If you could design your house, clean sheet

If I had my choices.

-3bd/2 bath-1800 ft^2 max

-Single story

-Detached three car garage

-Detached storage/yard shed

-Metal roof with water collection tank

-Full basement

-12' ceilings w/fans

-Attic fan

-Ground coupled heat pump

-Gas stove/aux heat/dryer

-Knotty pine panels (not the plywood stuff)

-Pecan trees to the south and west (not so close to clog the gutters, but close enough for shade)

-Remote solar panels

-Auxiliary Solar water heater

-30' of triple wire clothesline on south side of house

If I only could have that option...

Does your 1800sqft include the space in the basement? I think you might find 1800sqft total a little small. Thats about what we have including our basement and we could use about 1 more room worth of space

When we designed our house, Mrs wolf and I started out looking at house plans, just to get an idea of what we could agree on the outside to look like...I bet we went through 20,000 plans before we could agree on one. I was more southern style plantation house, she was more conventional. We totally gutted the interior plans and reworked them to fit our lifestyle and cut out a lot of wasted, unused space. I'll try to post some pics if any one is interested in what it turned out like...Snick is right, 1800sqft is a little small for most, but it depends on what your plans are for the future...

-5 bedroom, 4 bathrooms, 1 1/2 bath

-4500 sq/ft+

-Finished basement with recessed theater area with isolated drywall

-Two story great room

-12' ceilings in most, coffered ceiling in master bedroom

-Attic storage space

-Prewired with in-ceiling speakers in most of downstairs for ambient music

-A lot of natural stone/wood finishes throughout with large glass windows (I really liked the overall look of the HGTV dream home in Stowe, VT)

-Approx 1 1/2 - 2 acres

-3 car attached

-6 car detached/outbuilding with lift and loft

-Storage shed/small wood shop

That would be my mother-f'ing dream home. I have approx 2600 sq/ft now, and with the three of us, there's very little storage and I feel claustrophobic half the time. The next one will absolutely be no less than 4500 sq ft, likely a bit older home that needs some DIY reno (I'll just drag Wolvie up here to help).

snickerd3 said:

If I only could have that option...

Does your 1800sqft include the space in the basement? I think you might find 1800sqft total a little small. Thats about what we have including our basement and we could use about 1 more room worth of space

Click to expand...

Nah, that's floor space, not including the basement.

And that's max. I could easily see 1200 ft^2, if packaged right.

Sliding roof observatory in the attic

Retractable floor covered pool in basement

Shooting range in garage

Spiral stairs with a long winding bannister (for sliding of course)

3 car garage with checkered flag floor

Boat garage out back for the W-Navy (1 canoe, 1 jet ski, maybe some kayaks one day)

Hard Rock Cafe patterned music room with replicas of guitars by Brian May, EVH, Hendrix, SRV, Alex Lifesons white ES335, and Jimmy Page's 6/12 doubleneck.

Ha! I'm just being silly. There's no way Jimmy Page's 6/12 double would fit on a wall next to the previous.

Easy, zombie-proof house:

I'd hate to be the one trying to open those windows.

Supe said:

I have approx 2600 sq/ft now, and with the three of us, there's very little storage and I feel claustrophobic half the time.

Click to expand...

Really? Damn. We have ~1200 ft2 living for four of us. This is a 90+ year old house with NO storage.

When the Ms. and I were looking, we'd considered building and we both fell in love with this layout:



But with a mediteranian exterior feel:



Separate bathrooms in all of the bedrooms are a plus. I would also have a 40x60 outbuilding/shop/barn on 1-2 acres with an underground shooting range built out of recycled storage containers.

Let's see...

I would want a 4 bedroom house with 5 baths (one for each bedroom and one guest). Large professionally outfitted kitchen since that's what the wifey would like to have. I'd have it built on a full, walk-out basement with a swimming pool and hot tub on one side and an outdoor kitchen with fireplace on the other. The basement would have a 15-20 seat home theater, wine cellar, and fully stocked bar. Would definitely have a game room with pool table, arcade games, the works. Home gym. All set on about 2 acres of land. Sounds perfect.

Of course, I'm perfectly happy with my ~2000 sf, 3 bedroom home on a quarter of an acre that I have right now, especially considering I'm about to refi to a 20 year loan. But it's nice to dream...

PBR that is nice, really nice!!

This was the outside of the house we built

I'm in the process of building a 40x60 garage/shop/indoor basketball arena w/12x60 open bay for the tractor/attachements...gotta have some play toys to go out on the 80 acre farm!

^Guess we know who's making the fatty money here!

I did a preliminary redesign a few weeks ago; modified footprint considerably; but it's not a dream house (mainly some place to rest your head at the end of the day). The foot print is a rectangle, 2400 sq ft overall; no basement (designed for permafrost, so pile foundation).

IF I could swing it, I'd have the house I put together to live in; then a nice garage / pole barn to "play". It'd be heated (necessary at -40* temps) with it's own double shooting lanes / range to handle anything between a .177 air rifle and a 50 cal., mechanics pit, vehicle lift, swinging gantry crane / hoist, welding area, mini-apartment for guests (or to clean up in) and a few other benefits. I know I'm dreaming on that one; so I'll have to deal with getting a heated pole barn with a mechanics pit that can fit the primary vehicle and the snow plow.

Dream house would have 4 bedrooms the size of our master bedroom. 2.5 - 3.5 bathrooms would be fine.

A playroom for minisnick

A very modern and large kitchen with gas stovetop, electric oven.

an office/library

a room for me and my hobbies

a huge garage 3 car for the extra space

a huge shed/building out back with electricity.

mud/laundry room on the same floor as the bedrooms.

9-10 ft ceilings throughout. a vaulted ceiling would be nice, i miss that from our old house.

All above grade except for a reinforced basement area for tornados would be all that i ask, whether 1 story or 2 story i don't really care....would probably bump the sqftage to 2300 to 2500 sqft range. Properly graded lot to promote better drainage and ease of yardwork.

But seriously if we ever won the lottery we would knock our current house down and rebuild said dream house. If we have to be where we are, it really is the best place to be in the area.

... Oh I forgot to add in my dream house would also have a grotto and a slide from the upstairs into a ball pit.

Construction completed July 2011

2900 sf finished with additional 1300sf unfinished basement

5bed + office, 4 bath

3-car garage

2-story open living room

deluxe kitchen with gas stovetop and dual ovens

gas fireplace

Only thing I would change on it would be the size of the garage. It's *technically* a 3-car, but unless you only own Priuses you're not getting more than 2 in there and still be able to open doors.

It's sweet Dex!