# What's in your dream house?



## notyermomma (Feb 11, 2014)

I'll be the first to admit that this thread is almost completely motivated by self-interest ...

This past weekend I stopped myself abruptly on the verge of making an offer on the "perfect" home. It was a very pretty 2-level condo, in fabulous condition, and just on the upper edge of my price range (in other words, it was affordable at all.) I stopped myself primarily because of the floor plan. I landed as a refugee in my last three homes, and each time I've settled for something without a dining space. As a consequence, I basically quit entertaining. I'm a foodie who loves to nurture people, so I'm not willing to budge on that again.

I'm working on a list of my criteria, but clearly I haven't got it all figured out and I'm overly eager to get outta my current Dodge. So I'm putting it out there ... everyone's dream home is going to be unique based on personality and needs. What goes into a dream home for the rest of you?

For me it has to be small. I'd love a little cottage with 2-3 bedrooms, under 1000 square feet. It has to have an open floor plan between kitchen and dining space. It has to have a patch o'dirt for my veggies and a few flowers, but not so much dirt that I'm stuck at home mowing all the time. It has to have easy access to mass transit. This doesn't completely rule out rural areas, but I'm too gregarious to want to be that remote. I'm more of a suburbs or exurbs girl. I'm not handy, so it needs to be close to move-in condition (I'm not being a diva here, just acknowledging the reality of the situation. I would love to learn these skills, but not when I'm under the gun and my housing depends on it.)

The ultimate non-negotiable would be quiet and especially *minimal crime*. I'm very gunshy about that after some adverse experiences, to the point that when I look at places, I factor in the number and location of street lamps. I'm not settling or taking chances on that.

Considering the astronomical price of housing in my region, that probably limits me to a foreclosure or a yurt. :laugh: Honestly, if I found a yurt that met all my criteria I would be fine with that. I'm at a point now where I'm trying to take a prayerful approach that when Home Charming comes along, it'll be at the right time and place for me to grab it. I'm forcing myself to slow down. My finances are fine, but I'm working with a financial counselor and taking a class that will likely qualify me for a particular mortgage deal.

As I work out the details of what I'm looking for, I'd love some feedback about what makes a Home Sweet Home for other people. Not necessarily even from a prep/survivalist perspective, but just what makes it sing for you. For those of you who really love your housing, how did you know you had come home when you first saw it? Or if not, what did you do to make it home?


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

My perfect house would have a large eat in kitchen with lots of storage and counter space. Maybe an island bar in the middle (but I can build this so not 100% required). Walk in pantry with tons of storage space. Also a summer kitchen for those hot days that you'd rather not be inside cooking. A cellar and a 'secret' entrance into it. Like the Victorian house we lived in on Long Island as a kid. Dining room is preferred but not required with the eat in kitchen. Either way there needs to be room for the ten person farmhouse dining table with chairs. The kitchen is the heart of the home so my focus is there.

Laundry hookups on the back covered porch with a retractable clothes line for those rainy days. Clotheslines not far from the house but not seen from the front. No one needs to see my drawers hanging on the line! 

Tons of land for livestock, gardens and the kids to play. Space for the kennels for the pups so they don't have to come in the house if they get sprayed by skunk... A dog washing station is not required but a steel tub and a hose IS.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

The house I'm been unsuccessful in convincing the wife that would be perfect for us:

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/11500-N-Hawke-Eye-Rd-Elfrida-AZ-85610/7408530_zpid/


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## notyermomma (Feb 11, 2014)

Grimm said:


> A cellar and a 'secret' entrance into it.


Yes! I lived in Lexington KY for a couple years and had an acquaintance who owned a big historic horse farm. He gave me tour once. Turns out the place was a stop on the Underground Railroad, and there was a secret entrance to the Big House about a quarter mile away. The entrance just looked like a root cellar, but it had a long tunnel on the other side of the door. The modern applications for something like that would be interesting - I like the security benefits of not having your whereabouts as easy to track by others. And of course, a useful additional fire/emergency exit. And hidden storage. And ...

