The Bat-Cave has always had an allure, hasn’t it? I love that idea of hidden rooms, secret passageways, etc.
Octagon, with a spiral staircase circling a stone chimney, tiered
Basement level: bedroom(s), 3/4 bath, nursery kitchen; wide ‘hallway’ around the hearth with comfy benches broken up with book cases, file drawers, and a drop down desk or two.
Ground floor: main kitchen in center, 1/2 bath, open floor plan with dining table & ‘front parlor’ areas, french doors onto stone patio over basement level.
Next floor: separated rooms opening onto an outer and inner common area; the outer porch over the ground floor, the inner area around the chimney (with a hearth or two); two 1/2 baths on either side of a bathtub room (with a huge window)
Final floor: the cupola, with a railed balcony and a spy glass. and a 1/2 bath
There are abandoned industrial, commercial, and institutional buildings out there; I want one. A big sucker. Fix it up to the nines and that’ll be my house. Before it was torn down, the Scullin Steel Mill would have done; or a power plant, large school, or hospital. For a long time, this building was empty, and I had some happy thoughts about what I’d like to do with it!
A plethora of secret rooms and passages will fit in there. If it’s an old factory, it could have an indoor football field! Eat your hearts out, Bill Gates and Donald Trump!
Check out this Puzzle house.
Three-story modern-home style, with brown-brick/Tudor facade. Something like a combination between this and this but hella more symmetrical from side to side. Two 4-story guest towers on either side of house in rear, built in the same style as the main house. Very large fortified underground shelter underneath the house, furnished in the same fashion as the main house but armored all around with multiple layers of steel-reinforced concrete.
The house would have small enclosed rooms rather than big, open ones. And it would be on a very, very large lot of land.
I have spent a lot of my life living in small furnished apartments. I think I like it.
A small two-bedroom condo in New York above a good deli for me, thanks.
I like the house I have now, but with some additions:
Master bedroom - I’d add a sitting area where I can escape with a book.
Kids’ bedrooms - They need to be bigger; they’re only about 9X11 now, which is pretty cramped, and they need walk-in closets.
Guest bedroom - We have a nice little bedroom/bathroom guest suite, but there’s no closet. It needs a closet.
Kitchen - I need a nice big pantry to store extra food and all my cooking gadgets. I also want a coffee station for my husband to make his coffee in the morning so he’s not in my way when I’m cooking breakfast.
Yeah, I’d pretty much just add storage all over the house. There’s never enough storage.
As for style, my tastes have changed over the years. I used to want an ultra-modern design, then I started admiring 2-story contemporary homes. Now I think I’d rather have a nice big country house with a big wrap-around porch.
I’d like the house I grew up in (a standard midwestern 3-story turn-o’-the-last-century home) smack dab in the middle of a thousand acre lot in the Arrowhead region of Minnesota.
Oh, and a barn.
That’s it. I don’t like to have too many gadgets to obsess over.
I love the “hidden basement” idea!
Was anybody else totally envious of that cool hidden “command post” that DeNiro had in the RV in “Meet the Fockers”?
My wife and I already have it planned (and drawings mostly completed).
A U-shaped, one-story stucco home with red tile roof. The center court-yard is the location of the swimming pool. Each room around the perimeter opens onto the pool deck through sliding glass doors.
Immediately outside the sliding glass doors is a loggia that allows for entertaining and living space outside the home but protected from the elements. One side of the U is made up of the garage, “mud room,” kitchen and service areas, and guest bedrooms. The center of the U is the living room and dining room area. The other side of the U is our master suite, including a steam generator for the shower and a small sauna (the hot tub is ouside our side of the house near the pool).
Tile floors throughout with lots of ceiling fans. Decorated in a relaxed tropical style.
Small two story house. First floor would have a large living room/kitchen with a working fireplace and a bathroom.
Second floor would be a huge room with a fireplace and a huge bathroom with a tub/Jacuzzi and separate shower.
There would be a large porch on each floor. I would love to sleep outside on the upstairs porch in the summer.
I want to live in** GuanoLad’s ** house. Sorry, GuanoLad, you’ll have to vacate.
Except that we have a whirlpool tub in the bathroom and a hot tub on the deck, you described my current house perfectly. And it sits on 5 secluded acres.
Come over any time. It’s wonderful.
The Haunted Mansion at Disney World has always been my idea of an ideal house. If I could find such a thing, preferably in England, and possessed of a long and bloody history, I’d sell my soul to live there. 
Secret passages, huge library, ghosts, the works. I’ll bring cats.
If I were going to improve my current house, I’d want to put a hallway or some sort of buffer between the master bedroom and the living room, a six-burner stove and granite countertops in the kitchen, and skylights in all the bathrooms. And replace the carpet in the bedrooms…with what, I haven’t decided yet. It’s actually the nicest house I’ve ever lived in and I’m quite happy with it as is.
You can live in my dungeon.
I agree! In fact, I told my wife that after I die I want to come back from the dead so I can haunt… the Haunted Mansion!
I want emilyforce to design my house.
Ideally, it would be a largeish building, with either the ground floor or basement Mr. Lissar’s dojo. Soundproof, 12ft ceilings, padded floors, good light. Separate entrance and men’s and women’s changerooms.
The main part would have four or five bedrooms (depending on the number of kids we have), big windows, half carpet and half hardwood or bamboo floors. A front-facing large room, divided in two with an archway, half a library with a large table and floor to ceiling bookshelves, and the other half living room, with comfy chairs and couches. That’ll be the homeschooling space. Oh, and a fireplace.
The kitchen will have two ovens, tons of counter space, and a sink with draining board. I want open rack shelving above the sink for the most-used dishes. Either that or a really damn efficient dishwasher. The sink should be stainless, but the rest should be something light-coloured and easy to clean. No stainless appliances. Big table to one side, under a skylight.
Adjoining walk-in pantry with large chest freezer.
Three bathrooms, the one near our bedroom with a very large bathtub and separate shower.
Sewing/crafts room. Doesn’t have to be very big, but that’s where sewing/beading/chainmail things would be kept. Small workbench with basic tools, too.
Big yard out back for playing, gardening, barbequeing.
Upstairs playroom? With washable walls, a sink, and most of the toys corralled in bins. The place the kids are allowed to leave messy for intervals during play projects.
You know, I only have one kid so far.
I have always wanted a bedroom that is basically a medium-sized planetarium. The only problem is that I want to put the bed where the projector goes…
I wonder if that’s how all those ghosts came to live there? :eek:
It’s a good idea, though. If we should meet there in the afterlife, perhaps you would consent to a waltz?