I recently stayed in a home with electronic, Japanese-style bidet toilets. I was entirely skeptical, but by the end of my stay I wanted one.
Also, as mentioned by jabiru, underfloor heating. I’m planning to move in the not too distant future, and I’m seriously considering having this in my next home.
This has reminded me of something else I’d want: a kitchen at the front of the house. I’m sick of looking at the neighbour’s fence; watching what goes on in the street would be much more interesting. And, since money is no object, I think I’ll have a basement. Never lived in a house with a basement.
I actually built my dream house eight years ago. Built in bookcases in the living room surrounding the 18 foot tall brick fireplace. Office with more bookcases. Bedroom that’s 15’ x 25’ with a wall of windows that look out over the Mississippi river valley and a pair of 9 foot sliders on each side of the sitting area, one going out to a porch the other to a deck with a hot tub. An S-curved walk-in glass block shower that’s big enough for me and my BFF 
And a huge front porch that runs the length of the house with a dining area with a ceiling fan at one end. I really, really like it. Oh and the big-ass garage and basement for mrsin.
Not into Jacuzzi tubs, had one in the last place. Too hard to clean, too much hot water needed to fill it. We called it the monument tub, it was never used. Our architect kept insisting that we had to have a big old jacuzzi tub in the MB. We finally put in a window seat area that can accommodate a tub if we find we can’t sell the place without one. I always wanted a window seat. Also not into fabulous kitchens because I don’t like to cook. So we have , to me, a largish kitchen with just standard appliances and again, to me, nice cabinets. The architect was again not happy.
It’s not a McMansion btw, thank you very much. I’m pretty sure it cost less to build than the price of the average 1 bedroom condo in Ca.
Gah, I hope this doesn’t sound too braggy. I really do like this house and we talked about it and planned it and changed the plans over and over for at least 20 years.
My ultimate house would have a walkout basement to an attached greenhouse. The master bedroom would be on the main floor overlooking (and having windows that can actually open into) said greenhouse.
Other than that, nothing huge or fancy. Heck, I had a 1600 square foot 3 bedroom house for 11 years and I’d occasionally walk into one of the other two bedrooms simply because it would dawn on me that I hadn’t been in them in several months.
You impulsive bastards
Double ovens in a kitchen with a walk-in pantry and a basement. I’d really like a loft/library but I can live with that.
You give me a basement and I will finish it. Hopefully it’s big enough to fit a wetbar, small kitchen, guest room, bathroom, and an area to put the tv and family like stuff.
Upstairs I want a formal living room with a double-sided fireplace. And there’s a type of stone that you can use for countertop that can be lit up. I want that. Probably on my wetbar.
Standard kinds of things, like a split floorplan, fireplace, and covered porch, natch.
Here’s something I’ve never seen, but want anyway:
I want a store-room for all of my accumulated stuff. This would look like a mini warehouse; shelves floor-to-ceiling. I’d have a little robot pallet jack, controlled by a computer of course. The location of each item would be stored in a database on the computer. I’d just go type in what I’m needing, and the bot would go pick it for me. When I get through with it, he puts it back for me.
Wouldn’t that be great ?!
There used to be a whirlpool appliance called a Cook n Clean. Dishwasher in place of a lower oven, electric cook top, and a microwave oven/vent fan above. I had a microscopic kitchen and it worked great. I had a la creuset combo skillet and sauce pan [the skillet formed the lid of the sauce pan] a 3 qt la creuset dutch oven, that set of 3 nested corning tempered glass casseroles in french white, and place settings for 2, and assorted other cooking needs. Everything lived in the cook n clean’s dishwasher portion, and everything got washed every day. I would take out bowl and mug, and eat my cereal, and out them in the sink. I got home, made dinner and put everything bac and ran it over night.
sniffle I miss my old cook n clean … I really wish they would make it again, but Id improve it with a killer convection microwave on top, and a gas range instead of electric coils…
Although at this rate, I will settle for something that has plumbing that works and doesn’t belong to someone else.
There would be one room, maybe two, that only had a TV + accessories and a couch. And those rooms would be soundproofed. Without windows. And only one door, which would be made of steel.
Wood floors, a sunroom, and an upstairs laundry, please.
