puntloos

To each their own of course. I think there's something to be said for the cinema experience, but I am convinced I can turn my living room into quite the acceptable approximation (all audio equipt, projector and 4m wide screen that will retract back into the ceiling if not in use) for below 10,000, excluding the 'build cost' of fitting the screen into the ceiling 5 mins of Googling (but I have a lot of earlier knowledge, so this is not a bad set) just gave me this: - Retractable Screen: Screen International - 1500 - 4K Projector: Optoma - 2500 - 7.1.2 speakers: Klipsch - 4000 - 4K Media Streamer: NVidia Shield - 200 - Receiver: Marantz 7012 - 800 9000. Worth it? Up to you of course, but the above is pretty low on compromises without going audiophile-nuts. There's a lot of fat to trim, I think you can bring it down to even 5000ish.

... while taking into account WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) and not turning the living space into a dark noiseless cave (*) Any of you spend some time on things like: - Room shape design? - Flooring material? (wife doesn't like carpet throughout.. are there any good-looking materials you considered?) - Speaker placement? - Less-than-maximum-size screen? (what is 'too big'?) Would love to see pictures, designs. What does your Cinema Living Room look like? Did it work like you expected? What would you do differently? Thanks! (*) FWIW, the 'Ideal' Home cinema is probably: -- a windowless room, probably basement? - acoustic dampening material on every surface, - 36 degree viewing angle (as THX recommends) to calculate screen size vs seating distance (which works out to e.g. 4m wide screen, with 6m seating distance) - Straight projector throw - 7.1.4 speaker setup (yep, 12 speakers scattered around) - Non-rectangular room shape to reduce standing waves. -.. more?

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Frankly, again, not hampered by much knowledge, my impression is that a basement just has a bunch of nice features I would appreciate having if it were cost effective: - Great location for hiding "house guts" - water tanks, air conditioners, central vacuums, heaters, network closet, washing machines are all kind of in the way and ugly - Cool by design, so long term freezers, wine cellar, network/computer stuff gets cheap cooling - Could be used as a 'man cave' (cinema room?), but I'm def. also thinking garage. - Bed is not a crazy idea (see: 'cool') but it might be chilly.

How much would a (say) 5x5m basement cost anyway, if you're building from scratch? As a novice it "feels" that you just have to dig a 3x5x5 hole, put a plank over it, poke a hole for the stairs and the rest is the same... right? (of course I'm partially joking, can anyone give me a more accurate idea? Let's say I have a house design, and on a whim I want a 5x5 cellar last-minute. How much would this add to the cost?)

And I thought Dekton was indestructible (ok ok I know, most materials have sensitive angles, areas etc.. ) OK so - Dekton - Corian - Sapienstone All seem nice candidates for "indestructible yet pretty"?

Wow that's a good tip, it looks beautiful... ... and the price? (I bet this is the problem )

This is super helpful Ultramods! Interestingly, my planned living space design and available space is quite similar to yours! I have about 12x6m to work with for both. Inline some points Which is? I'm still very much undecided what i want in a worktop, but efficient cleaning and resilience is higher on my list than absolute prettiness... but I could be convinced. In my mind, kitchens are *forever* and not to be replaced every 10 years.. Interesting, My current idea is to have indeed a small sink in the island, but a large(ish) one in the wall. Rationale being that I want to: - Able to rinse veg while cleaning on island - Large sink is for dishes prep (cleaning grit off plates before going into washer) How did you pick 120? Interesting idea. I'm not sure I'd be confident enough in my kitchen philosophy to go that dramatic. My current kitchen has perhaps 8m worth of worktops (half of it used for cooking tho) and it's sufficient but not ample. Are you saying you're doing this to avoid clutter? Or are there major other benefits? We were thinking of some type of sofa in a strategic place. Like this one - slightly diner style. That's a very unusual spot for your utility room. Any reasons behind that design?

My dad pre-installed pulling wire into the cable pipes around the house. Need new cable pulled? just pull the cable with the wire (and of course, also attach the new pulling wire to the new cable..)

Do you have any specific examples of this? What situations call for such detailed drawings?

I'm starting to think the same for indeed audio (pre-wiring rooms for sonos and cinema, even if, like me, you don't like sonos nor cinemarooms (I'm deeply into audio and movies, but not in a separate room..) but maybe even it makes sense to do this with water, having a central 'water hub closet' and pipes to most rooms. (e.g. we are VERY thankful for the small washbasin in the baby room.,.)

I've been trying to figure out what this is, and good info is actually hard to find. It's about drain smells? Can you elaborate? What's the alternative? Sorry I am too much a newbie to understand apparently. What do you mean 'clean walls' in context of insulation. Good point, even if you initially don't think you need water, prepping it might be useful. In the same vein I was thinking about getting a gas line to a spot in the livingroom where a gas fireplace could be placed, if I don't do it during build. How large is yours currently? How much redundancy would you recommend then? Clearly a single line to each room makes sense, but how far would you go? Yep. Powerful idea to be able to add new cables on demand. Maybe in-house fibre will become a thing in 10 years.

