If you were building a new house, what would you put in it? Please recommend anything from boilers to lights to appliances.

[Apatite1]

The title says it all. Looks like we are building from scratch. House will be about 2500 sq ft. I now need to make a zillion decisions.

If anyone can recommend anything from their insulation to their furniture, I'm all ears.

In particular, we really need guidance on:

Underfloor heating
Engineered wood flooring
Carpets
Ventilation systems
Lighting plans
Joinery for dressing room and library
Stair makers
Kitchen companies and fitters
Bathroom companies and fitters
Landscapers
Paint
Granite suppliers
Tiles
Aluminium window suppliers
Sliding door suppliers
Burglar alarm systems
Fire alarms

Really, any tips are very welcome. There are so many companies, I've no clue who is good and who isn't. I don't mind expensive services, as long they are worth it, we will try to budget them in.

Thank you all!

wood shed? Don't tell my husband! We'll be living on beans on toast to fund this build

Sorry InQuite we are very lucky I know. Husband and I work hard, but we fully acknowledge it's mostly luck.

We did a major renovation a couple of years ago and here are the things I am glad we did or wish we had done:

• heated mirrors in the bathrooms
• garburetor (garbage disposal unit) in the kitchen
• tap with boiling / cold filtered water. They now make one that does sparkling too.
• underfloor heating in kitchen and bathrooms
• massive bathtub
• wet room style master bath

I also wish we had spent a little bit more attention and money on our floors.

don't explain yourself! I live in a new build myself, although from a developer and not as big as yours will be. I absolutely love it and loved choosing the stuff to go in it but being able to choose everything from scratch and not being limited by the developer is really cool!

I hope you end up with a lovely house and the build isn't too stressful!

I agree with lots of sockets, btw! Always useful.

Thanks InQuite, Im happy to hear you love your new build, bet it's loads warmer and less draughty than a period home

Sparkling water tap?? I love sparkling water I'll defintely be looking into that thank you Hearts. Already have waste disposal thingy on list.

MN is the most useful forum ever still hoping PigletJohn will come and tell me which boiler to get

We've just finished our self build, completion certificate just issued on Thursday! I project managed the whole thing and was not nearly as bad as it's made out to be. We embraced the new technologies available and built a passive house. We had to build to a specific design so were constrained by that. We used an Irish company MBC Timberframe, they were great. They did the passive slab foundation, frame, windows, roof & cladding. I believe they may consider doing the whole build now. Great guys & boy do they work hard! Since they are living away from home, they are working as much as you'll let them, weekends/evenings etc.
The passive thing actually works too, which we were a bit worried about. We only have a woodburner (although did lay UFH pipes in the slab as insurance...) and it's fine - 20 degrees! Going to love the no bills.
We used a company called Earth Save Products for our MVHR, water heating & solar PV panels. Again, they were great.
Practicalities:
Plan your furniture in your room if possible. We're very open plan downstairs so found this really hard, now I wish I'd swapped a few socket locations around.
We have 5amp lighting circuits downstairs and master bedroom, so you can plug lamps in and turn them all on/off from the wall switch (another by the bed too).
Airing cupboard vital
Think lighting in great detail, dimmers are great. Layers of lighting really works.
If you're interested, get sourcing yourself. There are great deals to be had if you look. Never pay full price for anything, discounts are almost always available.
Get your building services all zero vat rated & check what you can claim back up front on products, there are restrictions.
Decide on deal breakers, if something is important to you then don't budge on it (no matter how much you get railroaded), equally be flexible on things that aren't.
Learn as much as you can about everything so you can make informed decisions. Ask loads of questions. Ask the experts what they would do if it were their house.
Enjoy it!!! Would totally do it again PM me if you want

Yes to floor sockets. I didn't get these and really regret it.
Outside socket for Christmas lights and vacuuming car.
Outside tap.
Pay attention to door handles/ window furniture. I asked for chrome but ended up with a mixture of chrome on internal doors and brushed chrome on french doors. This really annoys me!
Think about where you want to position your bed/tv/computer and place sockets accordingly.
Think about the position of doors within the room and the direction you want them to open.
Consider pocket doors.
Wide window cils are handy.
Door mats! Make sure your door can open with a door mat!
Get a woodburner. They turn a house into a home. Corny but true.
Think about where you will store towels/bedding/christmas decs/suitcases/keys/toilet rolls etc etc etc.

Shanghai, that's very helpful thank you so much! I will pm later on, once we are ready to tender if that's ok, as we are still months off from that. Many congratulations on your new home, it sounds fabulous

Belinda, we are having a modern fireplace and we have pocket doors in the design already. Different handles would totally annoy me too so I'll bear that in mind. Outside tap and socket, forgot that too so thank you!

Cable runs behind skirting boards so you can put in more sockets easily. Wired Ethernet throughout with ethernet socket by every plug (maybe notin kitchen)....you can then run Sonos type music to every room as well as Internet tv etc... More storage than you can imagine. Laundry rack dangling from ceiling. Quooker boiling water tap. Pull out drawers in every kitchen cupboard.

