My house is modest by any definition, but it suits me fine.
It is paid for, and I’m extremely attached to that aspect of it.
mmm
My husband and I designed built a dream home together when we were young. It was quite small, with hand-built details everywhere. The problem was not the house, it was that the property, all we could afford then, was a steep shady lot that was not possible to ever do much with. I wanted a hobby farm, I got a redwood forest with an understory of poison oak. After 40 years we sold it for a bit more than 14 times what we spent building it, and now we live on a hobby farm across the continent.
The house we moved into was built in 1790. It was never my dream to live in a house that many generations of people had already lived in, but here I am. It is … very interesting.
We bought a house in the right neighborhood 46 years ago, raised three kids in it (now scattered all over) and it was adequate. We try to maintain it, but it is getting harder and harder and I would like to move (my wife wouldn’t like to) but eventually we will have to. Carrying all the laundry from the basement to the second floor is not viable as we head into our 80s (actually, I am there and my wife is 80 in less than 4 weeks). It is not our dream house but was adequate and really what we needed. Close to the elementary school and to the commuter train which takes me downtown in 9 minutes.
Given that we had only a week to find and sign on a house, we did pretty good. I’m not messy, but I don’t want the continual upkeep a dream house requires. I’ve got (barely) enough space for my books, no small requirement, so I’m happy.
Yesterday I walked down Pacific in San Francisco, where the mansions are. It appears that part of owning them is to have maintenance guys on speed dial, since every third house was having some kind of repairs done to it. No thanks, no matter how much money I had.
Because I am in the business of selling houses, I spend a hell of a lot of time looking at them, so it’s inevitable that I’d eventually develop a fairly specific picture of what my dream home would look like. Last year I discovered the 3D design program Sketchup, and after some practice using it, I actually managed to create a pretty detailed model of this house.
I am a broker, not an architect. My knowledge of home design comes mostly through observation and intuition, NOT formal education, and so I’m sure a qualified architect would look at my Sketchup file and find a lot of problems with it, as regards the structure, load bearing walls, &c. Nevertheless, I do intend to eventually have this house built, and a competent architectural firm could probably work up buildable plans based on my sketches.
Another view of front of house.
Still another view of front of house.
Cutaway of second and third levels.
Cutaway of upstairs sitting room.
Cutaway of basement and garage area.
Basement bar (for entertaining guests, as I do not drink alcohol.)
Those are just screenshots that were already sitting in a folder on my computer. If I had pictures of the main level sitting room and office and more detailed shots of the second level dormer and just how it is integrated into the space upstairs…the layout is somewhat unconventional…I’d include those pictures, but I’d have to go into the Sketchup model to position the “camera” and take screenshots.
Sketchup is awesome, btw. You can use it to design virtually anything you could think of. It takes a little practice to get the hang of it, but once you do, it’s a blast.
He means, you know, the whole “young couple buys a starter home, promises one another that they will have a better house in the future” type thing. I’d assumed this was common for the marriages that make it that involve more than one child.
That is actually really cool that you have a sense of the land you live on and having a generational connection. Having been the military brat, then in the service, then moving someplace different after that, I got used to my Dad doing this throughout his military career, especially since it involved multiple home purchases in the DC area.
No, I don’t.
I do have a ‘dream home’ in my mind but it’s not really practical with my working life. Perhaps when I retire. Like some of you above it involves being isolated out in the countryside with a river on the property or with beachfront. That is perfectly doable if I didn’t have to be in the city for work. I don’t like off-the-plan Japanese houses at all and would never buy one. They all feel like shrunken versions of a real house. Instead, for the time being, I bought a relatively spacious apartment which retains its value better than a house because apartments have a better build quality.
Sure.
I had to put in a new AC system, but now that I am in my 3rd warm season here, and the thing is paid off, it really seems nice. This place is modest yet pretty, just big enough with an upstairs, a basement and a cat. Lots of air and light. Plants everywhere. I have to work too much and can’t maintain it like I should, but yes, this is my dream home.
Good luck climbing all those stairs when you are in your 80s.
Oh yeah, that reminds me. Off the plan Japanese homes all have incredibly narrow and steep staircases. I couldn’t live with them. Must be for aged population control.
I don’t aspire to home ownership but I have different levels of dream homes that I aspire to rent. Lifelong renters can have dream homes too, you know! And we don’t even have the effort and expense of building and fixture upkeep! 
There are features that I love in apartments and each time I have moved I’ve aimed to find something that already has the features I want in a place. There’s two main types of apartment that I love. Dream home the first: the brownstone/art deco kind of styles that have things like picture rails (dark wood only, I hate it when they paint everything white), decorative windows and stained glass, fireplaces, French doors, crown molding, bay windows with window seats, etc. Dream home the second: nice big loft apartments with huge windows and industrial features. In either type: timber floorboards and exposed brick. There are certain apartment buildings that I aspire to live in one day just because I love the kind of apartments in them. Things like amenities, location, etc. are also important, of course.
