There is a style of house popular through East and North Texas, and probably elsewhere - I’ve only seen it so often here because they were built in the 1910s, and most of the homes back in New York were either pre-1850 or post-1950, with few remaining that were built in the century between. The style I speak of is very large and square, usually of dark red brick with white trim; large, flat-topped porch roofs often adorned with cornices and large urns at the corners; often a drive-through carport and sometimes an adjacent, but separate, garage building. This style of house is very impressive despite its lack of ornamentation, and I love it.
I want one of those, with the inside done in a Craftsman fashion - well-worked wood exposed and unpainted. Built-in fixtures - walls made of bookcases - a staircase that is not spiral, but squared-off while doubling back, so that it takes up less floor space. Large, airy rooms with wood floors and ten- or twelve-foot ceilings. A living room and a parlour (one would be turned into a pool room, the other used for family gatherings and watching TV), in addition to a study (with the computers in it) and a library (furnished with comfortable velvet wingchairs and Audubon prints). The kitchen would have either a butler’s pantry or a door leading into the cellar, which would house a “cool room” for keeping vegetables in so my potatoes would last longer. I also want a very large, deep, claw-foot bathtub and a separate shower stall with a bench in it to sit down. If I have to annex a bedroom to do this, I shall. We can always finish the basement later to put a kid’s room in.
Also, the urns decorating the corners of the porch roof would be rigged to shoot flames at the push of a button from inside the house. It would be the best Proselytizer Detterent ever.
… I forgot to say that if that didn’t work out, I’d be willing to live in a converted store of the same era. They are always huger than they look, with nifty upstairs that look out over the rest of it, and DISPLAY WINDOWS. Just imagine the Christmas tree we could fit inside downstairs!
Our dream house is in our compound in northern Saskatchewan, where you have to fly in because there are no roads going to it. It would have a large moat, and guard cougars prowling the property. (Anti-social? Us?) The house itself would be large and rambling, with a pool going from outside to inside (the land would have to have it’s own water source, of course - a hot spring would be ideal). There would be your requisite media room, a games room, a library, a huge eat-in kitchen, and a master bedroom that would be completely self-contained, complete with small fridge, microwave, large bathroom, and comfortable lounging areas. We’re still working on the master plan - these are just a few ideas we have so far. Oh, maybe a hidden tunnel so we can get out unnoticed if necessary. Maybe I’ve read a few too many Heinlein books.
[/rant]Bah. Sure, get a Wright house if you want roofs that leak, going way over budget, and fancy cantilevers over creeks that sag and cost millions of dollars to repair. He refused to let actual building technology get in the way of his desires. That is the way to get houses that look good but don’t work.[/rant]
For me, big eat in kitchen and a big living room, but not directly open to each other. The Mc Mansions I have been in that have the kitchen separated from the living room only by a countertop mean that the noise from one always drowns out the activity in the other. It does not enable the whole family to be together in the area, it just means that no-one uses the living room when something is going on in the kitchen, or the person in the kitchen has to always yell at the kids to turn the TV down.
Dining room is a useful room only if you are not protective of your dining room furniture, it can then become a spill over desk, den, craft area. If you have an heirloom table, the dining room simply becomes the room that gathers dust and you yell at the kids to stay out of.
Laundry shoot is good if you have kids. Laundry room on the same level as the bedrooms is even better though. Laundry shoot is bad if you have kids who are likely to wrap a sibling in a rug and send them down the shoot.
If you are going to build a secret room, it must have the bookcase door, the tunnel AND the fire pole. I mean, if you are going to the effort, go all the way.
I grew up in a house with a separate kitchen and dining room, adjacent to each other but with no doors in the open doorways. We used the dining room every day for eating, and occasionally for crafts, but its primary purpose was food (especially since we had a dedicated craft room, as my mother made a living with her needle). I’m not big into “eat-in” kitchens - the people waiting to eat get in the way of the people trying to cook - and having a table in the middle of the room that’s not there as prep space, but only to sit at when you eat, annoys me. I’d much rather do as my parents did and have a kitchen big enough to eat in, but use the kitchen table as workspace (it was also the Play-Dough table, and the table for any messy crafts, while the dining room table was only used for crafts that didn’t involve paint or glue, like scherrenschnitte or laying out pattern pieces on fabric to make clothing).
Dang it, I forgot what I was going to say about McMansions. My husband has worked in the construction industry for a long time, and he won’t buy a brand new house. Right from building a house on a foundation that hasn’t been allowed to settle properly (resulting in almost guaranteed cracks in your walls) to haphazard fit and finish, new houses generally are not constructed as well as older ones.
Of course, this is in Calgary, where they can’t put up houses fast enough for demand. Your mileage, as always, may vary.
See, that’s where the BIG part comes in. The table is not directly in the prep area, and you have plenty of prep room so that you do not need the kitchen table for prep.
And what the heck are people doing in the kitchen before the meal is ready? If they are not helping, shoo them out!
Realistic (I hope it is): A 1970s era mobile home that I can remodel myself and make it an interesting real-like sort of home. Close to a metropolitan area, although I’d prefer somewhere in New Mexico, I’m sure I’d settle for Dallas. I’d like the park/community to be as nice as it can be for what I could afford. Room for my (what will be my new) puppy to run.
Fantasy: Anything 2-story, Craftsman/Asian style with a huge wrap-around porch and something to access outside from upstairs. Also, a sky light (but I swear I’ll have that in the above anyway, so there :p), hardwood floors with lots of rugs, architecutual elements a plenty, that cool cedar siding and a garden for year around beauty. Of course, if I’m near the ocean, I don’t know how feasible that’d be. It’smy dream though.
