the one thing you want that is currently outside your financial reach. The thing that you consistently, passionately desire, if anything. Not passing fancies, the first place you go when you think of the lottery win. (After giving it away and so forth…the first personal inulgence.)
Mine has been the same my whole life long: a pool. My own pool. I love looking at real estate porn here in LA, but all I really do is go for the pool shot. Yeah, the space the location the decor…nice, I’d like it, great kitchen, blah blah…but the thing that gives me an ache in my chest is the pool. The bigger, the more it makes me ache. If it’s pretty and surrounded by beautiful landscaping I could almost cry.
I could be very happy with everything else as long as I had a pool of my own. A big one, heated year round. If I had that I would never wish for anything pricey again.
(And before you say it I’d grow bored with it, no I wouldn’t. I rented a house with a pool for a few years, a tiny, pain in the ass pool. And I NEVER tired of it. I’d pay the big bucks to heat it in winter so I could swim.)
This would be an indulgence of time as well as money, as I have three young children and they don’t really fit well into my fantasies of wandering around letting my attention be drawn by this and then that.
These days just a weekend trip a few hours away is a luxury not to be dreamed of. Heck I even sweat the price of the gas it takes to get to the other end of town, sigh.
My compound in the wilderness. My husband and I have been making plans for it for years now (not seriously, as we’ll probably never have the money to go build it properly, but it’s a dream for a possible future). I think we’ve got a moat, three or so pools (one that you can swim into and out of the building proper), some waterfalls, a grotto, cougars on patrol, a huge habitat for endangered animals, a large rectangular house with a courtyard in the middle, a heli-pad,…it’s a work in progress.
A big piece of land. 80 to 100 acres in the woods, with a tiny little cabin in the middle. A place for hubby to run a few cows and have a big truck garden. That would be heaven.
Travel. I have fantasies of heading to the airport and asking, “What’s your next international flight out of here?” “Where do you want to go?” “Where ever the next flight is headed.”
Small: I have wanted permanent laser leg-hair removal since I first heard it existed. Though I have to admit I’m less interested now that I live in a cold climate and am getting older.I have more leg hair than many men, it’s dark and my skin is pale, and I get ghastly ingrown hairs with every type of hair removal I’ve ever tried.
Big: I’d LOVE to have an architect-designed house built to my specs. Ross Chapin would be my preferred architect. It’d be super-efficient, passive solar, small (under 2000 sq ft), detailed, maybe straw-bale construction, with many custom features including an indoor-outdoor rabbit habitat with a cat-flap type door leading into the kitchen. Built-in bookshelves with sliding glass doors everywhere. Everything designed for sensible use of space and easy cleaning, but also nice to look at – my preferred style is a sort of hybrid of Craftsman, Shingle, Shaker, and modern. Clean lines, good proportions, no frou-frou. The bedroom would be a sort of bump-out above the top floor with windows on all sides and skylights, just big enough for a king-size bed, like a permanent tent. A different room would hold clothes closets and drawers and a washer and dryer. The house would be sited on a gorgeous piece of non-manicured land through which a stream runs, lots of wildlife, far from any urban noise, and within easy walking distance of nice coffee shops and other civilized amenities. Haven’t quite worked out the logistics on that last part yet.
An indoor swimming pool with adjacent hot tub and sauna. My grandparents had an indoor pool (no hot bub or sauna) in their basement. Swimming was a normal part of Chrismas for us kids when I was little. After my grandfather’s stoke/accident at the lake cottage he went into a coma and the upkeep was just too much for granny. Even after my brother & his wife moved in with her he never got around to reopening the pool (but he did put a hot tub in). The pool was fixed until after she died and even that was only because they sold the house.
A custom designed and built home on a lake. Has to have an indoor-outdoor swimming pool and a billiard table, a snooker table, and a pool table. And concubines. Lots and lots of concubines.
I would love to have an annuity, $50,000 per year for the rest of my life, and a small property in Arizona with a small house and garden on it that is custom designed to deal with my various handicaps that I own outright, no mortgage or liens, on 1 scre of land with a good deep well, with the entire acre fenced in with 10" tall chain link fence and a gate that operates by a keycard thingy.
A three-bedroom house with a garden (or at least a patio; somewhere to sit and drink outside in the summer) in London. In Zone 1. Preferably in the City so I can walk to work.
A very large greenhouse attached to the house, with a swimming pool in it (and also a koi pond). I’ve always wanted a pool since I was a child… and I have recurring dreams that happen in large, beautiful greenhouses. Being able to grow delicate plants year round would be lovely.
Why from Alabama or Ohio? Is that where all the best maids come from? Does “clean house” or “do laundry” or “go away” have some extra meaning I don’t know? I’m always finding out that there are dirty connotations for what sound like the most innocent expressions to me.
