What would you have now if you rebuilt?

[Noggins]

I'd be making quite a list
1. Facing east west to get the best aspect of the sun ( if not then similar to the chap in Frankston that can rotate his whole house to get the right aspect )
2. Never connecting to the Power and Utilities, so a little remote would be ok, Internet / phone would be satellite
3. building double insulated ceiling and walls.
4. Slab floor with under floor heating.
5. Using solar tiles so WHOLE roof is a collector ( like I saw in an American Mag some time back )
6. Underground water tanks with air venting to the house, for cooling in the summer ( if needed that is )
7. Large workshop / play area for the van and cars.
8. Next to a river with docking facilities, but high enough to be above the 100 yr flood line.

This is just a few I can think of , but of course I''d need to be a young Lotto Winner to do it all

Ron

[Greynomad]

Got it right the first time...but we did have the vertue ['virtue' Bernie ] of living in three homes and took all the good stuff...s'pose that's cheating ?
Bernie .

Definitely NOT cheating, Bernie! That's SMART!!
We did the same when we built our final home in Melb. Took all the things that worked from our previous rentals & purchased homes, then added them to a solar-efficient layout. Made 110 changes to a stock Metricon plan to get there... added ducted vacuum system, insulated all walls — internal & external as well as ceiling, made garage 2 1/2-car size (should have made it 3 — had room) moved windows, enlarged some, eliminated west-facing ones, widened kitchen, shifted doors, made others concealed sliding, enlarged kids bedrooms, redid en-suite layout, etc. (After us, Metricon introduced a 50-item limit to changes! )
Sad to leave it, but layout in Rutherglen is similar, just doesn't have some of the niceties we added.
However, it does have the east-west orientation of the Melb house... solar-efficiency almost as good as previous house. And we now have 1.25 acres... Melb was 0.33 acre.

[T1 Terry]

(1) Disability bathroom and wheel chair access throughout the house including big doorways and at least one entrance with wheel chair access.
(2) Tile Roof with the house built strong enough to carry it, that is most of the reason houses these days have tin roofs, not the cost of the tiles.
(3) Good venting in the roof to get rid of the heat in summer and vents in the ceiling of every roof that can be closed for winter or partly closed so each room still clears the stale air trapped near the ceiling
(4) Most definitely solar and batteries and not connected to the grid, pay for itself in no time with the savings from not having to pay to get the wires to the house and never paying any network fees or electricity costs. By the way, the Tesla units don't have that ability, they are grid connect only
(5) Reverse cycle air con in each room but not ducted but rather the ceiling cassette units.
(6) An integrated air con and hot water storage heat pump system with electric back up powered via solar, easier than solar hot water and more versatile.
Big verandah all the way around to keep the sun off the windows and walls and provide an outside relaxation area no matter what the season.
(7) If you want under floor heating then you can only have concrete slab construction and that is very hard on the knees and ankles so a suspended timber floor over the concrete slab would be required and that sort of negates the heating side of it, unless someone has come up with underfloor heating for a timber floored house. Then I'd go with under floor climate control, so it can be cooled as well.
(8) Some where with a great view and lots of windows, the big verandah should save the need for double glazing.
(9) Induction cook top with gas back up outside under the back verandah via a big BBQ and that can double as the oven
(10) All cooking areas with range hoods vented directly out through the roof, not into the roof cavity, same for the bathroom and toilet
(11) A full size ensuite in the master bedroom and a walk in wardrobe, a normal ensuite the main guest room
(12) Water tanks, Galvo and painted inside. Forget about concrete or plastic, the water taste is definitely an acquired taste

As you can see, it is highly unlikely I'll ever be building again

[Greynomad]

great list, T1!
We have #8, 9, 10 & 11... planning #1... when super funds allow.

[Dot]

The lady that built at the back of us has a 5?k solar unitI asked her about her power bills and she hasn't had one, even though the buy back is only 12c she is way in front? Terry with the underfloor heating you can put carpet over it. our house had both carpet and tiles, lovely and cosy, but if the houses are built with all the right materials etc there really should not be any need for such heating and cooling???

[wayneP]

Obviously, a lot of the above would be part of the rebuild but I would like to step out of the motorhome straight into the house ie just like a plane parking at the gateway at the airport. Why have something very usable rustine away or hidden in a big shed when it can be utilized.

[jon_d]

(2) Tile Roof with the house built strong enough to carry it, that is most of the reason houses these days have tin roofs, not the cost of the tiles.

Nah, Tin is just weather proof. No chattering as the wind gets under and lifts. No replacing capping.

[Dot]

Def Tin, we have had out tiled roof re coloured x 2 due to colour leeching?? Then re capping/points so in the end we had it totally re done with that plastic sun coating and a different colour,too much trouble those heavy tiles.

[jon_d]

These days, what ever you build/do, it has to be energy efficient and avoid depenedcy on power/energy companies.

If you were going down the slab heating path, it burns electricity. made worse by sitting heat sink (the ground). The slab really needs to be fully insulated from the ground,


Of all the heating/cooling solutions, unless you have a good free wood supply, I'm starting to think solar/battery powers split AC systems are the best way to go.

[Dot]

These days, what ever you build/do, it has to be energy efficient and avoid depenedcy on power/energy companies.

If you were going down the slab heating path, it burns electricity. made worse by sitting heat sink (the ground). The slab really needs to be fully insulated from the ground,


Of all the heating/cooling solutions, unless you have a good free wood supply, I'm starting to think solar/battery powers split AC systems are the best way to go.

Wood supply $390 . Cheaper to push a button. I think the builders put some sort of barrier between the ground and slab ? something that looked like foam.. Need some smart person to develop the perfect house without it costing a bomb, must be able to be done...