I once designed a square house with walls running from the corners to the middle, that had a circular fireplace (like a square with an “X” in it). The rooms were bedroom, kitchen, living room, and bath/laundry. An architect said it could conceivably be built.
Trap doors!
I love redundant light switches.
The house I grew up in (which was sold last week) had three switches for everything in different areas of the room.
I’m also a big fan of switches that control a whole wall worth of appliances. My current apartment has all of these things.
Secret passageways. Secret rooms. Including a lovely adult playroom and a Rocky Horror-inspired Zen Room. Every room in the house wired for Ethernet, with a media server somewhere so I can record something from the TV in the living room and watch it in the bedroom, no fuss and no muss. (of course, for each TV there’d have to be a PC with a TV card, but that’s doable.)
Back in the Neolithic era, I used to work drywall. The company I worked for was a small outfit that consisted of me, the boss, and one or two other guys (usually biker-friends of the boss, also a biker).
One time we worked on a custom house that was absolutely HUGE. It was somewhere between Auburn and Grass Valley, CA. There were two bedrooms for the children on the 2nd or 3rd floor (depending on how you figured these things). The house was built on a hillside and the entrance was on one floor (the largest) with a deck out back, one floor down. Above that was a balcony. This was a VERY nice house.
The children’s rooms had vaulted ceilings and were separated by a bathroom with a slightly less-than-standard ceiling height. The attic space over the bathroom had skylights and we finished the walls in there. We were told that this room would, with stairs added later, be used as a storage/playroom. Very ingenious, until the kids get in their teens and need a secure place to smoke their dope. 
–SSgtBaloo
I’m with Mynn on the multi-person tub for the master bath. A three-seater (but don’t tell the wife . . . )
[cue the tasteless porn music]
Actually, what I want is a soundproof library with a secret entrance and one of those $3,000 massage chairs. Maybe I could access it by pushing a button hidden within a bust of Shakespeare’s head . . .
I like the soundproof idea. I think I’d settle for non-creaking floors, though.
Light-wells throughout the house. Built-in bookshelves and several windowseats in the living and bedrooms.Soundproofed basement room with a high enough ceiling to do staff and sword work, and built in mirrors and a sprung dance-type floor.
And the damn basement step will be wide, well-lit, with good bannisters and gentle risers. I don’t understand why basement stairs alway have to be steep and rickety. I object to it. In fact, all the stairs will be like that.
I want a really excellent ventilation system. I hate stuffiness.
Laundry chute would be great, and the laundry room itself should be on the first floor, so I can handle the laundry while I’m doing things in the kitchen. It will have a big counter for folding, and a deep double sink. And lots of light.
The kitchen will have a big double sink, high-powered dishwasher, a semi-separate pantry opening off the stove area, and lots of counter space. The work area should be wide enough that three people can cook comfortably. Big built-in fridge and lots of cupboards. Flat-topped stove and a separate second oven.
The big chest freezer will be in the pantry. The stove and fridge will NOT be side by side, causing heat/cold loss.
Yes, I do fantasize about kitchens.
Ever since I saw this in a magazine some years ago, I’ve wanted a water faucet (hinged, so you can fold it in flat) on the stove. Need water for a recipe? It’s right there! No worrying about whether there’s enough space in the sink to put the pot in to fill it with water!
Also, a garden tub. At least, I think that’s what it’s called; what I’m talking about is a tub in a platform (you go up two steps to get in), so you have the illusion of a sunken tub; surrounded on at least two sides by those double-paned glass bricks that let in light, but you can’t see through; hanging plants around the tub. It would feel like I was bathing in the forest or something!
Max Torque, the central vac in the kitchen is cool, but I’ve accomplished the same thing with much less effort and expense; I have a Euro-Pro Stick Shark vacuum; it’s tiny and lightweight, and handles bare floors much better than my big vacuum. Since I got it, I’ve never swept my bathroom or kitchen floor; I use the Shark instead. Like you said, no dustpan, no little line of dirt that follows the dustpan around until you get sick of it and sweep it under the table.
I want a water proof cubby hole over the bath tub with a glass front that I can put a TV in. I just like the idea of being able to watch TV while relaxing in the tub.
To those mentioned running cat 5 to every room. Three years ago I had the following train of thought: My house just burnt down. There going to have to rebuild my house. They will have to tear out all the dry wall. I can run network cable throughout the house while the dry wall is down. Cool I will have cat 5 to every room. My house just burnt down, why am I so excited about running network cable, I am a geek.
I didn’t have enough time to do more then one drop to each room (and I didn’t have time to do the bathrooms) but it is nice to never be father then 20 feet from a drop.
I need a multiple-headed shower, and a giant jacuzzi tub.
I’ve always wanted a huge room for a library, with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, accessible by a sliding ladder. A big mahogany leather chair to sit in and read, and one of those antique-looking globes on a pedestal - the kind that opens up to reveal a stash of brandy.
And my kitchen will have this fridge.
I also think it would be awesome if I could have some sort of giant projection of the sky on my ceiling. Somehow hooked up to an actual camera outdoors on a mountaintop somewhere, so I’d have a changing sky in my living room, with storms, sunshine, and starry skies, depending on the weather. But I’m guessing technology still has a ways to go on that one.
I second stone floors with a drain, especially in the kitchen and bathrooms.