I’ve been fortunate to have rented apartments that I have loved dearly and the course of my rental history has seen improvements to my living environment as I can afford higher rent for a better place. My city currently has a glut of apartments with lots of new buildings being constructed, which has created a renter’s market, especially for older apartments, which are the ones I want! I could never live in one of those steel and glass apartment towers with tiny, tiled floor boxes and no character. My last apartment was of the No 1 Dream Home type and even had an old fashioned dining booth. Though some ugly ‘90s renovation had ruined the original kitchen and bathroom, it was just about everything I could want. I would have stayed there except it had no air conditioning and the owner wasn’t willing to install it, even when I offered to pay for the whole thing! Summers are finally getting far too hot to live without it. So I used the opportunity to snatch up a loft apartment with most of my beloved loft features, plus air conditioning, washer and dryer, dishwasher and a mere few minutes’ walk to work for the same rent I was paying before. Can’t complain!
The other way I create my dream home within my temporary apartments is by investing in the furnishings that I love in a home, things like leather Chesterfields, dark wood furniture, bankers’ lamps, leadlight Tiffany style lamps, globes, apothecary cabinets, etc. (As you might have guessed, I love vintage stuff.) Even if I might only be living in a particular apartment for a couple of years or so, I can take this stuff with me and it looks great in either of my preferred types of apartments.
I love my little house for what it is. It needs a fair amount of work. The furnace is original to its’ 1946 build. No A/C. Bathroom needs to be redone, but it’s functional. Could use new windows. My biggest grump is that I do not have a back yard. I have a side yard. I keep thinking I’ll fence it in or put in plantings for privacy, but never do.
Now that I get closer to being an empty nester, I’m starting to think about moving. I would love to live on a lake. When I drive down to where my daughter is moving, I go through the southern lake country and dang, Lake Pepin is gorgeous. Being able to wake up and go for a swim would make me a very happy camper.
Well, yeah, when it gets to that point, I think I’ll go for a rambling midcentury ranch.
My home is … eccentric. Due to the infrequency with which right angles appear in its design and construction, I have always joked that “it was built by stoned hippies in the 1970s.” As I learn more of the history of the property in my friendly little town, it seems I’m not too far off in that assessment.
I also refer to it as “our little piece of Appalachia in the tropics” as it’s a bit ramshackle.
I’ve been told that before we bought the place, one of the agents who was showing it, who apparently didn’t understand marketing very well but possessed apt descriptive powers, called the property “topologically challenged.” The land is 3.5 acres but almost none of it is flat - the main house is on stilts, built on a finger of lava from Mauna Kea with steep slopes on either side. We’re spending a fortune to repair erosion on the property and replace some of the trash trees with edibles and trees that offer better erosion control.
So, not exactly a “dream house.” But living here - where all I can see out my bedroom window is treetops, and shooting stars at night (when it isn’t overcast) and rainbows in the morning … mmm, it does feel like a dream come true.
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I don’t have a dream home - my house meets my needs as far as storage and comfort, but most any 3br/1ba would - there aren’t any special features I dream of having. The closest I come is having a dream garage and that comes and goes - I’ll see a cool garage and think about it, but I doubt I’ll ever bother.
Why don’t you have a laundry area installed in the 2nd floor. To my mind, that makes so much sense - Most of your laundry is generated up there, except for kitchen towels, etc. Do the laundry where the laundry lives - no more hauling around.
StG
Og, yes!
My wife and I moved to Denver from Fort Lauderdale to reset our lives. I knew it would be an initial step back, but I had high hopes it would result in a huge leap forward. When I moved, I declared a 5 year plan.
I’m now in year 3 (so, 2 and a 1/2 years in). So far, so good. I have a great career, and I should be able to break 6 figures in the next year or two. My wife, after some reluctance, is finally getting her career on track. My kid is starting kindergarten in the fall (child care is rough when you don’t have relatives nearby!).
All that’s missing, really, is the house. We are renting something perfectly fine, but the “5 year plan” will be a success if we are in a home we own. We sold the one in Ft. Lauderdale, which was nice and cozy and right on the water.
Now, being in Colorado, my aspirations aren’t insane:
3 bedrooms (master, my son’s, and one for a guest), 3 (or more) baths
Full sized basement (unfinished is actually a plus! I want to spend time designing it)
Gas stove (that’s more for the wife, who loves to cook)
A good yard…we need a garden, we need some fenced grass for the dogs, and I want my hammock.
And, of course, Ownership, so I can devote some time putting in the little upgrades (e.g. USB ports in the light sockets, a doggie door, solar paneling…)
(Sadly, that’s all way too expensive right now. This explains why it’s a 5 year plan…)
My dreams run to travel, fitness, and experiences than objects like a home. Even if I won the lottery (unlikely as I don’t ever play) I would just buy a newer, comfortable and nicely energy-efficient home. The countertop material, I could not care less.
Correct. Laundry in bedroom-area of house is the way to go. Master bathroom suite is perfect location, if you have one.
If you have kids, I’d prefer a more central location, so you don’t have kids running in and out of your bedroom doing their own laundry. Because I think kids should learn how to do laundry young. For a couple, you could do a stackable unit in a converted closet or linen closet near a bathroom, so water connections would be easier.
StG