Option for) shading over the windows.
Away from flood risk.
Garden for growing veg.
Storage. (Pantry? )
Space for heat pump.

If you're prepping for a full out SHTF then I think the primary consideration needs to be security. You can have all the solar panels and water butts in the world, but if someone can just walk in and take them from you then they're worse than useless.
I'd be looking for somewhere that didn't draw attention, with a secure boundary, and the potential to make modifications descretely. A cellar would be a huge bonus.

Water collection system from good amount of roof space - but collect to ordinary garden butts (can get large sized versions) to use in garden/toilets - or to boil/filter for other uses.

Space to store things. Both indoors and outdoors (a garage, sheds or space to put them in).

Space to store wood if you have any chinneys that can allow you put in wood burning stoves. Brownie points of space to grow/harvest own trees.

Bathroom downstairs as well as up - May be important as mobility changes in future.

Space for "hobbies" - diy, sewing, knitting, preserving....can be proper hobbies or very practical pursuits.

Insulation or capacity to put it in, is huge!

Ooh! We're about to move to our retirement home.
We need a half brick , half glass conservatory/orangery/potting room.
Also a walk in wet room.
And a view.

@Caspianberg ooh you've reminded me I used to have a friend with a house like that and it was detached too!
@BlackeyedSusan Why a heat pump specifically? DH is after one as well but I don't know enough about heating to know the pros and cons.
@BiddyPop Yes to all of those! I'd love a proper filtration system for the water later down the line! And somewhere for hobbies, I do soapmaking, knitting and sewing and would love to be able to continue these.
@AllAroundMyCat Ooh a view! Yes that would be ideal, makes it all worthwhile when you can look out of a window and see something positive!

@amylou8 I'm mostly going to work on grid down and food shortage situations to start with as those are the most common and likely situations (we had an outage a couple of months ago here where electricity and the mobile phone network was down), but also some SHTF where practical, with a view to doing long term, major disaster etc when we can invest in doing it properly. I think the right house can make it all a lot easier though. I'd like something more remote but work is a consideration. Maybe the solution there is a new job!

I feel like security is a tricky one in the UK due to the laws here. When I lived in Arizona it was a lot more straightforward! Although if you're talking full WROL then I suppose anything is fair game. Do you have any links to resources on planning security in the UK for a major SHTF/WROL situation?

If I was after a “realistic” house these days, in my area I would look for:

Small village, better for security and good skill base.
Older property, constructed of bricks.
Above likely flood plain, but with ability to harvest water from river or roof.
Garden to supplement food.
Off street parking.
Walls & or hedge to deter visitors. Nice rose bush etc under windows.

House sits higher than garden and yard (stops flammable liquid running in towards house).
Beef up door security (T shaped wood and an old tyre).

Alternative power supply, even if it’s just short duration.
Wood stove.
BBQ in Garden (with overhead cover)

Flooding has always been the first thing I consider when looking at property. No need to wait for shtf if everything is destroyed by floods first. I live close to a town that floods every year, yet they still keep building on the flood plane.

For security, think of what you can do unobtrusively. Holly hedges look lovely and are a deterrent to anyone wanting to get through. Definitely a garden either some growing space too.

Also think about what plan b is. If the heating goes off, do you have a log burner? If there is a power cut, do you have solar panels that still work?

I'm not preparing for societal collapse and roaming looters. I'm more worried about stability of power supplies and infrastructure. In an ideal world I'd have a well-insulated house with solar panels and batteries. I'd have a ground source heat pump, but with a log burner for backup heating. Enough space for a good pantry that is accessible from inside the house. I'd have a nice veg patch, with enough water butts to look after it, and a composting earth closet in the garden. And I'd have a well with water extraction (pumping) and filtering capabilities. I'd run an electric car off the solar power, and have a garage to keep it in.

So far I've managed the veg patch and the log burner. Oh, and I have nice butts.

I'd want a big kitchen with enough space to sort out muddy home grown veg, and prepare stuff for preserving. A lot of modern kitchens just don't have the space required for constantly having stuff on the go (proving, baking, cooling, fermenting, washing, preserving etc)

Love these suggestions, keep 'em coming!
For those saying about flood risk: Wherever we move, I always check potential houses on here before viewing, it's a great resource for anyone like me who won't consider a house with a big flood risk:
https://www.floodmap.net/

If you have outdoor space to grow things, I'd think about veg beds but also productive trees - apples, pears, plums - and a berry patch for raspberry canes, blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes etc.

I would also echo others about a utility room allowing muddy boots to come in and be changed for indoor shoes, hanging jackets and outdoor gear handily, putting washing machine in for easy access to garden and to store things not needed so much in the kitchen or small regularly used things for garden (like a bucket with trowel, hand fork, gloves, knife/secateurs, twine etc) for easy picking of weeds or harvesting veg regularly rather than needing to go to the shed all the time. Having a sink there to wash filthy things or had wash knits or fill buckets, a tiled floor for easy cleaning, and lots of storage, are all good points. It's not something that needs to already exist but that there's the potential to put it there and have a door straight to the garden.

A bit of worktop space in that utility is also very useful - likely cooler than kitchen to leave things for a day, allow sourdough mother to live, have fermenting jars out of the way etc (as pp mentioned, modern kitchens have very little countertop space generally to work, let alone have things bubbling away for a while).

@BiddyPop Yes, I very much want room for a little orchard! I had one at the last house we owned (abroad) and had to leave all my 12 fruit and nut trees behind, which was very galling after nurturing them for 3 years and some of them were just starting to be productive. Thanks for reminding me of that as I'd be quite miffed if we bought a house and I hadn't considered where the trees would go and it turned out there was no good spot for them.

A utility room with good space is also a good shout. One of my bugbears with both our last houses was the lack of space for doing unusual stuff like putting the freshly-picked produce during washing/processing or spreading out all the jam jars for doing preserving.

Thinking about it, ideally, I'd also like a separate pantry. I've heard that the humidity from modern tumble dryers can cause food preservation issues if the food stores are too close (not the very long-term stuff in mylar and plastic buckets, more the mid-term and short-term stuff like bags of nuts, fresh veg etc). I keep looking at floor plans of houses and wondering about walling off part of the kitchen/utility for a separate pantry for better storage conditions.

Room for chickens (and an area where we're allowed to have them) as well.

Second the pantry, walk-in if possible. My mums house had two fairly large walk in pantry’s with little vents to keep them cool. They were a god send for storage and having extra food in.

Personally if we ever lived again I would be inclined to move further into the countryside so I could keep chickens and goats. Productive and cute.