I would have triple glazing, a mechanical heat recovery system to recycle air from the bathroom and kitchen, a wood pellet burner and underfloor heating. And maybe a ground source heat pump. Bit obsessed with cutting bills perhaps. Whereabouts in the country are you OP? There are lots of shows showcasing different technologies and options, I think there might even be one on this weekend - if you google Homebuilding and Renovating exhibition it should come up.

If you are a keen gardener put in a drip flow watering system before you do the garden

Laundry shute straight down to utility room . A friend also has a packing table in her dressing room, so getting luggage ready just seems so easy. Great if you travel a lot !

I was going to say laundry chute too.

Cphart for bathroom
I got wooden flooring from wood and beyond

Both excellent the latter being excellent on price the former being quality and priced matched with that but comparable to b&q

I'm in London WhatA, very interested in cutting bills. Is a ground source heat pump very expensive? My husband is very sensitive to dust mites and mould, I need a ventilation system that will combat this, a cooling/air conditioning system would be good as well, it gets quite hot in summer now I'm intolerant of heat

What is a drip flow system Petra? I'm getting all pull out drawers, I'm not very tall...

Laundry is below the library and both have to be there so probably a chute is a no go-er.

Ivy I thought cphart were going to be v expensive, so I haven't really considered them. Did they price match b & q??

If you have a large garden an outside loo is a great thing.

We have been renovating a house ourselves for the last 10 years, and have learn a load of stuff I will be using for our next house, which may well be a new build.

We are planning on a solar passive design, or as close as we can come within the constraints of the site. A decent architect should be able to put in most of the benefits of solar passive housing into a house that fits most planning restrictions. Mostly to do with the orientation of rooms, size of windows, appropriate overhangs for shading in summer but not in winter, things like that.

We will have a solar heating, supplemented by a back boiler on a log burning cooker in the kitchen, with either gas or electric as a final back-up.

We will have either hemp or recycled wood insulation. We have experimented with all the available insulation materials in this house, and those come on top, apart from cork which is stupidly expensive.

We will have a mechanical ventilation system which uses the heat from the house to warm up the incoming air.

Make sure the design takes into consideration the length of pipe runs, I know it sounds obvious but it's easy enough to screw up (your architect should be on top of this, but it never hurts to double check)

I will probably think of other things as we go, but those are some to start on.

One thing i absolutely love about my current house and have come to think every home should have one is a cupboard specifically for drying laundry. Mine is actually the airing cupboard that has my hot water tank but it is large enough to be a walk in cupboard and has space for a tower airer so when the weather is looing dicey the laundry goes in the cupboard, the dehumidifier goes on and i shut the door. Previous homes involved washing draped all over radiators and in summer it was a nightmare to dry laundry on a wet day as it was too hot to put heating on just to dry laundry. Ive seen loads of threads over the years both on here and on MSE website asking how people dry their laundry. A dedicated cupboard in every home i say, even better if it is in with the hot water tank and even better again if you could fit an extractor fan. I am considering moving house again but unless there is a cupboard that i can use for laundry i will be staying put. It really makes my life so much nicer

No, garden is your typical smallish london garden so loo not needed but thanks for suggestion!

Yes, Surly, I will make sure the airing cupboard is big enough to hold a heated airer, thanks!

Liara, thank you so much! Which ventilation system are you using please? And what do you mean by pipe runs?

Silly things like...

USB charging sockets in the kitchen
Sockets in the living room that you could plug in two or three lamps and control from a single switch
An outside tap at the front of the house as well as the back (saves carrying watering cans round the house for hanging baskets etc.). Also two taps at the back.
A doorbell that can be heard upstairs

I know you mentioned somewhere that it's the only 2 of you, but if you plan to have kids in the future, just keep that in mind, so that it'll work then too. It'd be nice to have a play area/room downstairs where you can leave all the toys

Boring but useful. Make sure your power supply is a three phase (3x 100amp). The standard 100amp is not really enough.
Say you wanted two pyrolytic ovens and an induction hob and these will be running at the same time, that's 90amp right there.

Nuheat will do free quotes for wet UFH and work out the system for you. As soon as you have plans you can do this.

Windows. Look into those early on as lead in times can be long.

Get engineered wood flooring with 6mm wear layer. It will last longer and you'll be able to sand it a number of times. It's also nicer to walk on than the cheaper floors with a 3mm wear layer.

Anothe boring one. Internal doors. Decide early if you have your heart set on something special to avoid having door openings made which they won't fit into.

Whereabouts are you? For granite and marble I recommend Geology ltd. I've had several worktops from they. Great to deal with.

Ah usb sockets goes on the list, thanks bean. Inter, if we have kids, we will put the walls back in downstairs. I'll enjoy open plan whilst I still can haha!