:: taking the thread in a slightly-different direction ::
My dream house doesn’t need a furnace; it’s heavily-insulated, heated by the sun and cooled by shade and the ambient temperature of the earth. It has massive walls that slow down temperature changes so it never gets too hot during a heatwave or too cold during a cold snap. It has interior gardens so I get fresh vegetables year round. It captures rainwater. It reuses greywater, purifies the greywater after reuse, and has a composting toilet to take care of septic waste. It generates its own electricity. And it’s quiet.
Now that I’ve eliminated most of the monthly bills, let’s talk features.
The house has a large workshop: starting with a forge and smithy, extending past machine tools and woodworking to an electronics shop. The electronics shop has design tools, computers, and a fabber. A branch leads to the auto shop and garage. There’s a potting shed and tool storage for gardening.
Inside, there’s an art studio with poleward-facing UV-transparent windows to get that essential skylight for drawing and painting. The windows have interior insulated shutters. Here are the art computer and associated equipment like the scanner and photography equipment.
There’s a gym, with a basic weight bench, free weights, a selection of machines and equipment, and a treadmill. Nearby are the changing room and the sauna. There’s a door from the sauna to the outside so that people ca go roll in the snow afterwards. The changing room is next to the hot tub, which is in an exterior sunroom on the deck.
There’s a large kitchen which is the social heart of the house. It has high-quality equipment including a gas stove and an insulated-mass fridge and separate freezer. There’s a pantry and cold room for food storage. The kids’ computer is visible from there.
The entertainment area has a superb sound system, multi-format and multi-region disc and tape players, a big-screen HD TV, and satellite TV and radio. In a separate building nearby is what I call the ‘music bunker’: an underground recording studio and party room where it can get as loud as you want. The recording equipment can be locked away during party time, of course.
There’s a library, where the research computer is found. Every computer has separate login accounts for every family member, and guest accounts are available. Servers make documents and resources available at any computer.
There are two guest bedroom suites plus a master bedroom suite and bedrooms for all other family members. Bedrooms are quiet; the house’s thick walls insulate them, and the passive-solar heating means fewer fan and pump drones to disturb the night. The master and mistress of the house get their own bath suites as well. And, there’s closet space for everyone, plus linen closets and a sunlit laundry room.
Metal roof with 3-in-12 slope or steeper (our current roof is torch-down, with mopped-in gutters–about the worst of all possible worlds)
Gas forced-air heat with electrostatic dust precipitator (current house has oil-fired hot-water; lots of potential for things going out of order)
Five-car detached garage (get 'em all in out of the rain)
Full basement (storage)
Firepole (Wheeeeee!)
Spiral staircase (I love the style)
First, foremost and above all else, an enormous, beautiful, interesting pool. Heated, long, with dense landscaping all around and a great hot tub to go with, a built in barbecue and smoker. Trees. And plenty of room to garden. In my wider dreams, all this bordering some big ass chunk of beautiful land with miles of walking trails.
Great lighting. All the storage and shelving I ever dreamed of. A fantastic kitchen with tons of counter space.
A big, cozy fireplace.
Oh, and even though I live in California, my pool would be equipped with one of those inflatable domes during the winter, so I could always swim, no matter what the weather.
A foot-operated kitchen sink. Say you’ve gotten you hands all greasy from mixing ground beef for meatloaf. Press a pedal with your foot and water streams out of the faucet. Tip your foot to the right side of the pedal and the water gets hotter. Tip it to the left and it gets colder.
A table-height kitchen counter for mixing and chopping things on. Maybe a little higher. At five feet even, I find standard height counters inconvenient for doing these things on. It would be so nice to have an area sized just for me!
An indoor/outdoor goldfish pond. It would stand about three feet above the floor and have a clear plexiglass wall like you see at aquariums. There would be a sliding door between the indoor and outdoor parts. I could keep it open but if the herons or racoons have been prowling, I could herd my little buddies indoors and close the door. There would be a seat in the water so I could commune with them while they nibble at my fingers and toes.
A nice big, bright sunroom. Between the sunroom and the next living area would be windowed and there would be lots of shelves for putting colorful glassware and other pretty things on so you can see them from both sides. I remember Martha Stewart showing off someone’s house who had done this. I really liked the idea.
A courtyard in the middle of the house. With a retractable roof. A large fountain, french doors from every room facing the courtyard. Balcony overlooking courtyard from 2nd floor.
