I'm opening this up as a general thread for asking about ANYTHING used in construction be it items or what, however I'm starting it with my own question.

From what I can tell for building the best idea seems to be to start with wood or stone and then move onto brick; well does the type of brick matter? From what I can tell it seems to be just visual. I myself would prefer a nice stone brick, but are red bricks stronger, what about glass bricks, sand etc etc etc?

nope, the type of brick doesn't really matter anymore outside of aesthetic. Before 1.2 people used to use Dungeon Brick to line their bases and other structures because it was bomb/explosive proof which came in handy in hardmode since the game would spawn a mob during hardmode blood moons called "clowns" which would toss bombs at you and would blow your bases up but post 1.2 that was nerfed so now those bombs won't affect player placed blocks.

Also stone was useful as it was one of the few blocks that could be combined with wires to create active blocks which could be used to make hidden passages and traps such as dissapearing bridges over pits of spikes or lava which made for useful home defense. But again post 1.2 more blocks became wireable.

All blocks can have wire running through them but it seems only stone blocks can be made into "active blocks"
http://terraria.gamepedia.com/Active_Stone_Block

I could of sworn that Red said he was adding more types of active/inactive blocks in 1.2 and beyond.

Oh a fun thing you can do is hook up wires to a statue and a trigger/activator(i.e.: pressure plate, switch, timer) , most statues have some kind of a effect such as spawning a creature or other kind of effect. The statues that spawn creatures/mobs can be used in farms such as soul farms in hardmode(just build a farm trap with a spawner in the underground hallow or underground corruption/crimson to farm souls of light/souls of night)
A example of a simple farm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dGrTRZsc3o


Here is a intresting simple trap desgined for easy grinding of a hardmode event called the Pumkin moon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIzBPXfVNJk

Every brick type can be activated/deactivated, but you need to place an Actuator on it before it will toggle. Actuators are bought from the Mechanic (10 silver each) and are placed directly on top of the block they should work on without using tools.

After placing an Actuator you will need to connect it with wires and some way of turning the mechanism on and off (like a switch, lever, pressure plate or timer).

Oh that's how you do it. I thought it would work like it does with stone blocks and you just craft them with wire and block

Use whatever you like to build your houses, except corrupt or crimson blocks. Using enough of those will have a very nasty side effect, which i won't spoil here ;)