New House Wish List

Re: Wish List for New House

ronaldo said:
How about an underground safe such as the one available below:

[broken link removed]
Click to expand...

If you do, make sure you get installation instructions in relation to insullation, etc., and that your builder follows these. My parents got something similar put in an extension, and the condensation in there has rendered it useless.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

We have a utility/laundry room 12ft by 10ft to one side of kitchen and Mrs B still gives out its not big enough and she has a fully racked hot press with a passage down the middle its 13 ft long and 6 ft wide,both rooms perfect in my books also have urinals in 2 bathrooms, (no wet seats) and of course a useless Bidet that cost an extra 500 pounds that herself had to have and of course my small private office that needs a fair clean out now,But I'm sorry now I didnt put in an extra room on ground floor for a gym, well somewhere for treadmill, bike, step thingy and row yoke that are scattered around the house in bed rooms and for whatever herself comes up with next, Ps; no matter how big it is it still wont be big enough. Hope this helps.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Hi,

Have read with interest some of the above and am particularly interested in the comments regarding the electrics/ phone points / cat 5 cabling. I'm looking into rewiring my home at the moment and would appreciate any comments on the benefits of this. Do I put a point anywhere I intend having a PC? What else can it be used for? What about satellite TV? Why would I need 4 coax cables?
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Screw down wooden floors as opposed to nailing - much easier to take one up if needed - same applies for decking..........
 
Re: Wish List for New House

"We have a utility/laundry room 12ft by 10ft to one side of kitchen and Mrs B still gives out its not big enough and she has a fully racked hot press with a passage down the middle its 13 ft long and 6 ft wide"

I am so jealous you have no idea.................
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Consultant

I had all rooms wired cat 5 not just the bedrooms - all are coming back to a central point (in the hot press) where I have a hub, enabling me to set up a network. I know there are wireless networks now, but you can't beat the old wired systems.
I must say I have also found 5amp sockets in the living room to be extermely useful and a waste disposal unit in the kitchen sink is a great tool.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

To the guy/gal who didn't want ensuite due to 'sounds', why not a walk-in wardrobe area with ensuite off that.
Fully agree with the zonal settings for heating, we use it and its a blessing... downstairs is warm during the day, upstairs is heated just before our bedtime.
In a two story house I'd have the laundry room off one of the bathrooms, as with our weather unfortunately most drying from around jan-dec is tumble dryer ;-) Why lugg it all downstairs, and for those 4 days a year the washing line is a possibility, install a dumb waiter from laundry room down to the utility room / backdoor.
For the kitchen I'd love a dishwasher lifted about 2 feet off the ground, with pot storage drawer under it, so that I dont' break my back any more bending down to fill / empty the darn thing!
Socket build into the walls with possibility of covering them off until needed, like a false front on a skirting board, so come Xmas the tree in the corner doesn't become a trip hazzard!
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Thanks for the info. Macer - where did you locate cat5 points in each room? Would you put it beside socket close to floor or higher up. The reason I ask is that in the Living Room and Kitchen I plan to have LCD tv, which will be wall mounted, so I will have TV point and socket high up on the wall. I understand most satellite systems tv systems now take cat 5, so does it make sence to have them all at the one level so cables are out of sight?
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Not too sure if its been mentioned before in this thread, but I saw a post before from someone who had all the sockets and lights in their living room connected to one one switch at the door. The idea being that when your heading off to bed you can hit one switch to turn everything off. Pretty straightforward if you electrician is competent and relatively inexpensive compared to some of the things mentioned on here!! (Panic room and escape tunnel!!!! ;->)
 
Re: Wish List for New House

A wall mounted refillable multi dispenser in the shower cubicle. My daughter has them in all her showers to dispense shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and body lotion. Its a neat and compact solution for all those bottles and nowhere to put them.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Forget about your walk in wardrobe - build an extra room and kit it out with shelving & hanging space as a walk in room / dressing room!!!!

You can never have enough space for hanging clothes so a full room is the only way to go!!
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Unhinged said:
A wall mounted refillable multi dispenser in the shower cubicle. My daughter has them in all her showers to dispense shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and body lotion. Its a neat and compact solution for all those bottles and nowhere to put them.
Click to expand...
Fine if you can both agree on products to use. I could not hope for that level of cooperation in my bathroom.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Consultant -

Yes I would wall mount your cat 5 sockets where you plan to put LCD TV's. One word of warning here, My sockets are exactly where I intended to have my LCD's, the first TV brackets I purchased looked ideal as they would ensure that the TV where as close to the wall as possible, however I forgot about the plug & sockets and it turned out that there was not enough room behind the TV's for the connections. I therefore had to purchase alternative brackets and now the TV's are a little further out from the wall that is ideal.
If I had thought about this at the planning stage I'm sure I would have come up with some alternative solution.
The shop informed me that most people are running cables from ground level to their TV inside some sort of trunking, I expect this relates to non-new builds.

Also I would locate sockets near where I would expect to put computers/decks in the future eg. kids bedrooms
 
Re: Wish List for New House

Unhinged said:
A wall mounted refillable multi dispenser in the shower cubicle. My daughter has them in all her showers to dispense shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, and body lotion. Its a neat and compact solution for all those bottles and nowhere to put them.
Click to expand...

This used to be a big seller at those "Ideal Homes" type shows a few years ago; however the reality is that the dispensers get clogged up, his and her's products aren't really interchangeable and the dispensers themselves get pretty grimy looking after a while. Never had them myself but saw them in other people's bathrooms and just didn't like them at all.
 
Re: Wish List for New House

look at any new house, however large, and you find that as soon as it is finished people build numerous sheds, garages etc to keep all the things they forgot to allow for in the house....

You need:

integral garage, to park your car in and unload the groceries without getting wet.

a workshop, with access from both garden and the house, for 101 reasons including all those repair and maintenance jobs, tools etc.

a separate boiler/plant room, to reduce noise and to allow esay maintence/replacement without disruption

A large room near the back door for all the boots, coats, buggies, bikes etc.

If a sloping site permits, a waterproof basement, with workshop, garage etc in the basement. Basements in reinforced waterproof concrete (CEMENTAID) work out at about 35 euros a sqft to build, and save you about 20euros a sqft on the foundations and all the garage costs etc. A bargain
 
I remember seeing a thread on what people would wish for if building a new home but cannot find it - can anyone point me to this or if not can people start listing

Eg;s
underfloor heating etc


Ta
Firefly.
 
Small, inexpensive things that get overlooked are
- Outside tap
- Outside socket
- security lights
- Light in hot press
- Way more sockets than you think you'll use.
- Loads of phone points
 
Seagull said:
- Loads of phone points
Click to expand...

We got extra phone points put in a few years back. Now we've DECT phones, and the phone points are never used.

I'd imagine that some people went to great lengths to wire their houses for PCs etc. (as was the fashion for high-end homes just a couple of years back). Now everyone uses WiFi.

The point is that some things, especially in the technology area, are obsoleted very quickly.

I have to say I'd agree with the rest of your list, though.

As for the big items, the key one for me would be levels of insulation and energy efficiency. Building regs. here still lag best practice in other countries: I'd go beyond what's required.
 
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