What’s Your Dream-ish House?
The sad reality is nobody wants to hear about our dreams — a fascinating dream to us is just too disjointed and specific to anyone else. What’s the deal with your first grade teacher? And why is it so funny that she had a moustache? And why is it interesting that she was married to your dad while you were living in a McDonalds on Mars?
And nobody wants to hear about your dream house. We all want to have a 10,000 square mile estate with a lake and five swimming pools and a movie theater and a petting zoo and animatronic versions of Radiohead and Bette Midler ready to serenade us on command. So what. News at eleven.
But Dream-ish Houses, that’s a different story. Let’s forget about the billion dollar house or the house you’d own if you were a one percenter. Suppose you had a house fit for someone in the top ten percent. What would it be like? Now that’s interesting!
Maybe $750,000-$1,000,000 buys a house that a surgeon or corporate attorney owns in your neck of the woods. Or maybe you live in Chicago and the price is a good bit higher. How would you spend that?
Features, Size, Age, Style
Would you want a historic house with crazy angles, odd features, and uneven floors with boards a foot wide? Or would you go for something ultramodern, filled with stainless steel and gleaming surfaces?
Would you even want a standalone house? Or maybe you’d go for a nice condo in a building with a doorman and gym?
Brick, stone, wood exterior? Modern open floor plan, or something more like a traditional Victorian with lots of specific rooms? Everything on one floor, or a tall house with three stories? Country, city or suburbs? Ocean front, out on a farm, or in a bustling neighborhood? Maybe a replica of a Roman villa built around a courtyard?
As for me, I’d love a big old Victorian with a wraparound porch, at least one big tree, but enough sunlight for a vegetable garden. Not too much property to minimize the hassles of yardwork, and for that matter not so big that it requires constant cleaning. Definitely in a neighborhood with sidewalks where people are always out walking. Oh, and a top floor porch or balcony for standing outside on nice days to take in the view. Wood floors with carpets and not wall to wall. And definitely a creepy basement and attic for visiting when the weather gets weird.
The house I grew up in had a laundry chute, so kids could just open a door and drop dirty clothes straight down to a hamper by the basement. So cool!
Maybe you want a cupola? A dumbwaiter? A gazebo?
Sacrifices?
Since this wouldn’t be a perfect dream house, what would you sacrifice?
For me, I’d be willing to accept a smaller yard without a giant garage or a pool. George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life had to deal with the knob on his bannister always coming off in his hand, but maybe in your Dream-ish House you’d be willing to sacrifice historic character for a brand new place where you never had to worry about things like that.
Or maybe you’d give up everything that came with a house if you could live in an apartment in a perfectly run building where you just needed to call the super when a lightbulb went out.
Describe the house that meets your realistic wants and needs, even if you can’t have a hovercraft port and 2000 inch screen with a live in projectionist and popcorn chef. Maybe it comes down to location/location/location for you and you will sacrifice a lot to live in your dream neighborhood, or maybe you’d rather have a house that fits your every need even if it means living on the cheapest property in your state.
Share with us, Deadsplinterhomesteaders, what kind of house you’d buy if you suddenly had a lot of money drop in your lap, even if it wasn’t Powermegaball money.
just gimme a cabin in a nordic fjord
Yeah, that plus a boat to paddle would be pretty sweet.
If only one could purchase shacks in RDR2O!
We bought our house about 15 years ago during the market crash. My wife wanted a water view home and we got a serious fixer upper with the idea of doing the renovation in multiple steps (mistake). We did a renovation to make it livable until we had the money to add a story and make it our dream home. After it being a nightmare during the second renovation it is pretty close to my dream home now in many ways with just a few things I am still working on. The value has almost tripled and I can see near the last of the honey do projects maybe by next summer. It started as a Sears catalog kit house from the 60’s and now looks super modern. I researched architects for a year before finding someone that could do my vision. My favorite (realistic house) architect is an Australian fellow named Peter Downes. This is the house on his site I would love to own…
https://peterdownes.com.au/stevens/
but this is what I wanted my upstairs bar to look like from another house he did and although mine is much smaller than this, it is close in looks but no center fireplace
I love those windows and a well done parquet floor is gorgeous.
A modern home, something like this. It would have to be in town so a small lot, big enough for dogs, and landscaped for privacy. I’d want lots of windows, and multiple fireplaces. A pool would be nice.
There are so many cheap looking modern designs, but that looks great. I like the idea of being able to almost walk from the house right into the pool.
I got a new phone and ported over the number from the old carrier. Dealing now with logging into 54293084391084320 things on my new phone with passwords I don’t remember.
I’ve always loved mid century modern homes, I’d love one of those. But with modern big bathrooms.
I have never cared about a pool, but man a sauna would be so wonderful. I hate cold winter weather.
A lean-to in the middle of nowhere.
Outhouse or just a patch of bushes?
If I had stupid money?
I’d TOTALLY buy something like this!
https://www.trulia.com/home/5950-County-Road-8-NW-Alexandria-MN-56308-2084892153
Then I’d rip out the RV sites & pull up the extra septic from it, do a complete gut & slight expansion on the cabin (keeping the cabin under 1000sf, with the slightly bigger bathroom & the new screen porch!)–but keep it tiny, adding a screen porch with door to the outside, a full-sized Viking-style 4 or 5-burner stove in the kitchen, put a soaking bathtub with a view of the water in the bathroom, & take out the scrubby little trees that block the view of the lake from that picture window… then i’d plant some oak trees, a Dolgo crabapple or two, some honeycrisps, pears, cold-hearty peaches, rhubarb, raspberries, blueberries, and some grape vines on the acreage (there’s 35+ ACRES-plenty of space for a few fruit trees!!!😁🤗😃), and then I’d gut & convert that second cabin into a guest house/crafting retreat!😉
35.62 acres with 1200+ feet of shoreline, on a good fishing lake?!?!?
That’s basically *perfection*!!!
Especially when crap like this is available in the area–tiny lots**
That Million+ place is on Le Home Dieu with association fees, and those sorts of places have *already* been gutted & “remodeled” in the style of “Already Dated Ticky-TACKY Lakehome!”
(Mina’s solid as lakes go around this part of the state, not too big, deep enough for the bigger fish, and the “resort” that’s for sale is at the same end of the lake as the DNR’s boat launch/access site.)
**that Million+ dollar lake place on Le Home Dieu (pronounced “Luh-hommah-due” if you’re local😉), is on .34 acres–hundreds of thousands of dollars more, on *POINT 34 ACRES*–the Lake Mina has more than 35 *FULL* acres!!!