(I know, I'm totally cheating by blitzing through all these blog topics.)
I don't have a specific type of house in mind (I know nothing about architecture), but here's what I would love to have IN my dream house (pictures are nabbed from around the Internet, and do not belong to me):
A craft room - this much is a gimme. My yarn stash is overflowing out of its cube shelves, and in addition to all my knitting stuff, I've got a lot of paper craft supplies, scrapbooking materials, jewelry-making materials and just general art supplies. I would love to have space where I could keep ALL of that, and a sewing table (I have a sewing machine), another huge table for pinning things together, seaming together my projects, blocking, etc. (Just a huge work table.) I'd also like to have a dress form somewhere in there. I would also like to have a lot of natural light coming in so I can do my project photography. Maybe my own little homemade light box. That's not too much to ask, is it?
A personal library room/office - This has always been my dream. I remember going to professors' office hours during college and just drooling over their floor-to-ceiling bookshelves crammed with books. I don't read as much as I used to, but I've always wanted to have a fantastic book collection. (I would hide the copies of Twilight, I think.) I would love to have the same floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, a hugely comfy couch, possibly a fireplace, and my computer desk set up in that room, but to keep it from being too stodgy and stuffy, I would hang up some
Gil Elvgren pinup art.
A media room - Though I am saying this is more for Jimmy than for me, I would NOT call it a "Man Cave," because 1) that's the dumbest name ever, and 2) it implies that women don't care about watching movies or playing video games or having kickass surround sound. It's nice to have a media room separate from, say, a random tv to watch while you're cooking, because sometimes you want the theatre experience without the theatre. We have an extensive film collection and lots of electronics and wiring that need protecting from Jolie, and when we sit down to watch a movie, we would like to crank the volume without disturbing anyone. (And we would like not to be disturbed as well.) I'm not sure if Jimmy would want theatre-style seating or not though, but it would sure be nice to put all this electronic stuff somewhere, and also have some awesome movie art up on the wall. In addition to the movie aspect, Jimmy also would like to find a home for his record collection and record player, as well as his recording equipment and instruments, and that would be the perfect room to keep it in. This would be much like the personal library, but it's a personal
media library.
Are you keeping track so far? That's THREE rooms in my dream house already, and that doesn't include the bedrooms! Thank god this is my dream house, because I couldn't afford a real house like this, especially in the bay area, especially on a teacher's salary.
The rest of the house, I want to be very sunny and soft and comfortable. I want it to be the sort of house that you could just sink into the couch at the end of a long day. I love lots of natural light, filmy sheer curtains, little pops of color. Not surprisingly, I'm always in love with what I see in the Ikea catalogs:
 |
| Bedroom |
 |
| Living room |
 |
| Kitchen (minus the people) |
 |
| Children's room/playroom |
I hate dark places where you have to leave the lights on all the time. Huge windows, high ceilings, lots and lots of sun - it's good for the soul.
Of course, we want a pet-friendly backyard: there needs to be some grass (because that's where our dogs will do their doody), and a concrete patio, with some outdoor furniture for those summer nights and barbecues and listening to the Giants game on the radio (if such a place in the Bay Area exists). I'm not much of a green thumb (in fact, I'm terrible at taking care of plants), so a lawn and some shrubs that don't require much maintenance would be just enough. Oh, and it would be awesome to string some lights or paper lanterns around :)
So, for all my wishing and dreaming... right now we're in a two-bedroom condo. And likely to stay here for some time. There's no way the real estate situation in the bay area will allow me to have this dream house, so I will either have to move to, like, Iowa (hey, it's a blue state!) or somehow strike it rich and win the lottery. Which, actually, is more likely to happen than the government giving the state education budget more money. Isn't that sad?
A craft room - this much is a gimme. My yarn stash is overflowing out of its cube shelves, and in addition to all my knitting stuff, I've got a lot of paper craft supplies, scrapbooking materials, jewelry-making materials and just general art supplies. I would love to have space where I could keep ALL of that, and a sewing table (I have a sewing machine), another huge table for pinning things together, seaming together my projects, blocking, etc. (Just a huge work table.) I'd also like to have a dress form somewhere in there. I would also like to have a lot of natural light coming in so I can do my project photography. Maybe my own little homemade light box. That's not too much to ask, is it?
A personal library room/office - This has always been my dream. I remember going to professors' office hours during college and just drooling over their floor-to-ceiling bookshelves crammed with books. I don't read as much as I used to, but I've always wanted to have a fantastic book collection. (I would hide the copies of Twilight, I think.) I would love to have the same floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, a hugely comfy couch, possibly a fireplace, and my computer desk set up in that room, but to keep it from being too stodgy and stuffy, I would hang up some Gil Elvgren pinup art.
A media room - Though I am saying this is more for Jimmy than for me, I would NOT call it a "Man Cave," because 1) that's the dumbest name ever, and 2) it implies that women don't care about watching movies or playing video games or having kickass surround sound. It's nice to have a media room separate from, say, a random tv to watch while you're cooking, because sometimes you want the theatre experience without the theatre. We have an extensive film collection and lots of electronics and wiring that need protecting from Jolie, and when we sit down to watch a movie, we would like to crank the volume without disturbing anyone. (And we would like not to be disturbed as well.) I'm not sure if Jimmy would want theatre-style seating or not though, but it would sure be nice to put all this electronic stuff somewhere, and also have some awesome movie art up on the wall. In addition to the movie aspect, Jimmy also would like to find a home for his record collection and record player, as well as his recording equipment and instruments, and that would be the perfect room to keep it in. This would be much like the personal library, but it's a personal media library.
Of course, we want a pet-friendly backyard: there needs to be some grass (because that's where our dogs will do their doody), and a concrete patio, with some outdoor furniture for those summer nights and barbecues and listening to the Giants game on the radio (if such a place in the Bay Area exists). I'm not much of a green thumb (in fact, I'm terrible at taking care of plants), so a lawn and some shrubs that don't require much maintenance would be just enough. Oh, and it would be awesome to string some lights or paper lanterns around :)
