Your dream house

[Onkel Neal]

Ok, so I'm sure you're like me and through the years you formulated a "dream house", one that you honestly think some day you will end up with. I know I still do :yawn:

So, actually I have several dream houses, depending on the time of year and my mood.

First is a cottage in the mountains of Colorado, or maybe Wyoming. Nicely wooded acres, with a lake downhill about 100 yards away. My cottage would be study and rustic, and inside very warm, plush with lots of heavy paneling. The ground floor would be split into the kitchen and living room, wrapped around the big stone fireplace. An open staircase would lead to my bedroom and study. It would snow me in 4 months of the year, so I would not have to go anywhere until spring. Isolation! :rock:

My other dream house is a lighthouse constructed of dressed stone. Yeah, the lighthouse would have circular living quarters split into 5 levels, each level smaller in diameter until the top, the lantern room.

Lantern room with balcony (accessed from below by ladder)
5th level: Sleep chamber & bathroom (accessed from below by ladder)
4th level: Study (accessed from below by circular staircase)
3rd level: kitchen (accessed from below by winding staircase)
2nd level: Living area (accessed from below by staircase)
Ground level: Storage and pantries

Naturally, this has to be on a seafront property, ideally on the US east coast or Scotland in a lightly populated area, with lots of rocky cliffs and cold, pounding surf.

[Task Force]

mine... (not in any order.)

1 an yacht/boat... would have everything I want... living room, kitchin, nice bed rooms, and a nice bathroom.

2 would be a victorian cottage somewhere in rural germany... dont know, just sounds nice.

3 House that looks like a lighthouse, complete with a dock to store boats, jetskis, ect similar to neals design...

4 A house in the moutians, around 3 stories with a lookout nest thingy out at the top... perferable by a lake, w/ waterfall/stream.

Didnt go into much detail, but those are the settings id like.

[Happy Times]

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/179/38070399.jpg

A traditional 18th-19th century Ostrobothinian house and surrounding buildings. Many are still available and can be moved and restored if need be.

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/5396/47303932.jpg

A modern American styled house that fits nicely to the Finnish countryside also.

These are my favorites at the moment, im hoping to be living in one within five years time. :salute:

[Hitman]

My dream's house would be to recover the palace that my family had here until they sold it. It is a beautiful building of the 19th century with lots of artwork inside (Paintings in the roof and such), but now it has been converted into an official building :nope:

[Rilder]

As long as its a place with someone I love (My gf of course) Its paradise. ;)

[Jimbuna]

I'd like something in the countryside but not too far away from the towns and cities......plenty of rooms including a hobby area and a study, in its own grounds and preferably with a lake or a river.

http://www.intangibility.com/Photography/Travel/Ireland99/Day3/248_dreamhouse.jpg

Now for those moments when you don't want to be disturbed...

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs26/f/2008/069/8/9/Dream_House_by_oilcorner.jpg

[breadcatcher101]

Holy cow, our dreamhouse would be one with more than one closet. My poor wife has to contend with a 3 bedroom house made in 1949 when closets were not all that common.

One of the rooms is for my HO train layout but we use the other two, and it is a trip trying to stow everything away and have to take everything else out to find something.

Oh, and a two car garage would be nice, too.

We joke that if we win the lottery all we would need would be a couple of closets.

[Torvald Von Mansee]

Well, this: http://www.ussubmarines.com/submarines/phoenix_1000.php3

Or something like it.

Ooooor: a really, really robust airship.

[Platapus]

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs26/f/2008/069/8/9/Dream_House_by_oilcorner.jpg

For those who wish to live a more balanced lifestyle I guess.

[August]

We're actually planning our dream house right now. It will be our retirement home and I plan to build it in 15 years (when I get to 65) on land that I already own up in Maine. No sense building it now and have to deal with a 15 year old roof, furnace, water heater etc and I figure the technology will improve significantly in the interval. As a result we're keeping our options open but some of the aspects Mrs. August and I believe are important would be:

1. Mobility. Although I love lofts and lookouts (and underground bunkers :D) we've decided to go with a one floor design. Stairs really suck when you're old and i'd hate to have areas of the house that I couldn't get to easily. Along that line of reasoning go wide doorways and hallways. Walkers and wheel chairs require room to operate and that will be accommodated in the floor plan. Basically we're designing it for the ages in which we'll be living in it.

2. Spare bedrooms. We have no kids of our own but we do have a host of friends and extended family who visit fairly often. When not housing guests we figure we can use the rooms for other functions, office, sewing room, library, etc.

