I’d like to have a good kitchen with lots of countertop space and a gas cooktop with a really powerful exhaust fan but where the fan itself is outside, so it’s quiet. I’d want radiant floor heating, especially in the bathrooms and kitchen (since those rooms will have ceramic tile floors). I want a secret room with a bookcase door for access (and preferably a secret mechanism for opening the door). The secret room will be off of the library, so the door with the bookcase on it will be among many other built-in bookcases. Perhaps I’ll have a double-height bookcase so I can justify having a library ladder.
And I want a flat screen TV on the wall of the family room with all of the A/V equipment in a hidden closet, and a custom remote control for managing everything.
My dad and his spouses built their dream home, and it’s pretty much perfect, it seems to me. I simply plan to steal their blueprints.
Laundry by the bedrooms? Check.
Hardwood floors? Check, where it’s not gorgeous real tile. With bonus water-tubing heat. I forget what that’s called. Dad even put in extra loops in front of the toilets so it’s warmer there in the dead of night. Is he a genius or what?
High ceilings? Check.
Fabulous kitchen? Check, including two fridges - one for "someone eat this before it goes bad, please!"and general all-purpose stuff and one for the cook to store the meal fixin’s or individuals to put their special off-limits selections. Also two little sinks in addition to the one BIG one (big enough so that the biggest stock pot can be submerged in soapy water) and two dishwashers, which is freakin’ bloody brilliant. You are never tempted to put a dirty dish on the counter “just until the dishwasher’s done running”, because one is always ready to take the dishes!
Everyone has his/her own office? Check. All 4 of them double as Spare Rooms that can sleep whole nuclear families on air mattresses when there are houseguests.
And one more small feature I think was great: The stairs go up a bit to a hallway along a bank of windows, and then more stairs for a bit. Beneath this bank of windows, they’ve put built-in cabinets about 3 deep. There’s storage underneath, covered by doors, and there are upholstered seat pads all along. It’s the best place ever for curling up with a book, and it some sheets and blankets and pillow convert it into sleeping space for (up to) 4 small humans or 2 grown-ups, foot to foot (but with reasonable space between the feetses)!
It’s a great house, and not too big to keep clean. It goes to show what four retirees can do with some planning and pooling their money!
A big pantry. A big linen closet. A shelf-lined library. Crown molding. Soundproofing for the bathrooms and bedrooms. A basement with a large laundry room and a storage room.
Any other built-ins are all great: drawers, shelves, nooks, cabinets, window seats, I’ll take them all.
An indoor swimming pool
A rec room with a bar and pool table.
A drinking fountain attached to the sinks - my own personal pet peeve. I hate having to use a cup everytime I want a drink of water. So attach a water spout fixture to the sink.
I really love bungalows, so wood floors and tons of woodwork and built-ins throughout would be a given.
A nice porch out front, and a screened porch in back.
Maybe a greenhouse/solarium?
Loads of green technology. Not only geo-thermal, but solar panels, and whatever else I could practically squeeze in.
3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a huge Great room (kitchen, dining room, living room combo) with a good, but not overwhelming, media system. All on one level with external access to the utility room (where the burner/waterheater/etc are) and a lockable internal door. That way I wouldn’t have to be home for the repair man when the heat goes out in the winter.
Builti-in bookshelves – lots of them. In the LR, every bedroom. Either that, or a library with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, large enough to put in a reading couch and lamps.
Kitchen with a functional layout. This is something I don’t have in present residence, and am working on remodeling in the next two years.
Bathrooms – growing up in a farmhouse with one small bathroom, I am obsessed with bathrooms. I want one with a jet tub big enough to do laps in. And a separate shower. A vanity where I can actually lay stuff, and a bathroom sink with a spray nozzle as well as regular faucet. Part of the remodeling project I’m working on will involve my dinky bathroom.
Hardwood and tile floors. No carpet. Large windows to let in sunlight. A big front porch for sitting and watching the critters at the birdfeeder while drinking my morning coffee. A 2 car garage so I can park the car in there and have room for lawn stuff – maybe a workshop off the garage for tools and stuff.
All of this would have to be a nice quiet neighborhood with a park down the street and friendly, sane neighbors.
Close enough to walk for errands, but private enough to walk around in naked. Green technology, but some A/C for high summer. Good sound insulation-enough to disguise the fact that WE are the crazy-loud neighbors with four parrots and rock band. Put the sound insulation in some inside walls, too. Sometimes we get on our own nerves.
I like my current house a lot, but there’s a few things I’d change to make it perfect.
First, I’d move the garage to the other side of the house. As it is now, you come in from the garage right next to the front door in the foyer, then have to go through the front room to get to the kitchen. Meanwhile, we have a door to the outside in the kitchen that we almost never use. I’d love to be able to come in from grocery shopping right into the kitchen. This would also involve moving the driveway to that side. In the space that is the current garage, I’d put a half bath (we have three bathrooms in the house and one in the poolhouse, and NONE of them are anywhere near the “public” areas of the house!) and add a LOT of windows and a skylight and turn the space into my studio. Once I had a new studio space, I’d turn the current studio back into a guest bedroom.
I’d replace the tub in the master bedroom’s bathroom with a big ol’ soaking tub, whirlypool optional. And I’d fence in the side yard, instead of just having the fence around the patio/pool area - that way we’d have some lawn space we could actually GET to when we have pool parties.
I WANT:
-LOTS OF GLASS
-OPEN FLOOR PLAN (ONE OPEN DINING ROOM, KICHEN, FAMILY ROOM)-NONE OF THOSE SMALL ROOMS
-GLASS AND STELEL
-no stupid fireplace, relics of 19th centuty, etc.
I guess a Frank Lloyd Wrigght house would be ideal
Kitchen: a lot like my current one, only bigger and with more windows. A table for family meals, a small walk-in or at least step-in cold pantry. A door to the garage/carport would be a plus, so groceries can be brought straight from the car to the kitchen.
Living room: Lots of built-in shelves for my husband’s large and growing book, LP, CD, and DVD collections. (I’ll be fair; the LP collection is pretty static ) The shelves would also cleverly hide a small built-in fridge for soda, beer, and wine, and a cupboard to hold glasses and serving bowls, for family snacks and “informal entertaining”, and would have specially designed alcoves for the killer speakers a certain gentlemen would insist on in our dream house. The dining area/room would have a built-in china cabinet. The music corner would be large enough to hold the piano, fella bilong missus flodnak’s guitars, and my trombone and recorder, plus have a cabinet for sheet music. All the wood furniture would match. This is important.
Upstairs, the bathroom would have a separate, roomy shower stall and one of those bathtubs with the nifty water jets. A linen closet, of course, and a vanity with seat and make-up mirror for ol’ blind-as-a-bat floddy to fix her hair and make-up. The laundry room would be either in or next to the bathroom, near the bedrooms. Who decreed that the laundry room should usually be in the basement in two-story houses? Clearly not the person who did the family laundry.
Somewhere in the house, fbmf would have an office, and I would have an office/sewing room.
An outdoor shed or space in the garage to store the kids’ bikes, sleds, skis, and outdoor toys.
) The shelves would also cleverly hide a small built-in fridge for soda, beer, and wine, and a cupboard to hold glasses and serving bowls, for family snacks and “informal entertaining”, and would have specially designed alcoves for the killer speakers a certain gentlemen would insist on in our dream house. The dining area/room would have a built-in china cabinet. The music corner would be large enough to hold the piano, fella bilong missus flodnak’s guitars, and my trombone and recorder, plus have a cabinet for sheet music. All the wood furniture would match. This is important.