Im building a new home (as some in here know).

Its already got bells and whistles in terms of low-carbon toast racks and seal-pup-free soft furnishings, but what would you spec into your home if you could design it from scratch?

Points awarded for unaffordability or anything that might upset the government.

I'll start: I was thinking of installing a rainwater harvest system for flushing down the bog and washing the pots, pans and my undies in. And maybe a whirpool in the bath.

I was thinking of installing a rainwater harvest system for flushing down the bog and washing the pots, pans and my undies in

Not really anything to add but i have often wondered for years why this isnt more of a standard feature in all new builds.

I think its relatively straightforward to plumb up a second non-potable cold supply from a suitable header tank. (you have to be careful not to mix rainwater and mains though if you are planning dual supplies)

Online resources though say I should get something like a 5,000 litre tank, which is both a) nearly the size of Wales and b) will need a bloody big hole in the ground to hide it.

You then of course need a pump to get a head.

Don't forget wiring for sound / multi media. Get all the cabling in now

LCD shower screen 🙂

I had designed such a place 10 years ago

I'd like a combined bikes store/workshop/shower room with Niagara levels of pressure and pint mugs of tea on tap and a bike wash area

Upstairs laundry – why carry it downstairs to wash and carry back upstairs?

Central locking with a remote – like on a car.

You then of course need a pump to get a head.

Tank on the roof top?

Big eff off cupola to let in as much natural light as possible.
Built in book shelves, to make as much use of the space as possible.

TJ – was thinking that, but wireless is where things are going and the layout doesnt really lend itself to much multimedia distribution.

However one room (mezz office and double height room) will prob be wired for SVGA with bluetooth keyboard/mouse so I can work on the main PC from a number of places rather than use a laptop.

What's an LCD shower screen? Do you mean a TV in the shower? Id need a seat too 😉

juan – converting a barn so the guttering is below the loft void – and Im not planning on having any service sin the loft void anyway. I can house a header tank at one end of the house which would give me 3m of head above the ground floor only. Its a fair compromise I reckon.

Remote central locking – I like it! 😉

going to have a part with massive 4mx4m glazed sections.

and will build bookshelves to fit. we have a few books 😉

A secret cellar for special parties.
Expose beams so that hammocks can be slung when feeling louche.

I'd put solar h/w heating on the roof, not photovoltaics.
And a weather-cock.

Two flights of stairs – a public one and a "secret" one.
A sunken bath.

Basement kitchen with dumb waiter to dining room.

Servants bells.

Underground passage from garage to house.

I would deffo put wiring in for speakers now – always going to be a better solution than wireless. But then sounds throughout the house is crucial to me. Got to have the speakers placed for best stereo image as well in each room. I even have my kitchen set up so that when I am at the cooker I get perfect stereo

Also think about where appliances are going to go for getting power points in place. Lots of thought and planning now means not wires visible in the finished house

You then of course need a pump to get a head.

*sniggers*

juan – Member

You then of course need a pump to get a head.

Tank on the roof top? [/quote]

you want to build a 5,000 ltr tank in your roof?

insulation, lot of it.

a wood burning stove that also heats a water supply that runs through the floor. the heat from the stove won't just heat the one or two rooms nearest it but with convection the water will run through the house and heat the various other rooms.

collect used water to flush or spread onto the garden.

Seroiusly – In the garage/bike store you're having built (I assume you are anyway! 😉 ) apart from the obvious stuff like security and workbench etc get a remote garage door, and then a shower and utility room between there and the house. We have this (apart from the shower) and I can just ride up, blip the door open and ride straight in, chuck off dirty clothes straight into the washer and walk into the house. I'd love to have the shower room so I could walk in clean, and not have to go upstairs to shower first. Roller garage doors like ours are also very secure…. 🙂

tragically I cant dig a cellar – which has meant Ive had to think up some ingenious solution for my wine collection involving celotex, my shed, a 12v battery and a car air conditioning unit from the salvage yard 😉

TJ – I get what you mean (the electrics will be carefully planned – for example, I like low lamp light so I design in a low level lighting ring that can be controlled from the main switch, did it for my current place) but speakers dont mean that much to me. A well placed pair at one end of a room will suffice I reckon. (theres only really two main rooms downstairs, ones a 15m x 5m kitchen/main living area and the other is a double height 8mx5m office.)

you want to build a 5,000 ltr tank in your roof?

No, you wouldn't. That's 5 tonnes of water. Imagine the leak…. 😯

wood stoves: check!

one of these:

and one of these:

was considering adding a boiler to one but layout just wont work. Really wanted to though. In the end I will put a solar collector in the garden to add energy to the thermal store.

I'm not sure how much power you'll have over this but a good view is worth having.

How about a central vacuuming system?

Get all your wiring done now..

Cat6 network cables to every rooom, from a central room that is going to house the servers.

I would also look into home automation X10 is what it used to be, don't know what the next big thing is now. Why? You can have your music following you around the house, or even the TV following you to every room, same goes for the lights and loads of other cool things!

I have a notion of running central heating off of a Tandoor and having lovely fresh nan breads as a byproduct of running a bath.

or even the TV following you to every room,……….cool things!

fail.

A downstairs wet room near the back door.

I'm with TJ, I have speakers wire from my bathroom and kitchen running back to the living room so the whole flat plays the same music. I've had it for years and love it!