A wide covered porch all the way around the house again with french doors. Both upstairs and down. Plenty of rocking chairs and bench swings.
Double curved staircases in front entry hall. Elevators in the kitchen and master suite.
Professional grade kitchen.
Library 2 stories tall with balconey for access to upper level shelves. South facing window wall.
Theater and gym in the basement. As well as a full bar and game room.
Music server to play throughout the house with controls in each room to change that rooms music to sute. Server to have active noise supression for each room so you don’t have to hear others loud music.
An out building with wood , metal shop and mechanics grarage. Underground parking with underground passage to the house.
At least 400 acres of woods. No view of any street or other house from the house.
Fisher-Paykel must read Dilbert! :dubious:
Not in this order but
5 or 6 burner gas stove (have)
2 sinks (have)
Island (have)
2 ovens (have)
Micro wave (Have)
Recess for frig so large frig not sticking out into room (have)
Lots of outlets (have)
Pantry (have)
Dinning area (have)
living room (have)
large family room with high cieling and cielling fan (have)
built in book cases (have)
skylights (have)
Master bedroom suite, with a shower and a tub area.
walk in closets
3 other large bedrooms
3 car garage
spa (have)
large yard (have)
these are a few of the things
Large bathroom (I’m getting tired of having to leave the bathroom to dry off), large bathtub (so that when I sit in the tub, the water actually covers me), large in-ground hottub over in the corner of the back yard surrounded by a grove of (maybe aspen) trees, a summer, outdoor, master bathroom (completely roofless, but walled) containing a shower, toilet (probably) and a lounging area. My master bathroom would be art deco style with sliding entrance doors like the Chrysler or Empire State building elevator doors.
That’s all.
Bob
Details, details:
A hatch on the outside of the chimney so you don’t have to haul ashes through the house
An adjustable outside air inlet for the fireplace so you don’t pull a draft in the room
A gas fired starter so you don’t need to mess around with kindling
A wood shed with an inside door right next to the fireplace so it’s just a step or two for more wood. And a lockable outside door for arson protection. Arranged so I can back the truck up to the splitting stump right next to the woodshed.
A big air to air heat exchanger so you can get lots of fresh air in the winter without wasting heat
Solar hot water, solar electric, and a wind generator
A small backup generator with a big propane tank
Two walls of the living room hinged like big barn doors so you can swing them open on a nice day. Built like a regular wall with insulation and good weather stripping so you don’t lose heat
A sun room with lots of plants and a small fountain, opening into an attached greenhouse
A great big vegetable garden set up for easy tilling and mulching
Fruit trees, grape vines, berry vines, honey bees
A generously sized pantry for all the canned garden harvest
Fireproof and earthquake proof construction. Concrete slab floor with rebar, 14 gage steel stud walls, fiberglass insulation, sheet rock inside, lightweight concrete panels outside, powder coated steel roof with snow pitch, a bunch more fiberglass in the attic. Floor level at least a foot above grade
Real shutters that work on all the windows, fireproof of course
Bulletproof construction with good lines of sight and plenty of cover
10,000 gallons of clean cistern water storage fed by rain gutters and runoff from the property. With settling pond and back flushable sand filter
Automatic fire sprinklers inside
Sprinklers covering outside walls and roof that draw from the cistern via an engine driven pump so the house can live through the worst firestorm
A reliable well with manual backup pump, valved to draw from the cistern as second backup
An easily maintained water purifying filtration system for drinking and cooking water
A pet door keyed to the radio collar on my cat
A camera / PC security system that lets me know if someone is or has been in the house while I’m still a mile away, with pictures
A five bay shop with car lift, grease gun, oil drums, shop air, torch/welder/metal shop/foundry, machine shop, wood shop with dust collection, paint shop, electronics bench, and a big wood burning franklin stove. A small easily cleanable brewery area with a discreet and highly illegal still hidden beneath
An outside carwash bay that recycles and filters the water
And if I was feeling really rich… A king size bed on a triple section hydraulic lift with a hatch in the roof so I can push a button and sleep under the stars on a nice night. Hatch doors arranged to block the neighbor’s view and porch light glare when open. With an electric heating pad and blanket for those nippy but spectacular nights. Automatic rain alarm. Probly need side boards with that setup.
An automated 12" diameter telescope under a dome, with remote operated camera, wired to a screen on the bed so I can trip through the galaxy at the touch of a button