# If you could design your house, clean sheet



## Capt Worley PE (Dec 19, 2012)

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


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## snickerd3 (Dec 19, 2012)

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


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## Judowolf PE (Dec 19, 2012)

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...


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## Supe (Dec 19, 2012)

-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).


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## Capt Worley PE (Dec 19, 2012)

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


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

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


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## Wolverine (Dec 19, 2012)

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.


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## knight1fox3 (Dec 19, 2012)

Easy, zombie-proof house:


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## Supe (Dec 19, 2012)

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


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## Master slacker (Dec 19, 2012)

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.


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


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## pbrme (Dec 19, 2012)

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.


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## Ble_PE (Dec 19, 2012)

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...


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## Judowolf PE (Dec 19, 2012)

PBR that is nice, really nice!!


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## Judowolf PE (Dec 19, 2012)

This was the outside of the house we built


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## Judowolf PE (Dec 19, 2012)

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!


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## Ble_PE (Dec 19, 2012)

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


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## blybrook PE (Dec 19, 2012)

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.


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## snickerd3 (Dec 19, 2012)

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.


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## pbrme (Dec 19, 2012)

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


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## Dexman PE PMP (Dec 21, 2012)

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.


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## Judowolf PE (Dec 21, 2012)

It's sweet Dex!


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## snickerd3 (Dec 21, 2012)

I thought of one more feature on my way into work this morning. A dumbwaiter system if the house is 2 stories so I wouldn't have to carry things up the stairs.


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## mudpuppy (Dec 21, 2012)

In my dream house, you wouldn't be able to see any other houses. Or hear neighbor's dogs or traffic.


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## Judowolf PE (Dec 21, 2012)

I was planning on building our shop before our house, so I only designed for a 2 car, but it rained all spring and into summer here in 2008, so when we could get the concrete done, it was one or the other since it was already June...I stretched the garage by 4ft each direction and added 1ft to the doors each way thinking that would be big enough, wrong, I wish I had done at least 4ft more each way, it's never big enough!


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## Dexman PE PMP (Dec 21, 2012)

Having an upstairs laundry room would have been nice too, especially with kids...


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## Judowolf PE (Dec 21, 2012)

we did a laundry room upstairs and a laudry room/mud room downstairs...its great


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## Judowolf PE (Dec 21, 2012)

I also laid out the unfinished basement with a future kitchen, a full bath and a bedroom...it's basically an apartment. Someday as parents get older, it may be necessary, or more likely I may end up in the doghouse, so at least I'll have some creature comforts!


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## Dexman PE PMP (Dec 21, 2012)

^^^ We have a "mother-in-law's" suite on the first floor. There's only one bedroom on the main floor that has a door directly into the only main floor bathroom. That way the parents don't have to deal with stairs...

We're starting to put together plans on how to finish out the basement, and so far we're looking at a small fitness studio, a 3/4 bath, a wet-bar/kitchenette (kitchen minus stove/oven), a decent sized storage/utility room, and leaving the rest (about 25' by 30') open for entertainment (pool table, poker table, projection TV, etc). I'll be framing in the storage room next week during my time off, but the rest of it probably won't happen for a few years.


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## Capt Worley PE (Dec 21, 2012)

Dexman PE said:


> Having an upstairs laundry room would have been nice too, especially with kids...


Until the washer hose breaks, floods the area, and ruins all that crappy OSB and 'engineered' wood products they build houses out of nowadays.

Which reminds me...no 'engineered' wood products.


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## Dexman PE PMP (Dec 21, 2012)

Because solid wood isn't effected by moisture at all...


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## Capt Worley PE (Dec 21, 2012)

Wood is affected, but retains its strength. OSB, not so much.


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