Kathsgrdn, you pretty closely described my house. Only the front is stone and within a year we will have two resturants within walking distance along with a hair salon, nail salon, drycleaner and several other small businesses. I would like my house but with a sunroom and a two car garage instead of the one car I have now.

Only a dream that could never be realized but an air-conditioned tree house in a tropical forest.

Here's my hypothetical house: And I wouldn't even want the right hand wing.

There are two.

One is a rambling Southwestern style adobe with beautiful tile in the kitchen and bathrooms.

The other is a big white frame Victorian farmhouse.

This house has everything I ever wanted in a house....at the time....except for a wood burning fireplace. Now, as I told my husband, I am over my old house fetish. I want a plain, one story ranch style house....with a wood burning fireplace....because I have a pair of really unique andirons that look like hound dogs....and I'd like to use them. I would like a kitchen with a gas burning range....preferably an old one....like 1950's or older, and a whirlpool bathtub in the bathroom. I am more interested in land....and I need at least 30 acres. And a pond. And big trees. A little bit of woods, but not very much. And more important than anything else....privacy. No really close neighbors.

I'd like a large, one story home with a huge, modern kitchen and a designated pantry for all of my kitchen supplies. I'd like it to be either new or newly renovated. I'd like a little bit of land, but not too much. Maybe an acre or so. Most importantly I would like a staff to cook, clean and do the outdoor maintenance!

ladypat1, I know that house! It's in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard! I've never been inside, but I've been riding my bike past it for 40 years. The garden is always just gorgeous.

My hypothetical house? A small Georgian manor house, double front, with spectacular views of the English countryside.

A small, 3 bedroom, 2 bath log cabin with a nice cozy living room with a fire place. A spacious kitchen though, because I love to cook! Outside, there would be plenty of land to ATV ride, and a lake to fish in. I would prefer it to be in Oregon or New Hampshire.

We moved into our dream house four months ago! It's actually a custom duplex we built with our DD (our only) and her family. The reveal that I posted on the home building forum is linked below. We're loving it!

Multigenerational Duplex

My grandmother's house, only newer and finished out. After my grandparents had died, the old house fell into disrepair. Yet whenever I was stressed, I would dream that I went to my grandmother's house for Thanksgiving or some get together, and I would be amazed to see that the paint was spanking White, the foundation was level, the windows were sparkling. As I approach the front door, my grandmother would open it and I would gasp and exclaim "granny, they said you had died!" She would wipe her hands on her apron and laugh and say, " I never heard of anything so silly. come inside and have some coffee." Her back was straight, her apron was snowy white, the linoleum in the living room was bright and new, the kitchen was bright. And somehow I knew that the bedrooms were bright and clean and the fires bright and cheery. The upstairs was a semi finished space, but in my dream it had been finished out, and the wide old floorboards were waxed or varnished, and sun streamed through the windows. To this day, that's the house I want.

Sylvia, what pleasant memories!

I wasn't sure I like my real house for a LONG time... but since I painted the indoor walls, had insulation blown in the outside walls, I like it a WHOLE lot better. Not totally my dream house, but in a dream location. I can walk to sprouts, less than a 1/4 mile away, a big lots about 1/3 mile away, a Braums Ice Cream place about 1/2 mile away... the lake with the bike trail around it about 1 1/2 mile away.... it couldn't be in a better location. And now a new kitchen counter, sink and faucet ordered... as well as a Murphy Bed for the sewing/guest room... This is turning more and more in to a dream house. Now I just need to devote some time to my yard. :) LOL, when I am not out cycling or traveling...

Moni

Phoggie, yes, and I kind of wish that I still had this dream occasionally. I think I stopped having it when I realized that I only had the dream when I needed to escape from some kind of stressful problem. Oddly (well, *maybe* oddly) often when I think about my grandmother's house, I think about the idealized sunshiny version. From the time I was born until my grandparents were gone, I was in and out of that house all the time.

My dream house would be a 5 bedroom 3 bath ranch house smack on the beach in the Southern Caribbean.

