ᐅ What features did you include in your house, and what did you decide to leave out?
Created on: 30 Jan 2015 14:18
W
willWohnen
Hello,
When planning and building a house, you focus on the essentials and the budget. Some wishes get dropped along the way. But certain small luxuries or nice features are important to you, even if they are not strictly necessary, and you end up including them anyway.
For us, a heated conservatory was an unattainable dream. However, we treated ourselves to tiled, walk-in showers, even though they take up more space.
I would love to hear what you have given up and what you managed to include.
Best regards
When planning and building a house, you focus on the essentials and the budget. Some wishes get dropped along the way. But certain small luxuries or nice features are important to you, even if they are not strictly necessary, and you end up including them anyway.
For us, a heated conservatory was an unattainable dream. However, we treated ourselves to tiled, walk-in showers, even though they take up more space.
I would love to hear what you have given up and what you managed to include.
Best regards
nelly190 schrieb:
My girlfriend loves this as well; she just uses the handheld showerhead for those tasks. Otherwise, there are huge differences between showers. Ours really produces raindrops instead of a water jet. I always know those from hotels.Hmm... whether it’s a rain shower or water droplets – they come from above, which I don’t always want.
I also have to say, it wasn’t easy to adjust the controls with soapy fingers.
Maybe it’s easier and more common to set those in a private home? (in terms of limescale buildup)
Does your girlfriend have short or long hair? Or rather, does she always wash it while showering, or does she sometimes prefer to keep it dry?
Hello,
after living in our house for almost two years now, I thought I’d share which “extras” have proven useful for us.
Overall, we bought very few additions beyond the standard because the standard package met almost all our needs, and we didn’t have very high expectations. Everything was a thousand times better for us than our old house (a small, uninsulated wooden shack without proper heating).
Here’s what we treated ourselves to and are still very happy with:
- Air-to-water heat pump with controlled ventilation system:
Very comfortable, as we only have to compare electricity providers, not gas prices, and we also saved the costs for a gas connection. The energy consumption since the second heating season, when we could reduce the output, has been satisfactory. The controlled ventilation is great—there’s always fresh air in the house, no more flies or mosquitoes caused by long airing, and in winter, with subzero temperatures, no freezing of the house.
- Rain shower:
We were able to test this at my parents’ before and were so impressed that we decided to invest in this despite the extra cost. Our rain shower head also has a small handheld shower, which I use when I don’t want to wash my hair. This is very important for me because my long, thick hair can’t be washed daily for time reasons. Also, the handheld shower is practical when shaving legs, as it would be quite inconvenient to rinse the razor under the rain shower head.
- Built-in bathroom radio:
For me, this is the best invention ever! We always turn on the radio first thing when we enter the bathroom, so we can listen to news and music while getting ready. Of course, a conventional radio would serve the same purpose, but in the old bathroom the dangling cables annoyed us, and the station was always accidentally changing when touching it. We opted for the basic built-in radio without fancy features like Bluetooth or internet because we really only listen to traditional radio.
- Wood-look tiles throughout the entire ground floor:
We wanted a uniform floor throughout the whole ground floor to avoid visible transitions between materials. According to the building contract, tiles were only planned for the kitchen, utility room, guest toilet, and hallway, so we paid extra for the living room to have a consistent floor. We’re still very happy with the wood-look tiles after two years—they are very low-maintenance and durable, and all our guests are always surprised to learn that they’re actually tiles.
- Roller shutters:
We absolutely wanted these and are very glad and happy with them. In our old house, we didn’t have roller shutters, but both my husband and I are used to sleeping in total darkness from childhood homes with them. In the old house, we slept poorly because the bedroom was always somewhat bright despite blinds. Now we can finally fully darken the bedroom again, and the shutters are also great for sun protection—they are used almost daily in summer.
Otherwise, we didn’t choose any “major” extras, just small things like a few additional electrical outlets, better security standards for the windows, etc.
One thing I wish we had included but unfortunately didn’t think of in time is an underground rainwater tank for garden irrigation. It’s a real pity because I could easily use the rainwater and the carport runoff for my garden, but now tearing up the paving, terrace, and so on to install pipes and the tank would be too much effort.
Another thing that annoys me quite a bit is that, on the advice of our builder, we decided against an exhaust hood because it’s apparently more complicated to install in an energy-efficient house built to KfW standards. After two years, we’re now considering having a core drilling done to retrofit one because the recirculation hood is simply not effective, and the wallpaper above the upper cabinet where the greasy air is blown out is already discolored.
No, otherwise I can’t think of anything significant I would do differently in hindsight. We are still very satisfied with our house and very grateful that we now have such comfort, don’t have to freeze in winter, and no longer have a dirty stove inside.
after living in our house for almost two years now, I thought I’d share which “extras” have proven useful for us.
Overall, we bought very few additions beyond the standard because the standard package met almost all our needs, and we didn’t have very high expectations. Everything was a thousand times better for us than our old house (a small, uninsulated wooden shack without proper heating).
Here’s what we treated ourselves to and are still very happy with:
- Air-to-water heat pump with controlled ventilation system:
Very comfortable, as we only have to compare electricity providers, not gas prices, and we also saved the costs for a gas connection. The energy consumption since the second heating season, when we could reduce the output, has been satisfactory. The controlled ventilation is great—there’s always fresh air in the house, no more flies or mosquitoes caused by long airing, and in winter, with subzero temperatures, no freezing of the house.
- Rain shower:
We were able to test this at my parents’ before and were so impressed that we decided to invest in this despite the extra cost. Our rain shower head also has a small handheld shower, which I use when I don’t want to wash my hair. This is very important for me because my long, thick hair can’t be washed daily for time reasons. Also, the handheld shower is practical when shaving legs, as it would be quite inconvenient to rinse the razor under the rain shower head.
- Built-in bathroom radio:
For me, this is the best invention ever! We always turn on the radio first thing when we enter the bathroom, so we can listen to news and music while getting ready. Of course, a conventional radio would serve the same purpose, but in the old bathroom the dangling cables annoyed us, and the station was always accidentally changing when touching it. We opted for the basic built-in radio without fancy features like Bluetooth or internet because we really only listen to traditional radio.
- Wood-look tiles throughout the entire ground floor:
We wanted a uniform floor throughout the whole ground floor to avoid visible transitions between materials. According to the building contract, tiles were only planned for the kitchen, utility room, guest toilet, and hallway, so we paid extra for the living room to have a consistent floor. We’re still very happy with the wood-look tiles after two years—they are very low-maintenance and durable, and all our guests are always surprised to learn that they’re actually tiles.
- Roller shutters:
We absolutely wanted these and are very glad and happy with them. In our old house, we didn’t have roller shutters, but both my husband and I are used to sleeping in total darkness from childhood homes with them. In the old house, we slept poorly because the bedroom was always somewhat bright despite blinds. Now we can finally fully darken the bedroom again, and the shutters are also great for sun protection—they are used almost daily in summer.
Otherwise, we didn’t choose any “major” extras, just small things like a few additional electrical outlets, better security standards for the windows, etc.
One thing I wish we had included but unfortunately didn’t think of in time is an underground rainwater tank for garden irrigation. It’s a real pity because I could easily use the rainwater and the carport runoff for my garden, but now tearing up the paving, terrace, and so on to install pipes and the tank would be too much effort.
Another thing that annoys me quite a bit is that, on the advice of our builder, we decided against an exhaust hood because it’s apparently more complicated to install in an energy-efficient house built to KfW standards. After two years, we’re now considering having a core drilling done to retrofit one because the recirculation hood is simply not effective, and the wallpaper above the upper cabinet where the greasy air is blown out is already discolored.
No, otherwise I can’t think of anything significant I would do differently in hindsight. We are still very satisfied with our house and very grateful that we now have such comfort, don’t have to freeze in winter, and no longer have a dirty stove inside.
Great feedback here
What device do you have there?
There are recirculation hoods in the higher price range that actually deliver on their promises. But such a hood quickly costs around 2000€ (approximately $2,200).
Teyla schrieb:
because the recirculation hood is just rubbish and the wallpaper above the wall cabinet, where the greasy air is blown out again, is already discolored....
What device do you have there?
There are recirculation hoods in the higher price range that actually deliver on their promises. But such a hood quickly costs around 2000€ (approximately $2,200).
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