Heated bathroom floors and towel racks Ah! One apartment I lived in had a heated toilet, due to an incompetent plumber. I never complained.
Dumbwaiters need to be revived.
Finished underground bunker. 'Nuff said.
A gas line from the house supply out to the back yard (or balcony in the case of a condo or apartment), so you can run a gas barbecue and have gaslights.
Apartment and condo balconies should have running water to make it easier to take care of the plants.
I definitely want laundry chutes leading to the basement laundry room; also, a dumbwaiter to bring the laundry back upstairs.
Gunslinger’ll want a darkroom with all sorts of photoey things, I’m sure.
I want lots and lots of built-in shelving. Also, a separate library (in effect, both a living room for the tv and a parlor which would be the library); in the library I want built-in floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with a rolling ladder, and a window seat with ship-windows (unhook and come IN, instead of sliding over each other, as we noticed in a scene in Master and Commander).
And y’know how they make sewing machine tables that let you swing the machine down inside the table and you can use it as a workspace? I want something like that in the kitchen for my Kitchenaid mixer.
**Regarding Laundry Chutes **
On newer homes, they will not be installed as they are now considered a fire hazard. A majority of home fires start because of The Dryer and if there is a laundry chute there, it funnels the flame right up stairs and to the roof. Bad news.
Sorry to be a buzzkill. as I wanted 2 laundry chutes in the house. So I could have segregated laundry. Whites and Darks.
Now on to What I Want:
I would like to drill a big hole in every floor and put some PVC piping in it so that anything that I need from one level to the next can be dropped through by whomever is upstairs or , like submarines, use it to call to the next level.
I don’t want no stinkin’ intercom. Too dicey and expensive. I am all about a quick fix. Like a bandaid on a sucking chest wound, people.
Naturally this would be a fire hazard, trip hazard and asthetically unappealing.
My next home, however, will have Geothermal heating , solar and wind power. I hate paying bills.
I’m such a geek that I have an actual list of things I want in my dream house. I just hope my beforeto unknown filthy rich great aunt dies soon and leaves me buckets of money.
*I want the house to face east/west and overlook a lake that doesn’t contain large reptiles
*Window seats in the bedrooms
*A sunroom filled with tropical plants
*Window sills deep enough to put plants on them
*Granite counter tops, top line wood cabinets (with pull out shelves everywhere),
and a generous size pantry. A heated tile floor would complete the kitchen.
*Double oven.
*A turret which can only be accessed via a circular stairway in the master bedroom
that leads to my personal reading room
*Entryway from the garage that does not cut through a laundry room (yuck)
*Multi-level tiered deck with the top deck holding a large table and umbrella and a sweet view of the lake, the second tier with lounge chairs for sunning and a hot tub to one side, which leads down to a ground level quarry stone seating area with a grill to one side, access to the hot tub on the opposite side, and a 2 foot deep circular firepit cut out of the stone and filled with lava rocks in the middle. Surrounding the fire pit would be a slew of cushioned rockers.
*2 1/2 car garage so we have plenty of room for our camping equipment/yard stuff
*Crown moulding in the dining room. And I want it to be square large enough (15 x 15?) to accomodate a round dining table that seats 10
*Dining room separated from the kitchen eating area by french doors
*Fire place in the master bedroom, which is housed between the bathroom (with a deep soaking tub) and the sleeping area
*A large finished master closet complete with shoe slots.
*A finished rec room/basement complete with a mini-kitchen (microwave, fridge, sink) and bar.
You might be pleased to know that something like this really exists. When we were remodelling our kitchen, we saw many similar solutions, with cabinets that open to reveal lift-up shelves just meant for serious mixers and other large appliances. Unfortunately the kitchen here at Casaflodnak is too small to consider such a thing…
What would my dream house have? Hmm, let me think about this, I’ll be back later…
I had the chance to design the house I have in Panama many years ago.
Nothing special, an outside shower for cleaning off before you come into the house, a pair of nice big sinks next to it for all the dirty work that needs to be done. A tile roof, so I don’t have to paint the darn thing. Deep patio on all sides, mostly to keep the sun out.
Sorry I did not see this thread earlier. Some of your know that I design much of what is in this thread for a business. Eclectic Designs are my forte 
Some projects I have done as of late include a Tree House in a childs room.
A built in sun dial/outdoor patio (basically you can look down at any time and know what time it is by the design…)
Recycling systems for water…
Hidden passage ways are always very fun.
personally, in my own home, we have a really interesting coffe table down stairs. It is a saltwater fish tank with anemonies, trigger fish, clown fish etc…etc…It’s round and completely seemless glass. It really ties the room together. We have what looks like a pantry door in our kitchen that is really a spiral staircase up to the Den. A 25 foot library wall leading upstairs with ladder. there’s more but I’m slightly busy at the moment. I’ll check back.
I’d like the oft mentioned secret passage.
My ideal house is a single story, so putting the laundry near the bedrooms is good enough. The apartment I’m in at the moment has this, so I have practical exerience with it.
I’d like a a detached 2-1/2 car garage, with a second story made into a 1 room efficiency apartment. I’d put my model railroad there, and use the facilities for my buddies on operation nights.
Here’s the oddball kicker. If I had enough land and money, I also want an outhouse that features running water, heat and light, a small selection of the finest reading material, and a flushing toilet that connects to the septic or sewer.