A narrow hallway. They say hallways are wasted space but moving furniture is impossible (has to be taken apart) and carrying a washing basket on your hip is also difficult. The walls get knocked and rubbed all the time. An extra 20 - 30cm would not have broken the budget and would have made the world of difference.

The location of power points. I just accepted that the builder's recommended location for the power points on the electrical plan would make sense, but some of them really don't.

It's the ones in the bedrooms which I didn't give much consideration and now we have an antenna point and power point off-centre and high-up on the wall in the main bedroom which is proving difficult to cover with any kind of painting. The power points in the other bedrooms also don't make much sense when you consider the location of bedside tables (with lamps, charging stations, clocks, etc) or study desks. Oh well, live and learn!

I have a great no brilliant bathroom with a huge spa bath that looks over a fernery through a large double glazed window. Retrospectively i should have put in a bi fold window to open up into the private garden a

rea and give that real indoor out door feel.

Be realistic with your renovation budget. Sometimes its easier to cut your losses and start from scratch. If you find yourself the owner of an old homestead that desperately needs hundreds of thousands spent on it, make sure that you use your head and not your heart when deciding to flatten it or renovate. We made the wrong decision and now twenty years down the track find ourselves in a house that is nothing special that we will never be able to afford to fix up properly. So extend your budget thinking to include the entire life of the home. These higher ongoing maintenance costs might just make you realize that a renovating an older home can be a long term financial drain.

Yes power points are a major problem, we put 2 in each room but seems is lost due to bed being in front, ok for your lamps but useless for anything else. We did make sure they were doubles, but no good if you cannot get to them. You cannot move a waterbed whenever you feel like it. you seem to forget to think ahead.

Almost 25 years after building our first home- lots of design regrets or I wish we would have's, but we have a roof over our head :) . Deep useless corner cupboards. Glass sliding door in the laundry. Not putting in a second toilet & powder room. White tiles with white grout in wet areas...never looks clean. Heritage green wall tiles..ug. Having all 3 bedrooms next to each other (while it was fine before kids, then fine when kids were young, it sucks now)

Listening to the men involved in the renovation, that is, my husband and the cabinet maker and not following my own instincts! I wanted a little wider than normal bench tops [we had the room for them] to allow more space behind the tap ware so it would be easier to clean. Not only does it always seem to collect splashes of water which if not wiped soon enough turns to mould but I am constantly bumping my hands when trying to reach behind them to clean. There were also other ideas that they talked me out of which I SO wish I would have done what I wanted [so I now don't have a pantry and have the ugliest sink in the world - NEVER AGAIN!!

Biggest design regret - being conned by my wife and daughters to put in a pool. But I got back at her by putting in a dual use toilet - ensuite and powder room - the bane of her life.

Clients greatest design regret - not putting in the suggested lift in a three storey river front home.

wall lights can't move them and also listened to builder and got ours up high instead of next to bedside so every time I need to turn them off have to be in half sitting position to reach the button ..annoying too when hubby wants to stay up late as he'll have his light on and I can't sleep

hehehehe I feel your pain Sina..ours back on to our daughter's a 19 years old..despite telling our builder to make sure it's well insulated we can still hear music thumping at night or her chatting on her phone which means she can hear what we are up to too lol

should have popped her BIR on the adjoining wall instead of on wall backing on to laundry was worried about noise of laundry might have to con hubby into building me a fake wall so to insulate the noise a bit more..

I wouldn't call this a major regret but I didn't really think about the m/bedroom dimensions carefully enough, and as a result, when we moved in, we found that the dresser was going to be way too close to the end of the bed for comfort. The dresser now lives in another room, sans mirror, and its place has been taken by a much shallower bookcase, plus mirror. It's not a big deal but, if I'd thought about it, I could have had the builder slice 20 cm off the ensuite and everything would have fitted.

My biggest regret while planning my house was to let the builder convince me into having a twenty foot ceiling for the kitchen! Every visitor is impressed upon entering this space. It looks fantastic and airy and bright, but come Winter, nearly 6 months long, it is so expensive to heat! I did get my way with the widened corridor and that has been the best decision ever!

Marie G I feel your pain! I have come to the conclusion that when someone offers you advice while renovating, think about who they are and their situation. In hindsight I realise I should never have listened to my builder (my brother), father of two boys; the cabinet maker, father of three tiny ones; decorator, father of one boy, when they said I could cut out two cabinet mirrors with shelves behind in the bathroom. 12 years later and three adult/teenage daughters and a son and there is no room for toiletries, makeup etc.

The garden designer used small white stones as drainage all around the pavers throughout the property. He used them in his home and said all you have to do it walk around every so often and pick up a few leaves that gather in them. I should have thought about the fact that he was a 'retired' garden designer. 12 years later they are clogged full of leaves and debris and I cannot keep up with clearing them. They look awful.

I did get my own way though when I insisted on a built in cabinet in the toilet room. Builder, cabinetmaker and designer said it was a waste of money how much toilet paper will we need to store. They all shut up when I explained four women in a house need lots of storage for their sanitary items beside the toilet. Red faced and shifting uncomfortably they ticked the item and we kept moving.

Isn't it funny how all the disasters are due to a 3-letter word - M.E.N!!

Cathybowden - you cracked me up. When we extended many years ago for an extra bedroom/ensuite I left my male at home with the builders and came home just in time to find them installing the large mirror/wall cabinets over the vanity. They were very proud of themselves, they felt they had it at just the right height ................. for their 6ft plus frames. I was lucky to see the top of my head. They couldn't understand why I couldn't see in the mirror when they could look in the mirror and see me. I had to pull them down to my height before they understood. DUH!!!!

I regret not removing the bath from our bathroom when we were renovating, it's just a dust gatherer with wind blowing in from the window above it (southwest side so gets lots of strong winds). We have used the bath maybe twice in 10 years, showers are more water efficient and faster. We live in SE Queensland so water is used wisely. A bath is just a waste of room, I was convinced to keep it for re-sale value, but I wonder how many people actually use their baths all that often.

Hi Anna I agree with you and as you get older you don't want to be bothered bending over and stretching to clean something you don't use. However, I know of a lot of woman who can not survive without a bath! Also baths, sadly, are good for resale. For me personally showers are faster, plus I do the "less than 4 minute shower", I wet myself, turn the flickmaster tap off, lather myself, turn on and rinse of and so on until clean. I personally do not enjoy lying in my own dirty or soapy water, but each to their own!

Buying a house on a dirt road ........

As we continue to work on our new house plans it is interesting to take all this in. I am hoping I don't regret not putting in a bath in the master ensuite to create a relaxing oasis and just put one in the kids bathroom only!?

relly72..depends on if you like to take baths..as long as there's one bath in the house that's plenty..our apartment don't have any..our holiday house has one as my youngest likes her bubble bath so I had a bath/shower combination to save space..I splitted one bathroom and WC into two bathrooms..

I think one bath per house is enough for average families. If you have the space and the money for a massive resort style spa, different story, but if adults want a bath they can still take one after the kids have gone to bed. People are living busier and busier lives now so who really has time to languish in a bath on a regular basis.

I like my walk ins ..cleaning is a breeze..wet the surfaces with a hand shower..bleach it with one of those scrubbing thingy and then another spray with the hand shower and it's all done..with the glass I use dishwashing detergent and whola cleaning the shower is not a chore anymore

Thank you, two seems excessive!

There's not enough space in the bedrooms.

Not knowing what I know now.

Hi rellie72, funny the only room we had for a bath in our home was in our main bedroom, which is the only room upstairs, apart from a small private study space. We have a chalet style home with loft style sloping ceilings, managed to fit in a 1/2 bath in it's own room upstairs and a free standing bath in the bedroom itself as no standing room up there to put in a shower! We have another bathroom downstairs with no room for a bath but has a shower! We thought for resale we had better put in a bath somewhere in the home and it makes our bedroom look like a boudoir also we hope this also appeals for resale, not that I am looking to go anywhere!

We have just built a house and put a lot of thought into it - thankfully many of the issues mentioned above we thought of - we got the hallways wider than standard, added power points and lights to the electricians plan etc. My biggest regret is not tiling the bathrooms at least halfway up the walls - we just have tiles on the floor and round the bath, and painted walls because we had a budget to keep within. But I have 4 sons and it really would have made the cleaning a lot easier with tiles on the walls!! If I could turn back time I would definitely do that even if it meant having to leave something else out to keep within our budget (like a few less power points!!)

robandlyn - doesn't semi-gloss paint on the walls help? I've found that just as easy to wipe down as tiles.

Thanks olldroo, I will look into that! It doesn't look like it is a semi-gloss on our walls.

It definitely shows marks where I've wiped, which is a pain!

Hi, If I had my time again to redesign our upstairs extension it would be without a balcony. We recently had to replace the balcony which is spectacular to look at as it is quite big however it was poorly built and waterproofed originally/ As a result the timber substrate has rotted through and leaked to downstairs. For the extra expense of having it built we did do not use it enough, on top of which it is an expensive exercise to replace.

I think we all regret it when a "Professional" changes our mind and we go with it as they should know better. I did this in my own home when I wanted to install and wardrobe wall to wall in my daughters room with lots of storage and he talked into a smaller robe on the wall as I entered the room. The result was much less storage, a side panel on view on entering the room and the existing down lights looked out of place. The lesson, if you have thought it out, and have all your reasons for the way to do it, stick with it!

My biggest design regret is make conflicting materials or designs work way beyond the point of realizing the results are heinous!

I would have to say my laundry. Like laundry ins't already painful. The sink is in the corner of the room and leads into my bathroom which is impossible not to have water all over the floor.

Not enough power points in the original part of the house...renovation added a lot more in new areas but due to exposed ceilings & access issues + costs some rooms have just 1 double power point...not enough these days ;(

Oh dear that reminds me of my first kitchen with lime green cupboards...eeeuuuwww! Thankfully they are long gone when the house sold!

Aaaaghhh - I just renovated my kitchen with yellow cupboards and I love them - it makes the room so happy.

I love my gold cupboards brighten up the room beautifully lol everyone was like what ? lol Elusive gold Dulux what a beautiful colour ..

Dare to be different - it is amazing how it broadens others' horizons.

I hate my front door. it's yellow and i think it has dated. i even cringe when i see other people's yellow front doors now.

Time to cure the cringe 45 Homes with a can of paint or a new front door :))

I have two - should have made the door way to the back garden bigger, just fits the wheel barrow through. And should have spent the money and removed a half way dividing the dining/family area - now the floors are tiled and the tiles are obsolete

I built a concrete patio and made it a bit narrower to accommodate a lovely shrub. Then the shrub promptly died! And we always thought - this patio is just a bit too narrow. Now I just move any plants that are in the way of building works.

Our apartment is perfect for my partner and I as we love monochrome, soft colours and grey! The owners before us loved the red and black combo so added a HUGE red glass panel stuck onto the black caesarstone splashback as a feature. They did something similar in the bathroom over marble (gasp!) and in the study they replaced the inbuilt black wooden desk with red wood laminate.

As it is super expensive to replace marble and caeserstone it is something we can't do right now and have to live with it. I tend to block it out of my mind... It's horrid.