I often fantasize about this subject. I live in a complicated property and would love to downsize to a one floor home - be able to park my car in a garage (my husband has his cars and toys in ours). I'd love a butler's pantry for my collection of dishes that live in the basement. I'd also like to replace our high maintenance gardens with a simple deck or two.

We're pretty much already there. We have a small, energy efficient Craftsman style house on 7 acres of woods. I have a big barn for my 'man cave', and share it all with the love of my life. And- it's paid for! What else could I want?

Anyone familiar with the palm house at Kew? Like that, with a small annex containing bedroom and bathroom on the back LOL.

You know what? I found my ideal house and I'm pleased to call it home. Yes, I feel very lucky. Here's a deep winter photo.

I've always been into cozy and traditional, until I went to the glass house. It's integration with nature and it's minimalist simplicity triggered something in me.

My next dream house will be on a lake or the ocean with a view, nestled into a southern facing slope. Open to and integrated with the view outside.

I love the home I am in but if I am moving I would choose a log home on the KT Lake with an elevator to the second floor and several guest rooms and a large playroom for the Grands. No stainless steel appliances in my large, sunny eat-in kitchen. Fireplaces are a must as is a media room.

P.S. A large dock with several boat slips and a deck area with seating.

Seagrass, I I'm a little bit of a china nut too. I once visited a big luxury home that the couple had designed and built. The wife had specifically included something that she called the china room. It was bigger than the book room at the elementary school I went to LOL. Floor-to-ceiling shelves, different heights for the different pieces, nice white lighting so you could see what you were looking at. She had all her China, serving pieces, centerpieces... It was fabulous!

Open concept. BIG kitchen. Against the woods, hilly. 22' high ceilings. Lots of windows. Two sided fireplace next to the bathtub & on the other side the bedroom. Lots of decking and wild life. Furnished with warm woods, dragonfly printed/down filled pillows, sherpa throws, kilim rugs, a collected look.

Anglophilia Oh my gosh! I knew nothing about this place! I have it as my screen saver!. It makes me happy. If you ever drive by in flower season, please take pics and post! To me this is what heaven looks like! I think most of those flowers are dahlias. I need to try and grow them.

A stone cottage that spans a creek, with hills and a hollow in the back, but space for a barn, garden, and yard. I'd like some rocky outcrops, and some woods, and a small waterfall and grotto. I realize that it would be damp, and prone to flooding when heavy rains cause water to rush down the hollow, but it would be so pretty in summer, and gorgeous in winter with the ice and snow. I'd need a spillway with a gate. Someone here posted a house recently that had a setting similar to my ideal.

The house would have a sunny kitchen, with a door to a stone patio, and large dining room with a wall of windows (how can I get that with hills all around? ;) A master bedroom on the first floor, and I'd want enough bedrooms so that my kids and grandkids could come and stay for holidays--maybe a bunkroom for the kids and a small guest house for the adults.

A coop for chickens, and raccoons that respect my territory. This is a dream, right?

Four square style. Victorian. Big front porch with a swing. Natural wood floors and finishing throughout. Separate parlor from formal living room. Formal dining room with built in hutches. Lots of built in bookcases and shelves throughout. Kitchen with an island and a farm sink. Open cabinets and a separate pantry. Private elevator. Third floor attic is finished and is guest bedroom. Master bathroom big enough for a settee and a stereo system. Fireplace in living room and master bedroom. One upstairs bedroom probably the master bedroom which is adjoined by a dressing room has a deck for plants and lawn chairs. One bedroom upstairs is music and tv room. Music piped in throughout house. One bedroom upstairs is office and library. Basement is finished in a more sleek black and red and set up as a private uh "do the nasty" area. Separate laundry room and mud room in basement. Two other full baths one in basement. Backyard big enough for a chicken coop. I will post a pic. There was a house in Peoria Illinois which I call my dream home which resembles my description. If you Google sears four square homes and look at the images that is close to what I am describing.

I love this tiny house with a greenhouse.

Mine: pretty much like the current one, but without the snow, and with excellent high speed wi-fi, a neighborhood top grade Korean restaurant, and an ergonomic-entry hot tub.

Dreams are unconstrained by reality, right? I like my little brick 80-year old house quite well. It's character is cozy, inside and out, I think. What I want (that is impossible until we develop transporters, a la Star Trek), is for my house to be both walking distance to in-town amenities, and out in the middle of the mountains.

Mine would be this house:

but on the other side of town within easy walking distance of downtown and the beach, and of course with the kitchen and bath put right, and a pool, of course, and maybe a detached garage:

https://www.estately.com/FL/SOSA,_Lake_Worth#listing-1230-s-m-street

My dream house would be a mini 2 turreted house with a view to the ocean and woods and mountains. Really I'd like to live on a boat with turrets of course lol. I don't know why. They're hard to decorate and that makes them impractical. :( But Love?

My parents built their dream house when she was 40 and she lived there till she was 90, the last 22 years as a widow. But it was a maintenance free brick ranch house. I, on the other hand, never liked it and always wanted an old two-story house. I began going to weekly auctions and shows and gradually everything in the house was from the 1800's. So I wanted a house that best showed it off. For the last 35 years, I've lived in the "dream house" , which is an 1840 Federal clapboard farmhouse on the historical register. It's the antithesis of my parents' house in every conceivable way. It has ten large rooms, three fireplaces, original pine floors, but the question is how could we ever stay in this house till we're 90? (if we were fortunate to live that long) Lots of maintenance with a big half acre yard with koi ponds.My mother was the smart one.

So cool that Anglo knows LadyPat's dream house. The house I live in is pretty much my dream house. I love almost everything about it. Arts and Crafts style with large rooms, beautiful woodwork and built-ins. Three bathrooms. I have a garden shed and a gazebo. Large enough property for sizable gardens, four bay garage. The best feature is the front porch that looks very much like the one in Scott's picture without the rail. It sounds fancy but it really isn't. It's just a nice older home with good bones. The only thing lacking are some large trees. My ultimate dream house would be one where the cats don't shed.

It wouldn't really matter what the house looked like if it was in the middle of woods 10 miles in every direction from another person. That would be my dream "home".

arkansas, sometimes my dream house looks like the Beverly Hillbillies original weather-beaten tiny shack. Imagine being so free of "stuff", just sitting and whittling on the porch with a couple of hounds at your feet.

clean, painted with a new roof - and take me back 20 yrs to the 5 neighbors within my sight line, and I'd be happy!

oh, and without those developments all around out here with the paved 4 lane Hwy - that was a dirt road when I moved here.

I had to make a house for a project one time. It was an impossible house, but I even made floor plans from top to bottom of a three story house, down to the finishes and furnishings.

The bottom floor housed a huge entry way with those double winding stairways to greet you. To the left was a study, warm and cozy with a window seat. Straightforward was into a rather large living room. There was a fireplace at the far end, shared (see-through) with the dining room large enough for at least a dozen at one table lay. On the right hand side of the dining room there were lanai doors that opened to a deck and just beyond it, a water inlet, and a garden (of course!). To the left of the dining room (and it could be accessed by the study on the other end), was the spacious kitchen with floor to ceiling windows that looked out over the west coast, high up on a cliff.

The second floor was the laundry (huge!) and the master suite that had an amazing closet and bathroom. You should've seen the tub. Oh my. Obviously very spacious rooms and closet, since it took up an entire floor?! Seems like there was even an entire "closet" for purses. Wonder what that said about me since it was a house that was to be my mental retreat from the world? Hm.

The third floor had two guest bedrooms with their own bathrooms and the rest of the floor was my son's area where he not only had a bedroom big enough for two queen beds (for sleep overs, he was really little then) and bath, he had a secret hideaway where he could lounge and play video games or watch movies. It had a spiral slide that he could ride all the way to the ground floor. What's really kind of cool is, he ended up with a bedroom a lot like my vision except far smaller (no kidding, since i live in a 1400 sq foot home and only has half a floor to himself ;) in reality.

I still have the notebook with all the stuff in it. I should give that a look again. I guess I haven't needed to since I learned how to enjoy what I actually do have. Making this house into mine has been fun. I can't wait to get around to a more solid garden after a couple more years. I want to make wattle edging and that is going to take forever to do, but it's gonna fit me like a glove when I'm done.