Awesome House Features

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was perusing the Buzzfeed article “36 Things You Obviously Need In Your New Home” which has 36 pics of somewhat absurd architectural features in homes (glass-encased basement pool, metal spiral slide inside, fold-up balcony).

Some of the things are practical and could be fit in to a normal, non-mansion home (wrap-around pantry, staircase that you can walk under, climate-controlling door handle).

I don’t think I’ve ever run in to any features like the ones shown here in houses I’ve been in. I’ve been to at least one house with a door that was a bookcase (I know a Doper has done it, too!) but that’s about it.

Have any of you ever been in a real, working home with with any noteworthy architectural features, amazing decor (like the “beach” bathroom in the article) or crazy gadgetry? Or do you live in such a home?

2

Personally, I’ll be looking for a house with a Hot Chicks Room when I decide to buy. I will insist that the present owner pay to have the Bucket of Truth removed, though.

3

One of the models of houses we were looking at included a fireplace beside the bathtub in the master bedroom but unfortunately the rest of the floorplan was bad enough that I couldn’t convince my husband we had to get it.

I’ve been in a house where they had an indoor/outdoor swimming pool. The house was split level so the lowest level of basement was an indoor swimming pool that extended into the backyard. Since I live in the land of ice and snow there was a roof that they extended over it in the winter but the outside portion was still not heated. The “wall” of the house went about a foot underwater so you had to dive a little to swim from the indoor to the outdoor portions but the energy bills must have been insane.

I’ve also seen the refrigerator drawers and a staircase turned into a library but that was more of a space saving thing than a huge expensive wow feature.

Of all the ones on this list I think that I would most like the stained glass door though. It looks gorgeous.

4

In the house I used to own I hung two sky chairs in the living room. The seating also included a futon and a late 1800s restored and functional dentist chair.

5

Their “Staircase that lifts up to reveal a room” isn’t really that. If you look, you can see molding that sticks out on each of the steps - the part that supposedly comes down wouldn’t fit. it’s just a stairway that comes up from one level, then splits around to go up to the next level, instead of having them side by side.

I love the pantry around the refrigerator - I could use that. The built-in drying rack makes sense, too, if you’re like me and you don’t have a dishwasher.

I like the swimpond - I could do something like that.

The library/staircase looks like a fall waiting to happen.

StG

6

Hang a curtain in that opening and BAM! Secret! :wink:

I saw some more examples of these, I think on the This Old House Pinterest site. I was pretty turned on by it - especially if it takes less maintenance than a traditional in-ground pool!

The library one? How about the wine cellar? :o

7

Particularly when you’re going down to get your 3rd bottle of wine!

8

You would be surprised at how often you use a Hot Chicks Room.

9

The wine cellar looks a lot like what my D&D players put into their portable holes.

This isn’t on the scale of most of these, but there’s a style of house in San Francisco that has a center patio, about 6’ across, with doors & windows looking into it from all the rooms surrounding it, so you can have natural light in all the rooms of your house even if you’re a hermit and leave your shades drawn 24x7.

Also makes for a handy place to grow certain things without attracting the notice of the neighbors or local constabulary, from what I’ve been told.

10

Our place has a laundry chute.

They are a lot of fun, especially for sending small animals on an unforgettable ride.

11

I can see how this might work. The side frames of the part that lifts would not be attached to it, they are the back of the upper stair and are stationary. The inner part that comes down then has side pieces that pop out after it has gone past those stair moldings, which then cover the gap all the way to the side wall. Sounds too complicated to be worth it, but also it’s not that new. The Munsters had something like that, for Spot, the creature that lived under the stairs. Here’s a model of it.

I agree that the wine cellar is an accident waiting to happen, especially if you are going down for that second or third bottle!

My favorite is also the stained glass door, and it’s something that pretty much anyone could do. It’s pretty on the inside in the daytime, and pretty outside at night (if lights are on inside). I think I would prefer a more traditional pattern instead of just squares, but this design is probably safer and maybe it can be made more secure against break-ins as well.

I also like the ping-pong door, and the folding balcony (as long as I didn’t live more than one story over the ground). Also the creek under the floor.

The one that makes the least sense to me is the segregated bathtub. What is the point of bathing together if you can’t even touch each other? Huge bathtub sounds good. Huge segregated bathtub sounds stupid.

Anyway, I’ve never lived in a house with any of these things, but I’m strongly considering stealing that stained glass door idea.
Roddy

12

We have a pretty swanky new (to us) house, but nothing as cool as what they featured. Although I have plans to add some stuff like that (I really like the swim pond idea, and also any waterfall stuff). We DO have a courtyard which is pretty cool; the house is U shaped, and the center of the U is outdoors, but the whole house opens onto it. It’s pretty amazing, and great for eating outdoors. The house isn’t huge or super fancy, so it’s a bit unexpected, to have such a neat space. It was the reason we bought the place. Oh, and we stuck one of those cheapie inflatable pools out there for awhile. It was pretty fun because it’s completely private, and almost like having a pool in the house, but you know… not.

13

My sister lived in a house with two dishwashers. You just pulled clean dishes out of one and then loaded dirty dishes into the other, so you never had to unload your dishwasher into the cupboard.

14

I once did work in a condo that had a remote controlled toilet in the master bedroom. A button to open/close the seat, a button to flush gently, a button to flush with lots of force, and a button to warm the seat.
Another place had a marble fronted island in the kitchen that had lights behind it that would change color - flip the switch and the marble would change colors - red, to purple, to blue etc.

15

They used to have something called Parade Of Homes here, where you paid a fee (often for a charity) and got to tour brand new multi-million dollar homes.

Some cool things I have seen:

Walk in, go through living room and there was a huge waterfall going down to pool that was started in living room and going off to infinity, with a view of The Strip in the background. In that same house, from the master bedroom, you could get out of bed, walk over and “stand on water” (actually, plexiglass about three feet out into the pool, two inches deep into the water) and then dive in. Directly below the master bedroom was a bar area - huge viewing of pool from below, but there was an aquarium so you looked through the aquarium, into the pool.

Another house had a great bathtub with view, but to make sure nobody saw you getting in or out of the bathtub, you pressed a button and the glass turned “milky” so nobody could see in, and once in the bathtub, press the button and the glass became “clear” again.

There was the modern glass house…sit and look at great view, or press a button and flat screen TV pops up from the floor - but wait, there is more…from the pool you could swim under the glass floor in the kitchen…and there is even more…in the master bedroom, the entire floor was glass, with lots of green plants and foliage underneath, and a “floating” glass bed that seemed to appear from nowhere from the glass wall (actually a very sturdy steel beam held it magically in place, mid air).
Just walking in the room kind of freaked out many of those on the tour.

One house had a room for wrapping gifts, another room for having someone come and groom your dogs, which was not far from the room where your personal hairdresser would come and gave you and your spouse haircuts…and of course had the 14 car garage with its own car wash installed. I think that house was on the market for $20 million or so…nice screening room, two elevators, pool that ran through the house with a walkway over it in living room, handball court, and a few other features I have forgotten.

One house was all stone…bit over the top…but the backyard was cool…from the pool there was almost a “cliff” that you climbed to find a secluded, hidden bar area with waterfall and hot tub tucked away…sort of reminded me of a serial killer’s wet dream, but I guess someone might have found it exciting.

Many of the homes had amazing game rooms, with pinball machines, slot machines (hey, it’s Vegas), billiards, air hockey, a wall of TV’s to watch multiple games, huge bars, lots of bar stools, usually a soda fountain with various soft drinks and beer on tap…places that kids would see and beg their parents to please fork over the couple million bucks and buy the home now!

16

We looked at a model home this past weekend that had a see-through gas fireplace between the living room and outdoor deck. That would be pretty cool for summer parties at night.

17

Either you or whomever designed your decor has certain proclivities. :smiley: Maybe an “Ask the…” thread is in order? :wink:

18

If you’re buying, ZipperJJ, I’ll take number 11 (Hot Tub That Flows from the Inside to Outside) along with the view. Yowser!

19

Some of the ideas on the article are interesting, most seem to me to show someone with a lack of aesthetic taste. But hey, if it’s your house you should enjoy it.

20

DMark those houses sound awesome. I like when super-expensive houses have neat features like those instead of just expensive materials (marble everywhere!) and some columns.

I think miss elizabeth’s house sounds neat too :slight_smile: Our neighbors across the street have two extensions on their house so that it’s u-shaped - except the back of the house faces the High School so no private naked swimming!

I don’t know why but I think I’d be hip to anything and everything mentioned in the article and in this thread so far. Houses can be so boring!