If you were building your own house.. what special features would you add? - General

I'd invest in security doors, steel door frames and whatever kind of laminated glass shops use that are nearly impossibly to bust through even with tools, especially if you're going to have a lot of large ground level windows. Also a full surveillance system.

One of the things I enjoyed when building a house in WA, was having the full house vacuum system. Just don't forget to install cleanouts every 20 feet or so, so that you can remove a clog. Otherwise the system is worthless after that. You just plug a vacuum hose into a wall outlet, and go. Also another nice thing would be a drop tube conduit that goes from one end of the living room to the other. I had one in the house as well. Use very gentle bends, and then put grease on the wires you want to run, then feed them down into the floor, and they pop up on the other side of the room. I just had a simple wall plate to cover it. Miss that place...

Solar panels.

Astronomy dome. And definitely room for ping pong and billiards.

Secret passages. Secret basements. Secret closets. Secret everything.

If I were building a home, I would probably build in an indoor greenhouse large enough to provide my favorite veggies/fruits all year.

A wood-fired oven for pizza. Also a foldaway styled kitchen would be interesting, possibly just a small table for four and cabinets/shelves that can be tucked away out of sight (have to hide the cookie jars anyways...). My house is nowhere near modern or made special in any way but the big butcher block I have in my kitchen has been really useful. Incorporating it into the island could work. For a house that's going to have kids being raised in it, I'd probably also want to look at different features that could make life a little easier, and maybe a bit safer for kids. Floor materials that are easy to clean up would be one. I think there's a lot you could do in this area but I'd need to brainstorm it. Think of places where you wouldn't want your kids getting to and/or getting themselves hurt I suppose.

One thing i havent seen mentioned yet that i would add to a house, either an attached garage, or atleast an attached carport. Very nice for when youve got a load of groceries to bring in and it suddenly decides to downpour. I, personally, would build a decent sized two car garage, with extra space built on for storage. That way, you can fit two cars, as well as store a lawnmower, weedwacker, shovels, rakes, whatever else youd like to store. Id either have a wifi repeater there, or an ethernet plugin. Thatd be useful for quite a bit. For instance, if youre working on something in the garage and need to research a manual or something. Id also have atleast heating available in there, on a seperate system from the house, so that the garage isnt being heated/cooled when no ones even in there. Automatic door openers would be nice, again for the times it downpours. There is a ton more you could add, if youre the kind that wants to work on your own car

Look into c-bus/dynalite (i am assuming its the same in the us maybe branded differently). Basically i've worked a bit with this stuff in a lot of high rises and office buildings. Most of the time you see what is basically ipads in the walls for control of lighting mainly (colors, brightness, select individual lights and modify their settings). But it also can do some other cool stuff like unfold a projector screen (the specific one im thinking of basically was in the ceiling and came out of the roof with a touch of a button). You can program it to do heaps of stuff, audio control and all.

Hidden/indirect lighting. A small, cozy victorian room lined with bookshelves. And if you're not into books, then just one cool as fuck bookshelf in my room, like that custom stuff you see.

Well, if I built a house, it would be less of a house and more of an aircraft hanger full of cars and shit with a 3 bedroom loft built in.

Garry, please go on Grand Designs. Please. I want to see you and Kevin McCloud have gr8 banter together.

42 posts and NOBODY has suggested a massive slippery slide that starts on the top floor? C'mon guys, step up your game. Serious part- extra wide stairs and hallways. Unless you buy everything from Ikea and assemble it inside, it's gonna be a pain in the ass moving big furniture around. I've nursed this idea for a while about having a jib crane/scissor lift on the outside of the house and an extra large door on the second floor for moving furniture and other heavy stuff. Dragging fridges up stairs is not fun yo.

[QUOTE=ScottyWired;42418358]Serious part- extra wide stairs and hallways. Unless you buy everything from Ikea and assemble it inside, it's gonna be a pain in the ass moving big furniture around. I've nursed this idea for a while about having a jib crane/scissor lift on the outside of the house and an extra large door on the second floor for moving furniture and other heavy stuff. Dragging fridges up stairs is not fun yo.[/QUOTE] Actually I hadn't even considered that, but yeah. Making sure your front door, at least, is fairly wide is a good idea too. I've had to move massive furniture through doors that didn't want to let it through. At one point we had to take a couch to the other side of the house and then tilt it around at odd angles to get it through. Also on that vein, I suggest getting some moving straps - like [url=http://www.amazon.com/Teamstrap-Moving-and-Lifting-Straps/dp/B000UUX7VO]this[/url] - if you plan on moving any furniture yourself. Or even if you don't, just so later down in the line if you need to move something bulky but don't want to pay anyone. When we got our new stove, the delivery men used one of those, and they made the stove look like it was nothing.

Huge tilt skillet for making a week's worth of tomato sauce at a time.