I completely agree that the kitchen is the heart of a dwelling. It's the ultimate universal because _everybody_ eats! One of my favorite things used to be plunking somebody down at the table and talking with them while I cooked for both of us, or we cooked together. Now I eat alone off a little tv tray ...:thumbdown: My new favorite thing is weekend jaunts to the nearest city where they have an international hostel. It has a dining room with one giant farmstyle table where people naturally mingle. For me, it's all the vacation I need to sit at that table with some takeout and talk into the wee hours with fascinating people from all over the world. _That's_ the power of having a dining room.


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## notyermomma (Feb 11, 2014)

LazyL ... Wow. Just wow. If wasn't so rooted where I am, I'd put an offer on this place today. It's cheaper than your average bedbug-infested homeless-squatted foreclosure out here. 

I haven't spoken to the financial counselor yet about creative financing options, but I'm working off the assumption that my max is $100K. Around here that means a tiny condo out in the middle of nowhere. Or a yurt.


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## GaryS (Nov 15, 2011)

Everything is a compromise, and the things that seem so critical today can be of no interest in a few years.

My wife and I have designed and built three new homes since 1997, and every time we have had some misgivings with the results. Since we are both retired and have no other family nearby, we designed our last house around what we wanted and needed today. First, it had to be smaller than the 2500 sq ft house we left, and it had to be closer to shopping and medical care so we didn’t run up big local travel expenses. The house had to be energy efficient and low maintenance, as well as located in a low crime area.

We ended up on 1-1/2 acres in a very small town within 10 miles of a college town with lots of medical facilities, good shopping, and no major crime issues. Our house is very energy efficient with 2000 sq ft of open concept kitchen, dining and living room areas. It has two master suites and an office/guest bedroom. The few hallways are wide so as to easily accommodate a wheel chair, and there are no steps anywhere inside or outside the entire house for the same reason. Both showers have no doors, but wide entrances to allow a wheelchair to roll in, or to use a walker or crutches. 
In the center of the house is a storm proof concrete room that serves as our pantry and storage area for some prep supplies.

Most of the back yard is surrounded by a 6’ vinyl privacy fence so our dogs…and the neighbor’s animals… don’t create a problem, and they can enter and leave the house through their own doggy door built into the wall. I also left an area inside the fence that will allow me to eventually install a ten panel solar system, and the house is already wired for it. I have a 500 gallon propane tank and it’s plumbed to the house for the fireplace, a gas grill, and a line runs to the concrete pad that will have a 20kw generator as soon as we sell our other house.

Now, what we wish we had done differently. The two master suites were intended to offer comfort and privacy for occasional guests, not my wife’s unemployed granddaughter who moved in a few months ago. The office/guest room should have been bigger so it could be better furnished for guests. The open concept is nice in some ways, but with several guests, the noise drives me nuts, and you can’t get away from it. The open concept also limits the number of wall cabinets that can be installed in the kitchen, and we don’t have enough. Lighting in an open concept is also difficult to control.

Because we downsized, we lost needed closet storage, so lots of things had to be sold, given away, or thrown out…but that’s mostly a good thing!

Living in even a small town is difficult to accept after seven years in the country. The train track nearly a mile away is noisy, as is the increased traffic. I was used to watching the morning sun clear the tree line from my patio while listening to the birds sing, now the birds I hear have aluminum skins, and I see the sun after it clears the neighbor’s tall motor home shelter.

If we were young, it would be back to the country, but we just can’t do it anymore. Even though we got to start from scratch, we had to compromise in many ways.


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## BillS (May 30, 2011)

My dream house would be on a lake in NE Minnesota or NW Wisconsin. I'd want it heated by propane. I'd want a propane tank big enough to hold a year's supply of propane. I'd want room for a large garden and the right soil so I could grow potatoes, carrots, and other veggies.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

I live in a small cottage right at 1000 square feet ... For me it is more about the land (sorry). 