3. A heated workshop. There is no end of repairs and projects around a household, especially out in the woods and I want a place to work on them in comfort.

4. Interior access to the garage/workshop. ATM I have to go outside to get to the garage. That sucks when there is snow on the ground and i'm in my "jammies" already.

5. An easy to plow driveway. Something that is a necessity up here in snow country. Front walkways, porch and back decks will be accessible to the snow blower so as to cut down or eliminate having to manually shovel them.

6. The latest in solar and wind power generation and heating systems. We're presently beyond the edge of the electric grid up there but even if it is extended out to us eventually I don't want to have to rely on it. I want to be as self sufficient as possible.

7. That includes a big garden and fruit trees (the latter are being planted already). I may even keep some livestock which will require their own barn and facilities.

[Catfish]

Hello Neal,
you wrote:

" ... First is a cottage in the mountains of Colorado, or maybe Wyoming. Nicely wooded acres, with a lake downhill about 100 yards away. My cottage would be study and rustic, and inside very warm, plush with lots of heavy paneling. The ground floor would be split into the kitchen and living room, wrapped around the big stone fireplace. An open staircase would lead to my bedroom and study. It would snow me in 4 months of the year, so I would not have to go anywhere until spring. Isolation! :rock: ..."

Apart from the mountains of Colorado, or Wyoming, and a missing lake (yet - we are at least planning a bigger pond) you just described our house very well :DL. Including the snow we have this year ;)
And a sturdy heating system, plus warm water prepared by tubes or a water jacket around the fireplace - hope to install this next year (2011).

Regarding airships, THIS would be MY dream house:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y174/penaeus/AbandonedAir-Harbour.jpg

Greetings,
Catfish

[Dowly]

Hmmm... :hmmm: I have to say I'm perfectly happy with my little apartment. :yep:

[Torvald Von Mansee]

How often do fortifications by the beach come up for sale? I always thought I'd like that. If money were no object, I'd just get a complex of bunkers on the coast in France/Belgium/The Netherlands, somewhere.

I once saw a show where someone had one of those watchtowers by the ocean (I think in Cape Cod) converted into a house. Like four different levels, and the observation deck at the top. No elevator.

[Castout]

A 100 million boat, she's bigger than you think...and the interior is just stunning![as seen on tv]
but would probably still too small compared to the bigger land property that's the only gripe but she's mobile . . .and you don't have to greet the neighbors too though there will be problems with reading newspaper so they will have to be digital.
http://stylecrave.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/annaliesse-yacht.jpg


A very expensive floating house . . .quite handy to escape the IRS straight into the Caribbean or even China...the Mediterranean Monaco, Italy or Spain...or Turkey and of course comes with a helipad. Just make sure to bring a lot of guns when passing the Somalian waters.

[Schöneboom]

The tropical island fantasy, only with modern conveniences:

http://www.goldcoasthawaii.com/listings_images/3047_KalakauaAve/original/pic06.jpg

I've walked by this place, actually. Just beyond that fence is the seawall path: instant access to the warm ocean! And Honolulu just far enough away for comfort. My only extra preference would be elevation: the high-rise flats down the street provide the same views, but with better privacy.

[Blacklight]

My dream house would look EXACTLY like the ship from Firefly with the same floor plan. I already know what rooms would be my computer room, music room, game room, etc... :DL

[Sailor Steve]

My dream house would look EXACTLY like the ship from Firefly with the same floor plan. I already know what rooms would be my computer room, music room, game room, etc... :DL
:yep:

My bedroom would be the bridge. Lots of room and a great view.

And a very big garage!

[Blacklight]

My bedroom would be the bridge. Lots of room and a great view.

And a very big garage!

That's what I'm SAYING !!! :DL

My other dream house would be my old high school. I fantasized about that all the time while I was schooling there. It's huge, with hundreds of cool rooms, a huge gymnasium, an indoor swimming pool, a huge atheletic field, a two floor library. and an auditorium with stadium seating and a stage !!! To this day I have the floorplan all planned out for what I would put in each room and use each room for. I imagine it would cost a mint to heat though.

[Ships-R-Us]

Ok, so I'm sure you're like me and through the years you formulated a "dream house", one that you honestly think some day you will end up with. I know I still do :yawn:

So, actually I have several dream houses, depending on the time of year and my mood.