[QUOTE=ScottyWired;42418358]42 posts and NOBODY has suggested a massive slippery slide that starts on the top floor? C'mon guys, step up your game. Serious part- extra wide stairs and hallways. Unless you buy everything from Ikea and assemble it inside, it's gonna be a pain in the ass moving big furniture around. I've nursed this idea for a while about having a jib crane/scissor lift on the outside of the house and an extra large door on the second floor for moving furniture and other heavy stuff. Dragging fridges up stairs is not fun yo.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Alxnotorious;42405672]Slide from the bedroom into a pool on the first floor.[/QUOTE] #14

entire room dedicated for a bed

[QUOTE=chaz13;42409424]Solar panels.[/QUOTE] Does England get enough sun to warrant a solar array?

My own machine/electronics shop with full ventilation, followed up with some sort of hydroponics. And those obligatory empty wiring pipes.

Proper air conditioning and ventilation in the entire house. Fuck opening windows when its hot and fuck feeling drowsy because the air is bad inside. Also think about fire safety, plan around easy evacuation, regularly placed fire extinguishers, smoke detectors in every room etc and if it can be implemented in a good looking way, a fire escape from the second floor. House fires are fucking terrifying, and you might wanna put some serious thought into it when designing, especially since you now have a kid to worry about.

Do this for your kids. i shall for mine ( on the slim chance i have any ) [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-i1HHad9Zk[/media]

[QUOTE=Lijitsu;42405525]My only experience with this is my house which was built in the late '60s, but; every room on its own circuit. Because of the shoddy wiring and the wonderful idea to put it all on one circuit, if I plug in my computer and an electric heater at the same time the entire back half of the house goes dark. Also setting the parents' room on the opposite end of the house of the kids' rooms. I've [i]really[/i] appreciated that as I've gotten older.[/QUOTE] A problem I can see with this is that powerline adapters would have a really bad time with this. It sounds like garry will be using wifi mostly though.

[QUOTE=Serj22;42409227]One of the things I enjoyed when building a house in WA, was having the full house vacuum system. Just don't forget to install cleanouts every 20 feet or so, so that you can remove a clog. Otherwise the system is worthless after that. You just plug a vacuum hose into a wall outlet, and go. .[/QUOTE] My parents have this in their house, and honestly I don't like it. It sounds convenient, but lugging around the big 20' house is heavier and more awkward than moving a conventional vacuum cleaner. It is nice having a big filter bag in the basement that you don't have to empty very often. You mentioned a laundry room, we had a laundry room on second floor with all the bedrooms, just a small room with a washer, dryer, and some storage space. It was convenient as heck. I would also like a tank-less water heater, and in-floor heating of course. [editline]5th October 2013[/editline] In terms of design I really like the look of an open floor plan, exposed beams, and natural light. It looks like that might be something you would like I personally like the combination of traditional and modern looks [editline]5th October 2013[/editline] [url]http://www.home-designing.com/2013/05/brick-wall-studio-apartment-inspiration[/url] I like this [editline]5th October 2013[/editline] I'm looking to buy a house sometime next year to rent out, so I've been doing a lot of research myself. Also might buy a smaller home with my friend this month! exciting

my "dream home" I'd build an "Alright largish" home that is purely based around maximizing the feeling of "Emptyness" and yet actually have a surplus of chairs and tables and games etc, essentially, tables can be leaned up and stored in the floor, couches can be folded into beds or as its own wall (cubes), chairs will fold into very small boxes, fridge will be slide inside a spot in the wall, sink will be inside a drawer along with the counter, shelves built into the wall etc. Basically, it'll utilize as much space as possible. You would have a kitchen and a dining room as one room. Your bed room would also be a genuine living room. As the kitchen can very quickly become a dining room, anyone will be blown away by the fact you can just hide the table and chairs in a small very deep shelf in under 4 minutes. AKA, you have a bathroom, a kitchen/dining, a guest bedroom and a personal bedroom that's also a theater room / living room / maybe even a bar room AS WELL. But it would all be in a way that not only does it all have good space to begin with, you can put counters, toilets, sinks into the walls and hide them with a door. I mean, this is slightly irrelevant as its how it'd do it, but I think it'd be a good idea to invest in a lot of "Multipurpose furniture" to save space. Homes are to store shit in, make it so you can store as much shit as you can. I'd buy a bunch of stuff from [url]http://theawesomer.com/tag/furniture/[/url] like the "[URL="http://www.illdesigns.ch/art/the-living-cube/"]living cube" [/URL]or [URL="http://theawesomer.com/shoes-books-and-a-bike/246040/"]"Shoes, books a bike"[/URL] or the [URL="http://theawesomer.com/urbandesk/198233/"]"urban desk"[/URL] in the end, as much shit that can fold up and "disappear" as possible.

[QUOTE=Alxnotorious;42419732]Does England get enough sun to warrant a solar array?[/QUOTE] Yeah. Not as efficient as in the Sahara, of course, but you see houses/businesses with them quite a lot around here.

We have some flats with solar panels down the side in Walsall [img]http://i.imgur.com/DOUu3Zh.jpg[/img]

you're making a gym, right?

No. A gym would never ever get used.

-i'd add a small office room at the attic, which can be accessed from a secret trap door on the ceiling -highlight stairs wilt LED trails (not those fancy outdoor lamps), that can be activated by motion sensors(well its just a minor detail) -build a room, that's ventilated and used for 3D printing etc...

you should have a hallway that has the billie jean style floor lighting