We have a river, two creeks and two ponds. Fenced and cross fenced, with garden area, pasture and a wood lot.(and we only spent 25 years getting it done) I spend more time out of doors than I do in. I will say that when the whole family comes together we are rather close ... literally. 

But right now we are remodeling ... rough cut lumber/logs. It is rather nice. (Or will be when we get finished )


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## Padre (Oct 7, 2011)

My dream house has 100 acres of land and a safe room with a blast door...but I don't suppose that is what you had in mind.

Like Andy, multiple sources of water would be a non-negotiable: running water, a well, and a pond.

The water would be gravity fed 

The elevation would have to be 1000ft or higher.

The walls would have at least level III bullet resistance.

Heating would be redundant geo-thermal, wood, and propane


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## RevWC (Mar 28, 2011)

I am in the process of looking for a home in Florida, 1400 sqft. at least a 1/4 acre. Price under $50,000.00, with ponds close by. There are a lot of these available here. My Son is on 3.5 acres with 2 ponds. He has his aquaponics up and running great!


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## Padre (Oct 7, 2011)

RevWC said:


> I am in the process of looking for a home in Florida, 1400 sqft. at least a 1/4 acre. Price under $50,000.00, with ponds close by. There are a lot of these available here. My Son is on 3.5 acres with 2 ponds. He has his aquaponics up and running great!


That's amazing, you would pay 3 to 6 times that up here.


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## notyermomma (Feb 11, 2014)

Quite so. The best deals I've found out here are prefabs that go for 20K-90K depending on their condition. I'm not a senior, so my options are limited there too. I have yet to check out any of the non-senior trailer parks, but my expectations are low. I'd love to be proven wrong.


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

RevWC said:


> I am in the process of looking for a home in Florida, 1400 sqft. at least a 1/4 acre. Price under $50,000.00, with ponds close by. There are a lot of these available here. My Son is on 3.5 acres with 2 ponds. He has his aquaponics up and running great!


https://www.homesearch.com/Browse?s...hs=&fulltextquery=FL&orderBy=5&viewType=photo


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## Tweto (Nov 26, 2011)

I have been living in my current house for 11 years and this is my perfect home.

20 years ago I drove past this place and told myself that I wanted this house. My wife and I were looking for a new house for 6 months and never found anything that looked good to us. We were driving to town one day and I said lets drive by that house that I liked. We drove by and found that it was for sale. We purchased it the next day and have been happy ever since.

This house is on an acreage, surrounded by virgin woods, with a 1 acre fenced in back yard. We are on a dead end of a one lane road. We are in an area that is all private with 60 homes. The area is surrounded by farm land for miles.

The home is smaller then our previous house by 1000sq' but since we are in our 60's it works well for us. Its 3 bedrooms and 3 baths with a large gourmet kitchen. The kitchen has all the modern appliances with 2 microwaves. 2 microwaves makes dinner very easy. The master suite has it's own independent heat and AC, this works great at night, we just turn off the house heat or AC when we are sleeping. The bottom floor has argon filled windows that can not be opened, this makes for good security. We have 3 sources of heat, electric, wood, propane. 2 sources of water from wells, and emergency power. To help with heat all but 3 of the windows are on the south side of the house and on sunny winter days this is all we need to be at 80 degrees inside the house.

A work shop that is insulated, heated, and air conditioned. a medium sized garden that produces enough for both of us for 6 months with the room to expand the garden enough for year around produce for maybe 10 people.

The crime rate is almost nil, I'm surrounded by age 50 and older home owners and very few kids, all on their own acreages.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

notyermomma said:


> LazyL ... Wow. Just wow. If wasn't so rooted where I am, I'd put an offer on this place today. It's cheaper than your average bedbug-infested homeless-squatted foreclosure out here...


You just stay away from it! 

I'm hoping it is still on the market when l I retire in 9 years! Then with or without the wife's approval...I can talk big on the internet when she isn't looking over my shoulder.


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## notyermomma (Feb 11, 2014)

Tweto, that does sound perfect. I enjoy a running pipe dream where I live in a setting just like that ... I just know that it would ultimately be a bad fit in the long run because of all the work involved. Hey, daydreams are free!


