puntloos

Great tip, and yeah, 2500 quid.... (for the 'non touch') that's a ... decent chunk of change.. But, it didn't have ALL my wishes (controllable flow speed) (then again, I might just install a tiny bog standard second tap into the same sink perhaps.. Filters> are these 'active' filters (that do 'bacteria' etc) or is this something more 'laid back'..? Still, quooker does seem to be good value..

Yeah, tons of compromises to be made everywhere, but I think the 'right' projectors are juuuust appearing - meaning *proper* 4K (most '4K' projectors are not actually 4K..), with reasonable(ish) price and decent lumen even for large screens.

So far I haven't seen a "fancy tap" that really has it all, incl filtered, chilled, boiling etc.. Surprising it isn't a thing..

Just a separate one? Or you mean something integrated in your sink or something? Good idea, I think maybe having a recessed area where you can drop in the chopping board you currently need might be helpful, although I've also found having a certain height is helpful, purely when you want to whip the prepped stuff into a pan. 100% agreed, wood seems to be the ideal material. Would be open to some type of "plastic" but perhaps this is supersticion but particles do come off under heavy knife use, and Id be happier eating wood 'scrapings' than plastic (even though when you think about it the wood is probably laquered and impregnated etc etc as well.. Fair. But mine is indeed 'hard' (125mg/l calcium, 312 total)

Awesome discussion btw everyone, I'm glad I found this forum. Learning a ton, and hopefully not being too annoyingly newbie about things. What about food prep? My current plan is to do it on the island (since the hob will be right there to dump prepped stuff into pans) I'm thinking, I will need: - Cutting board area (any clever things to look for? Maybe a recess to sink the plank in?) - Food waste bin built into the island to quickly whip cuttings into - A sink with a lid (first nice looking one I found, open for better suggestions) - Probably some area below the cutting area allowing me to put my legs under the table (to sit & cut) Main open question for me though: What tap, or perhaps tapS do I get? I would ideally like: - boiling water (quooker, perhaps?) - filtered, chilled water - filtered, carbonated water and a very controllable water flow. I think most of these fancy taps are kind of "on/off", at least the Vi tap I was was. (reason for controllable: for cleaning veg I want a very gentle drizzle of lukewarm water ideally. Perhaps I need to just use a second, standard tap for this?) Does such a thing exist at a mildly reasonable price? And do they last? In UK we have very hard water.. (I know there's another topic on this, but this does come deeply into island philosophy so I figured I can ask here)

Can you define 'a little'? 650? 700?

It happens. But I was more thinking about indeed slightly unclean water (from usage, obv.) falling on the shattaf.. I know I'm a bit 'on the spectrum' of being a germaphobe but still, having others use my toilet.. eh..

Perhaps I misunderstand but the american ones are hoping/assuming the waste is in the 'water bowl' and pretty much no force is necessary. But indeed if something is outside the bowl, the flow to clear that up is very weak.. Yup, although surely the half flush can be configured properly to be say 3/4 and save a little without the risk of leftovers?

Ha, to be clear I'm not really into "cleansing wands" and all these other gizmos - I know the Japanese have a tendency to over-engineer their stuff =) True about the possible splash with the water level, although just laying down a sheet of paper on the water would fix it.. (mostly) Hmm. good point about Shattaf being able to clear the pan. That said, err, have to ask: who/what cleans the shattaf if it gets... shattaffed on?

Yep, awnings seem to be a better solution IMO, especially if you can manage very wide (and therefore deep) ones. But they don't work everywhere, in particular my current house design has a bit of a 'stretched L' shape, which has good reasons (err.. I think), but will make the awnings clash a bit. Not yet sure if it's something I should care about..

Do you have some pictures for us? (either yours, or just brochure pictures is fine) I'm trying to imagine this, but my gut feeling is it wouldn't look 'elegant', but it sounds like a great solution for our front. (our plot is SE facing, if that matters) Happy to be proven wrong. Although I'm 99% certainly going for awnings in our back yard because they also provide a great 'living area'.

Is "600 deep" the standard to go for? What limitations do I impose on myself if I do that? In particular: - Are there awesome fridges that are deeper? - My hob will likely be on the island so don't care - Are there awesome dishwashers that need extra room? (and how much space is needed for tubes, water etc behind that 600?) - Anything else I haven't thought of?

That's pretty, great tip I will be sure to consider, thx!