Awesome discussion, just a quick note on the central vacuums, I asked a Norwegian friend and he pointed out just too many downsides for me. In particular he sent me a pic of the angry rodent effect: caused by dragging around the pipes. But also storage of the hoses, that one time you forgot to empty out the bucket and it explodes on you.. it's not for me, but I could spend a few quid to prep the house. I was actually thinking about the rainwater harvesting and using it for flushing toilets (no idea if this overcomplicates the plumbing because you have to have a fallback if its dry) but apparently legionella is a concern, even at room temp (20C), so flushing, and aerosolizing some rainwater in your house... is that what you meant? All good points, although I'm a bit hesitant to splurge too much on roof access for 'the occasional maintenance'. Making a rare event harder is usually good sense. On the flip side: I was actually considering creating a path for a digger to access the rear garden.. yes through the house. Meaning indeed a set of easy to tear down, non-loadbearing walls, probably through the garage, so if we have to, we can create that tunnel without major hassle... Also of course being able to clean things like ceiling lights is super important, so maybe the roof access qualifies for that.

Which features are easy/cheap to incorporate in a new build design, but will be really hard/costly to add later? For example: - Central air - Underfloor heating - Central vacuum pipes - Ground Source Heat Pump - Basement, perhaps? In particular I've been dissuaded from actually wanting a central vacuum, but adding a few pipes and holes is probably "a few hundred quid" extra during build, but near impossible to add when the house is done. But on the other hand, even 'cheap' things quickly start to add up so I'm wary of going too crazy about things we would never use, unless they have a major resale value impact..

Isn't granite hard to clean? Meaning, you can't use any serious cleaning liquids on it..

It's beautiful.. but wow that's a massive island.... It does open a whole new can of worms for me.. how much space to allocate for a kitchen.... and obviously, what could you do with the space if you don't use it as kitchen.. In my current house design I'd have to sacrifice either livingroom, or utility room space if I want a larger kitchen.. both seem better uses in my case

This, I think, is what I'm settling into. You have a larger sink elsewhere I assume? Good point, freezer I think I'll put in the utility room though. Needs to be nearby but a bit of a space waste to be too local I think Clearly families need to form habits around what's offered, I can certainly imagine it 'turning out' you would never use certain things... hard to predict sometimes.

I was wondering about extraction. Some random extractor far above seems... ineffective.. but is it?

Are islands easily moved? A few cm sure, but anything meaningful?

Thank you for your comments, I hadn't thought through the social element enough, but physically facing others makes a lot of sense. I'm thinking I agree the main sink should be near the wall.. but the idea of cleaning veg (and I often need running water for this) means I probably would want a tiny sink near the hob and probably on the island. Maybe the idea of those 'quooker' (sp?) taps with a proper drain could work. Using the tap for veg cleaning as well as quick water supply for thirsty people. Ha, overkill for me.. but to each their own Still worried I would keep hitting the hard bits. I think I might have to go for a full "tunnel" like so: (bad kitchen otherwise, just pointing at the seating section) Any tips? Lights straight above the sink? hob? Compared to..?

OH YES IT IS! (OK, you're right, but especially for prospective buyers, seeing a kitchen has an island raises the estimated sell price considerably. Not saying deservedly so but people take its presence to be shorthand for 'fancy') Agreed, although I must say so far this discussion thread has pushed me more towards the pro-island side. I am intruiged by the idea of a peninsula though. Perhaps it's the best of both worlds Oh yes, I want a waste hole right next to the cutting area. and dragons in the North!

Indeed, cool idea! Also quite helpful it sounds. This is an interesting point, although I'm not certain where I specifically stand. While cooking, certainly, straight in front of the hob. But while using the sink... it depends on what I'm doing but sometimes the sink is a place to dump veg waste but I'm standing more next to it than in front.. I think I get the idea, but a picture/drawing would be helpful! I want stools with proper back support. Is this a thing? Yeah I thought about this quite a bit, the majority of times this would be something I could imagine being our default. And only once or twice per year does someone 'fancy' over, where you want to bring out the good napkins, so it might not be worth optimizing for. I am still debating a small 'lounge area' in the kitchen. it might be more comfortable having a bit of a round couch+table for relaxing at and keeping the chef company,

Very insightful, thank you. But the next question is: how do you find an architect or interior designer who knows these things inside and out! (and perhaps also- which of them are cheap to achieve, and which are hard/pricey?)

I suppose my thinking about this subject already has evolved somewhat. Clearly (?) the design around how you would use a place, in particular a kitchen, is super personal. Whether or not something has one of those hot water taps, an island, a steam oven all matter differently to different people.. so that's something I am already forming my own opinion on. For me, 'next level' means two things at this point: 1/ "clever design", so for example one could argue that a cupboard above a sink is bad design because you could hit your head or be uncomfortably close to the cupboard while working with the sink. Or a built-in organic waste bin next to the cutting area, the dishwasher right next to the plate/glass storage so you can unload in one move .. etc. Small touches you come to appreciate over time. 2/ Making it look impressive, without adding to functionality. We all have our pride to bear here, meaning in this case you're perhaps investing slightly in resale value, but most of these improvements purely influence your own sense of how stylish, beautiful your surrounding is. To say that this is zero-value seems short-sighted to me, but personally I'm not going to get enough value out of 'hand-important sand tiles from Iraq' or something. That said, if some improvements are cheap but effective I'd love to hear them! As an example there, if someone were to say "Your fancy image looks that good because the designer used brown tinted glass for the ceiling lights" my ears would perk up, because that sounds achievable without breaking the bank. (obviously a made up example, but indeed perhaps such tips do exist)

Interesting, so perhaps a rule of thumb to derive here is to have two types of material as 'decoration'?