see im terrible with this because I spent years working in new construction and have so many cool things I have seen that I want to incoporate. Like a butlers closet in between the kitchen and dining room... would make holiday entertaining quicker and keep the mess out of sight till the guests were gone.

I have decided if I ever can do it all the trim would be knotty pine stained dark with wrought iron accents. i did two houses that looked like they were from 16th century France with these kinds of details. Big arched solid doors to all of the bedrooms...

A master bedroom on the main level so I could stay there forever, or have my parents move in if need be. A walkout basement with brick walls rather than drywall, out to a pool and a built in grill and oven/fireplace on the patio...

Ohhh i could go on and on and on... LOL

After I lost my house in a fire, my sister designed a house for me that had all the things I needed and wanted.....a separate room, with it's own entrance to teach piano lessons in....a music closet in that room....a cathedral ceiling and a loft upstairs....very open floor plan....a huge shelf that goes all the way across the front of my house to hold my nutcrackers (I leave them up all year)....a patio.....and a basement with space for my son's band to practice....a laundry room/mud room.....a 2 car garage.....master bedroom on the main floor so that if I need to when I get older, I can live just on one floor.

Awfully sorry about your house, carmensong. I lost mine to foreclosure a few years ago, but at least I got to keep my stuff. Great ideas, guys. The butler's pantry sounds neat.

Thanks bouguiniste......it was almost a feeling of not even being the same person anymore - there was nothing to tie us to the past at all.

Oh....I forgot my walk-in pantry. I had to have that too. :)

I currently live in a run down mobile home with my husband and 3 kids. I have often dreamed about owning my own home. First of all it would be important for us to have some land with our house. I have a 5 year old daughter that is horse crazy. We also have a dog and 3 cats. I would be happy living in an old farm house, but if I could build my own house then I would want a single story due to the fact that I have a bad leg. I have had a dream of a house being built around a central Kitchen. It would be a very open house. There would be a curved counter where the kids could eat at. The kitchen would flow into the living room area. There would be a big fireplace and a set of french doors that would go out onto a patio where we could cook out and have a fire pit and sit in the evenings. If you were back in the kitchen and took a right down a short hall would be our bedroom wit it's own master bathroom. I would like a washer and dryer in there, a small apartment sized. I would want one in the kids' bathroom as well. I can't carry things because of my leg.
I would love a fireplace that can be seen from both the bathroom and bedroom. I would like a large tub and a sit in shower. If you take a left out of the kitchen you would walk down a short hallway and there would be a coat closet and then the front door.If you go back up that short hall and take a right which would pass the open kitchen you would go down a hall where there would be 3 bedrooms situated down this hall. The 2 girls bedrooms would be on the right with a bathroom between them and my sons room would be on the left. He also would have his own 3/4 bath with a washer and dryer. At the end of this hallway would be a small efficiency apartment that my sister-in-law would live in. She is mentally challenged and can live on her own as long as she has someone watching out for her. I would also like a full finished basement to have a family room where the kids could keep their toys and where we could watch TV and unwind. I would like an entrance down there with a mud room where they can leave all of their dirty shoes and such. Hey if you are gonna dream, dream big, right.

Wow! Big difference from the empty-nester houses I've been designing. I hope your kids help out around the house.