Things to include in brand new house

[Lucysaysno]

We are buying a house off plans (5 bed, detached). Meeting the builder tomorrow. I intend to ask for plug sockets on the kitchen island, on the stair returns (vacuum cleaning) and in the garden (for occasional use if we have bouncy castles, Christmas lights...). I will also request a sink in the utility room and a double depth wardrobe in one of the bedrooms as we will not have a loft as the master bedroom and ensuite are on the second floor. We are expecting to pay extra for these requirements but are hoping that they won't be too expensive...

Is there anything else I should ask for ?

Would a sink in the kitchen island be worth getting?

Absolutely - thanks Artistic

Positioning of sockets and tv aerial points is crucial and as has been said before, 3amp sockets so you can put rounded pin plugs on your lamps and switch them all on and off from one wall switch. Also underfloor heating, which is particularly good under tiles.

I've had newly built houses that sadly lacked storage for the ironing board, vac, steam cleaner/mop and bucket type stuff.
I'd plan for that and also a big double door larder cupboard which will store all your dry foodstuffs in one place. I like as much stuff hidden away in the kitchen as we can manage and have a shelf for a microwave in the cleaning cupboard.

Make sure you have light and a ladder to the loft space as once you're in those are issues that you put to the back of the to-do-list.
Don't forget an outside tap too and a Magnaclean filter system fitted to your central heating if you have it.

We're considering a new build and something I want to do is have two electricity circuits, one of which has the stuff like the DVD recorder, freezer and clock radio that need to be on all the time and one that has everything else that's wasting electricity being on standby. Then you can "kill" the inessential circuit when you go out or go to bed.

We bought a new build four years ago, my advice is to look carefully at exactly what is included in the price. My experience was you can't change a lot of things. We did do a walk round the show house and plan on paper all the sockets we wanted and where we wanted them. The builders put them where we wanted and added the extra ones. Also be careful ours didn't include lights/sockets in the garage so we added them as well as outside lights/sockets. We had arial/satellite sockets fitted in each bedroom. We also had a shower fitted above bath in family bathroom and the terrace extended. The standard one didn't fit our outside tables and chairs on it. We managed to negotiate all these and more into the price we paid so you can use extras in your haggling. Builders are often more inclined to give you extras rather than drop the price.

Oh - I meant "self build" not "new build"....

Outdoor tap