First is a cottage in the mountains of Colorado, or maybe Wyoming. Nicely wooded acres, with a lake downhill about 100 yards away. My cottage would be study and rustic, and inside very warm, plush with lots of heavy paneling. The ground floor would be split into the kitchen and living room, wrapped around the big stone fireplace. An open staircase would lead to my bedroom and study. It would snow me in 4 months of the year, so I would not have to go anywhere until spring. Isolation! :rock:

My other dream house is a lighthouse constructed of dressed stone. Yeah, the lighthouse would have circular living quarters split into 5 levels, each level smaller in diameter until the top, the lantern room.

Lantern room with balcony (accessed from below by ladder)
5th level: Sleep chamber & bathroom (accessed from below by ladder)
4th level: Study (accessed from below by circular staircase)
3rd level: kitchen (accessed from below by winding staircase)
2nd level: Living area (accessed from below by staircase)
Ground level: Storage and pantries

Naturally, this has to be on a seafront property, ideally on the US east coast or Scotland in a lightly populated area, with lots of rocky cliffs and cold, pounding surf.

I simply would love to have a small log cabin just outside the village of Mogollon, NM up on the hill on the road to the cemetery, "but not at the cemetery", heated with a wood fired old fashioned kitchen cookstove,with no electricity and lit by kerosene lamps. Within would be an old fashioned overstuffed chair with books about American History none later than the mid 19th century. The fireplace would be ornate and built from local stone with a hand hewn mantle. This cabin would have only one room. It would have running water fed from the stream just above the property which is also used for automatic garden irrigation.
My transportation to town would be a "democrat" wagon pulled by a mule, and I would have a "buckboard" wagon for my utility vehicle. I would have no tv and only a battery operated radio as a warning system for impending doom only.

PS: The cemetery there houses nearly the whole town that succumbed to the worldwide influenza outbreak of 1918. Looking at the dates of all family members that died one by one each week, the mother usually being the last to die is an unforgettable experience.

[OneToughHerring]

Neal,

you live in Houston, man. Have you ever lived where you'd be isolated for 4 months of the year because of winter? Or where it regularly snows & gets very cold? If not then don't think of it as some kind of paradise before you try it. :)

I can dig your idea of a lighthouse-house, although I'd probably want to have my lighthouse in the warmer climates. Maybe in the Canary Islands or South China Sea or some nice warm place like that.

[Ishmael]

Well, this is where I live now. Rancho De Los Weehee in lovely Bathlehem, New Mexico in the Rio Grande Valley. 1 1/4 acres, 5 wells and full water rights, fertile bottom land, walls 2 1/2 feet thick and my front door has both a deer antler for a door handle and a rifle loop for fighting off hostiles. The Outlaw Josey Wales house much?

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/7601/img018qs7.jpg

Before that I actually lived in two places built, literally, On The Dock Of The Bay:

Down the Road To Paradise. Picture this view every time YOU came home:

http://img250.imageshack.us/img250/409/roadtoparadise002gd9.jpg

You wind up here:

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/5227/sandybeachbysea002.jpg

at #9 Sandy Beach Road:

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/2639/lovenest004.jpg

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/1674/9sandybeach002.jpg

Later, we moved down the walkway to #32:

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/3880/me321.jpg

http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/8796/32sandybeachrd1vq1.jpg

[CaptainHaplo]

Unfortunately my dream homes are ones I get to build myself - and my better half is almost as adamantly against me building our next home as she is with the style I want - which is a rather large, concrete geodesic dome. She just can't "wrap her head around living in a round house", as she puts it. I blame HGTV, as she watches that and has seen some of the homes on there and just can't figure out the "point". I keep telling her they are round - thus they have no point, and she just looks at me funny.

Of course, it doesn't help that I mentioned building it near the water right outside Charleston SC so we could stay in it safely whenever everyone else had to leave due to hurricanes. Yes I know - not real bright on my part, but I personally think that would be cool as all get out. When she said she didn't like that idea, I said ok lets move to tornado alley and I will earth berm it so there is no danger...... :damn::damn::damn:

This happened a fair number of years ago - I have since learned to keep my mouth shut. I would be rather pleased to just put it on a mountaintop fairly close by (since the thunderstorms really get wicked up there) where I am now (since I live in the mountains) - but I laugh at all the "Flor-idiots" that do that because in the winter, you can't get up or down the "driveway" - so that idea is out.

The only dream home we can agree on is the "cliffhanger" home I once saw plans for - basically the home hung on the side of a cliff with a "underwater" level that you could go and relax in while looking out the "walls" at the ocean life. It came with its own dive access / waterlock chamber and you could add a water surface level with dock for a boat. She loves water so that went over fine. *Thank god I didn't mention her having to suit up and go for a swim to clean the underwater rooms external "walls"! :rotfl2: