Many suppliers will put dry clean only on their curtains (including the custom made ones) to protect themselves from people mishandling the fabrics and if there's a block out backing on the curtain then this might not be washable. Linen will shrink if you put it into a hot washer or dryer but as Julia has indicated linen is a beautiful fabric to use if you do the right thing by it - if your wanting linen for the block out use a fabric backing rather than a linen that has a coating and make sure that the block out fabric can be separated from your linen fabric (curtain makers will hate it as it's a nightmare double handling, but if you're going to spend a lot of money on linen and for them to be made, it's not unreasonable to request this.

I used to have tiled floors at the old place ..the whole downstairs was tiled ( lounge, study, living room , kitchen, laundry) terracotta ones..not cold at all contrary to what people think .. the kids loved riding their trikes around the house as it was massive open living space 36 squares in all. we had a wool rug where the living area was so kids can lounge around.. I find tiles are easier to maintain than floor boards.A quick vacuum and mop is all it needed and it hid the dirt well..whereas floor boards collects dust and hair etc.. Timber floorboards are nice to look at..the floating /laminate looks cheap and nasty I'd rather tiles instead.

love the idea of rammed earth but would use it like reverse brick veneer clad with insulated steel siding

Tiles will need a very stable base to avoid cracking if the house subtly moves. We’ve had a couple of very solid floor tiles break after minor impacts in our pre 1947 Qld home. Laid in the bathroom, to code, but still fine cracks in a couple of places. All doable on timber floor, but not as straight forward as laying on a concrete slab. (I love cork for all these reasons and it doesn’t have to be scarey orange anymore. Very flexible and durable but I know I’m firmly in the minority with that one!)