Populuxe, sometimes called Googie, Architecture.
In a lot of the model homes here in SoCal I’ve been to, the laundry room is on the top floor and often close to the master suite. I about died with joy (although the idea of dragging the W/D units up the stairs is scary to me).
Yeah, laundry room beside bedrooms is a great idea too. I also want a huge en suite that we can spend all day in.
I would also like a heeyuge stone wall around my yard. I don’t even want a sniff of neighbours around me, and I sure don’t want the neighbour kids anywhere near my yard. Maybe a moat. With alligators.
Ahh. They call that a ‘breezeway’ here. 
I want a huge kitchen with 2 ovens, a gas stove with 4 burners, and a large sink.
The heated floor in the bathroom would be awesome.
A library with a rolling ladder.
A bedroom big enough for a canopy bed.
Central heating. After a little over 2 months so far here in Spain, I am so looking forward to again living in a place with actual heating.
A nice big shower with good water pressure.
A garage.
A Recycle-a-Rolla which is something devised by radio personality Adam Carolla. It’s just an angled pipe that goes from the kitchen to a recycling bin in the garage or yard. Also a laundry chute and maybe a dumbwaiter.
A pulldown stairway to the attic. I’ve always wondered why you’d build a house without one, it seems like you waste the whole attic that way since you can’t go up there easily through a little hatch. When I was a kid that bugged me about our house.
A small hidden room, and a hidden passageway.
Ethernet cabling in the walls, between the floors so you can network computers.
When I was a kid, my brother built an elevator to the attic using a washing machine motor, a bicycle wheel and a system of pulleys and nylon ropes that lifted a platform through the access panel in the hall ceiling. He even had lighting on the bottom, so when it was up, you couldn’t tell it was there. He is an engineer now.
Neat. Our hatches though were in places where you didn’t have a straight vertical shot from the floor to the hatch; there were shelves in the way.
I’d like to add something. Besides the Ethernet, I would have some extra conduits with pull-through wires inside. That way you could easily run any sort of new wires you wanted to, in the future.
Oh, and an old-fashioned toilet, or at least one with almost as much water in the bowl as the old-fashioned ones. Maybe a high-flow showerhead as well.
I’m imagining having enough money to build all this first…
A master suite that doubles as a safe room, with isolated utilities. I’ve been through too many tornadoes, hurricanes, and manmade disasters personally that I want to shelter in place for the next one to come around.
The whole house to be built out of poured, rebarred concrete. Ditto, plus I HATE termites.
Obligatory VunderStudy. Matching sewing room for VWife.
Well stocked, but not outlandish, kitchen inside.
Summer kitchen outside, in a humungo screened in porch.
Drive-thru garage with a docking port to connect to the RV, so I don’t have to haul crap outside when leaving or arriving.
A bathroom with a walk-in shower big enough to hold 2 wheelchair-bound people. We ain’t handicapped, but having that much room would be nice.
Geothermal heating/AC.
A small guest house.
A root cellar.
If it’s a 2-story house, laundry facilities on the same floor as the bedrooms. Most of our clothes end up in the closet in the utility room because we’re too old and lazy to haul them upstairs.
Sills under the windows that are wide enough to hold plants.
Bedroom windows set low, so you can look at the moon while you’re in bed.
Garage attached to the house.
Well. what do I want in my dream house?
First off, my house will not require a furnace, even in Canada’s climate. This is quite doable; some friends of mine have been living in such a house for the last ten years. Their house has huge windows along the south side that capture enough light and heat to warm the house even through -35C winter nights. Thick walls store the heat, and thick insulation and earth berming keep it from escaping.
My house will have enormous interior gardens that yield fresh fruit and vegetables year round. I plan to grow standard North American vegetables and fruit like radishes, carrots, and celery (in overlapping crops for a steady year-round supply!), but also heritage varieties and things like melondecas, jasmine, bananas, grapes, and decorative flowers such as lilies and roses.
Again, my friends’ house has this feature. The jasmine grows five feet high and had to be cut back. Last weekend when I was there, they were cutting shoots and rooting them; if they can get them to grow, they can sell them! Apparently jasmine plants fetch a tidy sum in Ontario. The grapes are twining all around the kitchen counter, and on Sunday alone I swear that tendrils had lengthened six inches across the floor towards the kitchen table.
The carrots have taken root; the nasturtiums and zucchinis are up, the beans will be ready for harvest in a few weeks, the roses are in bloom; and the ivy is all over the office. And outside it was snowing. 
Separated from the plants by a door will be my office and design studio. The door will ensure a lower humidity for paper and books. (Oh yes, there will be lots of books.)