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## fredgreek (Jul 18, 2012)

Just babbling...

High thermal mass home. 
Inner surfaces of exterior walls coated with rhino lining.




Exterior surfaces of exterior walls coated with ceramic insulating paint.
Roof mounted photovoltaic panels.
HEPA filter on the roof inside a decorative copula, pvc pipe to the basement, fan is a radon blower.
"Lighttube" routed down to the basement. 
Windows triple insulated, shatterguard lining.
Small vent windows high in the wall, centered on each exterior room wall.
Cistern in basement from house roof collection. Pressurized water storage tank on 12 volt pump. (see earthship water systems)
Olive tree. Moringa trees. Yam/sweet potatoes. 
Graywater to wicking plant beds. Plants clean the water which is used to flush the toilet. Blackwater to separate wicking bed then to city sewar. (See earthships)
Sewer shut off.
Rocket stove & mass heater.
Wicking worm beds.
Aquaculture.
Solar oven, cooking, distillation.


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## Ozarker (Jul 29, 2014)

What I have found is that no home is perfect at any price, the owners always want or miss something and they become complacent as to what they accept and enjoy. As soon as we see the next "need to have" envy sets in. I have past all that at older age realizing I'm going to get older. 

I live in a nice area and have a nice storage building at the rear of the lot next to a private wooded area. I had the crazy idea of insulating it, drop a sky light in, add solar, put in an RV stove/oven, micro wave, small double sink, table and 2 chairs, love seat and my favorite chair a queen bed and build a closet, shower and toilet and a deck off the back facing the woods. I can drive back there and my lot has mature trees, I can hang a car port off the side of the building and move in back there! Then rent the house to some college babes.....I'm not elderly, just older....LOL

I can call my little efficiency apartment a guest house and get away with it. Some landscaping and I wouldn't see the house except for the roof and the house wouldn't see me either. I'd be further away from the main house than the house is from the neighbor! The rule here for tenants is no more than 3 unrelated parties, doesn't count the owner. A circle drive and garage has enough off street parking. I have power out there, just run my cable out there for TV and internet/phone. The main house has a concrete storage room behind the garage with an outside entry and no entry to the main house (originally a well house room and the well is still there). That could be my storage and utility room. 

Gosh, I think I'm talking myself into this idea.

I need to give the family heirlooms to the kids and have a really big yard sale! 

A home is a place to eat, sleep, clean up, watch TV, play on forums and entertain maybe two others or more on the back deck and keep the beer cold. It keeps you warm in the winter and cool in the summer, a ductless system would do the trick and I have a gas fireplace I can put in and a Jacuzzi tub. What more do you need? 

I can travel, stay out, a view of the woods, have no house worries, have zip expenses, minimal maintenance, clean the whole place in ten minutes and not be bothered by trick or treaters! I'd have tenants that would be my gatekeepers and add to my bank account. 

Okay, that's enough, I have a building to clear out!


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## cowboyhermit (Nov 10, 2012)

In answer to the title of the thread, "What's *in* your dream house?" I know what you mean for sure but I find it interesting that after thinking about it my answer is "not much".

The construction is extremely important high thermal mass, well insulated, fire resistant, robust material for storm and people resistance, etc. And I would certainly want to have it wired for dc and other details.

But really all of this is completely overshadowed for me by what is *outside* the house. Cold storage/root cellar, workshops, land, garden, barn, outdoor kitchen, outdoor shower, etc, etc makes a house to me just one structure among many.

My house is not my home, my property is my home.


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## nightwing (Jul 26, 2014)

Most any of the women on fox news would be a welcome 
yeppers these are the ones that would make it my dream house

the lady in the afternoon Harris Falkner beautiful eyes
Heather Nauert she makes all the weather wonderful
Heather Childers seems very well grounded and pretty 

all intelligent nice voices and seem to have it together.


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## notyermomma (Feb 11, 2014)

Oh yes ... and a pool boy. The pool being optional. 

:droolie:


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