Just purchased an old cottage with more modern extension, it needs new wiring and a bit of updating all round.

I am planning on doing a bit of insulation here and there but what extras to stick in? We will have 2-3 months with the house empty before moving in.

Smart thermostats? Network sockets? Any other tech?

Less tech and clever (but expensive and still consume energy solutions), but insulation, more insulation, draft proofing and more insulation….

We are quite clued up on insulation and damp management already, current house is also old..

Was just wondering if a few hundred quid and some tech could make life easier at all. The sort of thing you kick yourself later for not putting in when you had the chance..

If you live in a hard water area, get a water softener!

A stripper pole and a glitter ball.

Disco floor.

Reported spam post…
anyway on tech some hard wired networking is a good idea, place to sit a NAS etc with power and access to wires.
Decent heating, more plugs than you think.
I’d probaly look towards something like SONOS over wired speakers if I wanted clean
Solar hot water
Under floor heating
Rodent proofing

Gimp cage, and panic room in case the gimp escapes.

Stone cottage? Test Wifi / mobile signals in various rooms and work out the best position for incoming landline / wifi repeaters, etc. Wiring to suit

Wired network too ^^^^

Not tech but position meters and water stop cock where they’re easily accessible

Insulation and underfloor heating.

We’ve just done ours, lovely even temp throughout the ground floor now.

A puppy

STW and no one has mentioned a wood burner in every room yet!!!

Best ‘tech’ thing I did when I built my place was to put a light switch for every room by every door. Involved a fair bit of extra wiring but makes so much sense. Also think now about future heating/DHW systems. Maybe install everything (pipes, valves, multi-coil cylinder) needed to have a multi-heat system (oil/gas boiler, wood burner, solar hot water) even if you don’t plan on uses such a system at the start.
Hard wired smoke/CO2 alarm system?

Think very carefully about power sockets and where you want them – and put in more than you think you need. Hard wiring for speakers and tv so you don’t have trailing cables. also think very carefully about lighting – 2 way lighting in hallways etc and make sure you have good lighting over the bathroom mirror and in the kitchen. Bedside lighting. I did this and was very thankful I did.

Stone cottage? Test Wifi / mobile signals in various rooms and work out the best position for incoming landline / wifi repeaters, etc. Wiring to suit

This. We have lots of cable and 4 hotshots to cover our [similar sounding] house.

STW and no one has mentioned a wood burner in every room yet!!!

Because that goes without saying 😆

tjagain – Member

Think very carefully about power sockets and where you want them – and put in more than you think you need

Lots of this ^ We’ve (fairly) recently gone from a 70s house to a new build, the extra sockets all over the place make such a difference!

Have you already got a room allocated as the workshop?

I have a shop allocated as the workshop :p

Rodent control – two cats OK?

We are about to start this process as part of the planned move to Scotland.

So far the only thing I’d say is: consider parallel wiring for 12v lighting. Wire the lounge lights so that all the table lamps are controlled by one switch; you’ll need some of the old round pin sockets and plugs unless there’s now a more modern alternative. Install a home urinal in a corner of the workshop, garage or downstairs loo – look at Laufen Casa.

Have a good think about door openings and which way the doors swing. Alter as appropriate and then alter light switch position if required. This is the one thing that pisses me off about our current (10 yr old) house.

Kitchen layout and plumbing/wiring.

Wet area for entering the house – with hooks/shelves for wet gear. If I’ve been out on the bike I can enter through via the garage, dump the bike, open the door into the utility room, strip off muddy clothing and then enter the kitchen meaning no clart through the rest of the house.

As said, power sockets everywhere you need – I’d love to rewire just to do away with all the power strips. Likewise network sockets where there’s fixed equipment (so near TV, home office desk, Sonos speakers if you use them, etc) and to wireless access points. You can buy APs like Ubiquiti Unifi pretty cheaply now, they’re very unobtrusive (but could still hide in a cupboard if you wanted), straightforwad to set up, powered over ethernet, and you just put in enough of them to get good signal everywhere you want it. If you’ll have an alarm system, better to put wires in than have to do wireless later.

Think about things that can moved to better places – eg relocate master socket so your broadband router can be in a cupboard rather than by the front door.

Kylie .