new house - what tips can you give?

random10

So have just bought a house, just bare walls, no kitchen, flooring, furnishings anything. Can you give any tips or things you'd definitely do/not do?

Have you a if I knew then what I know now story?

Friends have told me they have white tiles in their kitchen and now have kids and a dog so it's horrendous ... that kind of thing

Hoping to get some pearls of wisdom.

HeidiHeidi

Get twirly inserts (I'm sure there's a proper name for them) in your kitchen corner cupboards.

Make sure you leave some wall room for shelving in your bathroom.

Presume sockets are already there? If not, think of how many you might need and then double that figure. Triple it in the kitchen.

random10

what do twirly inserts do? sorry for my ignorance, yeah sockets are already there.

HeidiHeidi

random10 wrote: »

what do twirly inserts do? sorry for my ignorance, yeah sockets are already there.

Carousel shelves, maybe? Means you can pull out and swivel the shelves in your corner cupboards, so that the stuff at the back doesn't remain at the back until you move out or die!

random10

ah yeah that makes sense now!! good tips thanks

ger vallely

If you are putting a fan or extractor over your cooker-check head height first. The amount of times I have poked myself in the forehead with the very corner of our extractor,it gets so annoying!Personally I wouldn't recommend the twirly corner press inserts. Small bits and pieces can fall down the back and/or sides and be very irritating to retrieve.Plus,try not to get it all done at once. When you have a few essentials,try living in the space for a while,get a feel for it and then make your major decisions,if possible.

random10

Do you know what so many people have said that to me, they rushed and bought everything and then got fed up/decided they didnt like the stuff after a short while, won't be a problem for us we have very little money, so if we have a kitchen and floors that'll be it we'll be moving in

HeidiHeidi

ger vallely wrote: »

If you are putting a fan or extractor over your cooker-check head height first. The amount of times I have poked myself in the forehead with the very corner of our extractor,it gets so annoying!Personally I wouldn't recommend the twirly corner press inserts. Small bits and pieces can fall down the back and/or sides and be very irritating to retrieve.Plus,try not to get it all done at once. When you have a few essentials,try living in the space for a while,get a feel for it and then make your major decisions,if possible.

Absolutely agree with this!

Woodville56

random10 wrote: »

So have just bought a house, just bare walls, no kitchen, flooring, furnishings anything. Can you give any tips or things you'd definitely do/not do?

Thanks for this thread random 10 ! In the same boat ourselves , feeling a bit daunted at the prospect of starting from scratch and having to source good craftsman to do our flooring , kitchen , painting etc is just hard wrecking ! Nit to mention choosing tiles, flooring , kitchen, colour schemes etc .....where to begin !!
Friends tell us it's a great opportunity to put our own mark on the house but sometimes I've been wishing we had bought a ready to move into house !
Will follow your progress here, postings etc ! Good luck with the project !!

random10

Same to you, I'm afraid I have no taste/bad taste and the house will look horrendous!! So many decisions and I am probably the most indecisive person I know.

Woodville56

random10 wrote: »

Same to you, I'm afraid I have no taste/bad taste and the house will look horrendous!! So many decisions and I am probably the most indecisive person I know.

Same here , have been buying loads interior design mags , still clear as mud !!!

SarahLil

Random10 and Woodville56 I am in the same boat as yourselves I haven't my keys yet but any day now, would love to hear about how your progress is going, good luck folks,

CarrickMcJoe

Don't put a black granite worktop on your kitchen, they show up every mark and stain.

HeidiHeidi

CarrickMcJoe wrote: »

Don't put a black granite worktop on your kitchen, they show up every mark and stain.

I disagree - I have one and I love it

It's a divil for smashing glasses on though, that's my main problem with it!

berrecka

Don't put mosaic style tiles in your bathroom, around your shower. Or if you have to, don't use white grouting. It was the bane of my life in my old flat - out with the old toothbrush every other evening and it still always looked shabby! If you're tiling the walls of your bathroom, go with something like a subway tile with grey/black grouting - so much easier to keep clean.

CarrickMcJoe

HeidiHeidi wrote: »

I disagree - I have one and I love it

It's a divil for smashing glasses on though, that's my main problem with it!

Drink wine from the bottle......Problem solved

soundgarden

I am also near the end of build & have to start shopping for everything!!! I was looking a window blinds at weekend I was looking at blinds for some windows & curtains for others but someone said to me would really need either blinds or curtains not mixed for the front of house so it looks in uniform. also have large kitchen/dining & sitting room open plan so have to figure what I need up put on kitchen floor & think wooden floors for the rest of open plan rooms.

Has one advise for electrical appliance's as we have 3 children will buy more expensive washing machine but I don't think it matters for dryer as I don't use it much, any advise on brands for dish washer.

We have a black leather sofa at the moment but I really want different colour for new build & have on long open space to one side of the open plan sitting room so thinking of a large corner sofa I really would like a nice material one but with 3 children under 8 might have to wait until they older & get a leather one. I haven't even got around to bathroom yet & trying to do all of this on a really really tight budget so any advise would be more than welcome.