It is here that I will design such houses. (I helped to build my friends’ house, and I’ve been taking courses and learning from books and at the jobsite.)
The office will contain desks and such for supporting my computer and drawing board, meeting clients, etc. There will also be file cabinets and a good big work table. I also like to lay on the floor in the sunshine while relaxing and designing, so I’ll have a wide carpeted nook, raised off the floor, where I can stretch out, spread my books and papers out, and think.
The electrical system will run on solar, wind, and maybe hydro power, with big batteries to store power for dark, calm times.
The bathroom will have a commercial composting toilet; all water from sinks and such will be handled by the greywater-purification system. Part of the greywater system is the planters that contain the riot of fruits, vegetables and flowers; they thrive on greywater. Just make sure that shower and wash water that has possibly contacted human waste does not go to planters cantaining food plants.
There will be a deep tub, possibly the walk-in kind with a door. I’m intrigued by these as a method of getting a deep bath without needing the space of a hot-tub.
Another vote for laundry next to the bedroom, and windows at head level by the bed.
I’ll add a really good open-plan kitchen with lots of counter-space and a gas stove. I grew up in a house with gas stoves and never realised how spoiled I was. The gas will probably be propane, but this may not be sustainable in the long run; I need to investigate wood stoves or methane.
I’ll also add a large pantry and root cellar to store at least six months’ of staples.
There will be skylights. With insulated closable covers.
The master bedroom will have a big closet. There will be a big-screen LCD TV and music system in the living room.
I’ll add an art studio, exercise room, machine shop, garage, several guest suites, and something (perhaps a little separated from the main house) that I call the “music bunker”.
Solar-powered houses? Now you know where I got my username.
Customizeable space with seamless melding of form and function! (Pretty integrated storage space, ways to hide tons of wiring without having to knock down your walls to change things, a minimum or superfluous rooms, etc)
Solar panels would be nice, too. And an abundance of natural light and well-placed artificial light. Space engineered specifically for a photo studio and for a drawing studio. I guess engineered creative space in general. Some way to have birds without seeds getting all over the floor. And a modern, verdant garden.
Ditto on the bookcases, canopy bed (or maybe a pit bed?), drinking fountain fixture and 2-person showers/tubs. And a pool! A nice dynamic one. Maybe infinity edge.
And a concrete poured kitchen counter with a running stream in it. sigh Architectural integration with water in general.
And a killer, killer view of whatever’s scenic about the locality.
That sounds cool. I’ve seen the ‘infinity edge’ pools in magazines. But I have to ask… what’s a pit bed?
In terms of plumbing, I want a urinal in the master bathroom (for late-night urges) and an outdoor shower for the hottest days of the year.
If I were to make any improvements on my notso big house, it would be in the bathrooms. I would like a spa type shower unit, steam, massage, sit down or stand up,w/ glass doors, phone/radio/tv/dvd… 
And an outdoor shower for that matter, the barrel type eh?
and a 3 season room, aka the sleeping porch 
the children pine for an expansive yard, “soft grass with lots of room to play”
I too desire more turf to call my own…yes I covet my neighbors empty lot :eek: :dubious:
But i do have my own office, its really the guest room but I make everyone call it my office 
deleted for dbl post
I’m pretty content with my house, but there are a few things I’d like to change:
Slate tile in the entry, tile in the bathrooms, hardwood pretty much everywhere else, except, maybe, the living room and family room.
Granite counters and a stove with a gas range and electric oven. Tile backsplash.
Reading area in the master bedroom. I need a place where I can just get away from everyone, shut the door, and read, but not in bed.
I’d always wanted a bed that was either enclosed or was installed in the floor or simply went upwards at the sides, like a pit (rather than like a crib. ) Just seems like it would be so cozy. I’ve never seen a normal person with anything like one, though. I need to experience one before deciding whether my idea is just stupid.
I live in my dream house, but there are still things I want…
For one, I’d like to be able to reach any items in my kitchen cupboards. I’m short, and anything above the first shelf (of four) is completely out of reach. Grr, and my kitchen was designed by a short man.
I want a really cool bar in the basement. 1/2 the basement is currently the brewery, I think a bar would be an awesome addition.
We need a deck or something in the back yard, so I can grill more often (have to haul the grill into the driveway to cook now.)
We also need a craft room so I can make a huge mess and leave it to clean up later!
Interesting. Kind of like a dog-basket.
I wonder whether a half-pit bed would work better: enclosed on three sides, a drop to the floor on the fourth. But of course we already have that; it’s called a “couch”. Couches can be supremely-comfortable to sleep in; there’s something about the slight tilt of the seat letting you roll gently down to press against the back. But of course that would be awkward with more than one person.
I think the idea deserves further exploration.