If you rely on wireless you need power anyway so you might as well just put the speaker cables in.

On a less serious note, have you seen the dilbert house? Such gems as:
two dishwashers, one for clean, one for dirty
a decorated christmas tree on wheels and a cupboard to keep it in
etc 🙂

looked at central vacuuming at the build show – cost was about equal to 20x Henries. And it still didnt come with a maid to do it for you 🙁

Milkie – why cat6 cabling. Why not rely on wireless? BTW we only bought a TV a few months ago, so really, TV following us around the place isnt on the list 😉 But if it can mix a G&T and have it ready for when I come out of the shower, this Automation stuff may be a winner!

I'd go for the minimum of automation/cables everywhere, unless you're "trade" what's the point.

I've always really wanted a balcony in the main bedroom, if there's a view I thought that would be cool.

I have a notion of running central heating off of a Tandoor and having lovely fresh nan breads as a byproduct of running a bath.

Genius

Big sliding doors into the garden, it is like having another room in the summer.

These are quite an impressive feature.

Barn Conversion – How about a cow parade cow for the garden?

Milkie – why cat6 cabling. Why not rely on wireless?

Wireless speeds are relatively slow, fastest at the moment is 200mb/s, and you'll be extremely lucky to get that, you would have to have repeaters setup all around the house to boost the signal too.

Not everything comes with wireless, new TV's have a LAN connection, but no WiFi. Cat6 cables can go up to 10,000mb/s, for a home you should be looking at 1,000mb/s. Mean's you would be to watch HD films directly off the server, rather than having to copy it to the device and then watch it… If its a HD film you are talking over 6Gb, 6Gb on a 108mb connection would take about an hour (or just a long time) to copy. Once it's setup, thats it done, no fart arsing about setting up keys, repeaters and things, not the sort of thing that gets updated every year like wireless things.

But if it can mix a G&T and have it ready for when I come out of the shower, this Automation stuff may be a winner!

Yes, with a little engineering! But you could do things like, having the lights turn on for when you come home. If you are away, you could get the lights to go on and off, turn the radio on/off etc. All via your phone!

You're all old and dull! What about a firemans pole? Tv in front of the toilet? Wallace and gromit style tilting bed? Piped in beer, with proper dispensers next to toilet and bed? Trapeze? Stairs that go flat making a slide? Laundry chute, dumb waiter, roof top sunbathing, tigers in cages, urinal next to the backdoor for that emergency wizz?

My house has the rainwater harvesting thing. Tank (approx 4800litre) is above the kitchen, in a loft space and used to feed water to copper boiler for washing clothes as well as the loos. You feed the loos from a header tank fed both with mains and rainwater, both with float valves. You set the height of the floats so the mains valve only opens if there is no rainwater. That way it doesn't need any control system or pumps. Not new fangled either, it was built in in 1901.

Got to agree on the upstairs laundry though. Unless your staff do the washing. BIG built in cupboards for stuff like suitcases and duvets/scalextric and train sets etc are very handy here. Lots of space for recycling sorting is handy too.

I'm assuming the bikes are well cared for? My garage started like as horse accommodation so has a big drain in the middle for sluicing down, which together with hot and cold supply makes bike cleaning a doddle.

mefty – I briefly considered something like that, but you see how they dont put a price on the webiste….that means It's stupidly expensive 🙂

each of these stable doors will be a glazed door onto the single main long room, making the courtyard an "extra room".

the big black door at the end will be glazed, like the one opposite.

Outdoor shower – when you arrive home from a ride filthy, just have a hot shower in your riding kit outside the back door.

If you have a view, put the living room in the roof space, with a hooooge dormer window-cum-balcony.

Lots and lots of light in every room. You can have all the automation you want, but natural light is this thing we all crave.

Shame about the cellar – best feature of my house.

I have had a hankering recently for a decent outdoors hot tub with one of those home cinema projectors plus the surround sound that I can project movies at night, onto my neighbours wall with 😉

Then some form of chilled drinks dispenser that allows a good flow of chilled beer without leaving the tub.

Well let me dream anyway 😉

Re Doors – We continued our flooring from our living area (tiles in our case, it is a London terrace) into the garden which really works well to bring the two spaces together.

Re Wine Cellar – £15K I seem to recall but you did say pimp.

You do need a cow

As has been discussed previously at least two dishwashers.
It has to be…

OMITN – have you seen these:

Saw a set at the build show – bloody brilliant. Unfortunately our planning has substantial limitations so wont work for ours.

I did have a pic of the (lovely) view of the Malverns, but cant find it on my host right now. Hammocks will be installed outside.

There may be an opportunity for a downstairs shower, or even and outdoors one…

I'll miss my cellar. My current one:
[img]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_t5w43Q6t-Qs/SLKNTXzUl-I/AAAAAAAAEsA/cp8bGc_ci3Y/s288/img_7721.jpg[/img]

No, haven't seen those. Not a lot of call for them in the roof of a terraced house in Manchester.

Used an outside hot & cold shower when holidaying in France. I know, Provence is hot etc, but it struck mke that the usual complaints about dirty riding kit in the house and killing the washing machine could be lessened with such a device.

Got a job interview in Kingswinford tomorrow. If I get it, the Malverns may be on the (house) shopping list….