Yup, inspection shelf toilet at my parents' place (netherlands). Still there. Only solution is to apply toilet paper to the bowl before you do your thing. So what 'pan style' is best? Is anyone with me on the theory that a large pool of water is helpful, and the inspection shelf is not? I've noticed that the Japanese Toto ultramax II has all these, and there is actually an UK company - CPHart - that stocks toto (but not the UMII.. yet?)

Ha Perhaps. I guess dirty toilets are a pet peeve of mine, but getting the brush out, or having to re-flush because there's still some paper left sucks. If I can avoid 95% of this stuff by spending a few more quid up front it might just be worth it.

Just an errant thought, but would a watertight shell also keep ants out? If the house is properly watertight, it by definition (?) would, but perhaps not?

Is there such a thing as a Ferguson? Slightly more seriously: I want toilets that: - Self-clean a flush should hit every nook and cranny matter should not have a chance to stick, so it should not hit any dry area - Refill quickly not sure if this is 'up to' the toilet, or it's just a matter of a good water line - Are as water efficient as possible Happy to have a partial and a full flush .. and happy to hear other things to look out for For one I have the impression that the American system, where there's a considerable amount of water in the bowl at all times, and a flush pulls all the water out of the bowl is the better approach than the UK one with the small hole. And for example the American Standard Siphonic takes between 3.5 and 6 liters which is fairly reasonable I think?

Does anyone have some detail on effectiveness of these rollers versus nothing versus awnings? With the whole global warming thing (and also just experience) it's obvious that a house that keeps naturally cool is of paramount importance. I don't want to aircondition if I don't have to

Clearly some things need height, (stacks of plates, kitchen machines etc) but surface seemed to be more appropriate than volume to me.. Ha, you're not entirely wrong although we've just assigned one cupboard for tupperware, and we're forcing ourselves to make hard choices once we have a new thing.. Interesting. Our rental has a great amount of storage, let me do both your rule of thumb and the actual measurement and see where both end up.

What's the reason for this? Are they being slow? I've heard tons of horror stories about suppliers of materials like this being dreadfully slow, so I can't quite tell if this is bad or not..

Have any of you tried to do any math around how much storage surface you want in your kitchens? How many square meters is 'reasonable' to store a well-stocked kitchen.. - Ingredients (cans, spices?) -> could be in a pantry, but for the argument of this calc, still 'kitchen') - Plates, cutlery, utensils - Devices (blenders, toasters..) - Pans, pots etc etc. I intend to do some survey of my current (rental) kitchen, but would love to hear others doing the same

Ah sorry I misread, yes agreed, HDR needs extra lightpower to work. There's calculators for this of course, that seem to say for home cinema with 'reasonably but not obsessively darkened rooms' and/or nighttime, 1600 lumens is sufficient, but my impression is that 2200 is a much more roomy goal. Since I'm just starting our build process I'm hoping prices come down a bit before I'm done, and buy the projector late in the game. (my current 1080p projector is 1600, so it might be interesting to just try it out and see.)

From my holidays in Spain as a kid I remember these blinds as typically 'not super helpful' when it comes to heat. Many holiday apartments had them (and no AC) and the place would still be blisteringly hot. I'm sure they help somewhat, but perhaps not a massive amount because they collect super-hot air that can't go anywhere? Would sunshade awnings - https://www.primrose-awnings.co.uk/- be an option? This is what I have in mind for my sun-facing windows..

Why so much mains? Clearly some power is needed but.. Interesting, will peruse. I've already designed my living room to be slightly non-rectangular. I'm wondering if there's any way to have a "pretty" floor that's also acceptable in audio characteristics. Somehow, most "pretty" floors seem to be hard - tiles or woods.. I probably will do similar, maybe electric. Wondering if the same can be done for ceiling lights. Headphones? Blasphemy! Yep that's the plan (and in fact, drop-down projector too) True, the ones I'm looking at are around 1800 lumen, which only suffices in dark rooms, but it should be okay as long as we blind things well enough... I think? - JVC D-ILA N5 - 6000 GBP or - Sony VW270ES - 5000 GBP (both are true UHD, so not some clever interleaving technique) But, my house is far from ready, in 1.5 years from now I'll start looking at the current hotness. My wife accepts my speakers (at least the fronts) being indeed 1m forward from the wall. Not sure I understand. Are you saying random walls will reflect light back into the projector screen? Currently it is 'mostly OK'.. I've actually worked directly with nvidia on this through my job. Thanks for your points, very cool!