House Week: Jessica

I have two dream houses, one that is practical and sensible, and the other that is frilly and fun. I’ll share both.

For the practical one, I have a pretty specific floor plan in mind. I want a ranch/rambler. You need to be able to come in through the garage, into a mud room and then into the kitchen (no carrying groceries across the house). I want a kitchen that is big enough to function in, but not too big that it is a pain to clean. I want the fridge, stove and sink to make a triangle in the kitchen. I’ve lived in enough houses to know that the triangle is the most functional kitchen design. The kitchen/dining area should be attached to a living room. There should be a front entry that comes into the living room area, but it has to be set up so that you can’t see the kitchen from the entry way. (I’m just not that good of a housekeeper.) Then, there should be a hall with at least 3 bedrooms down it. There needs to be a bathroom that is accessible from this hall. The master needs a bathroom attached to it, but the one in the hall can be the same bathroom. The bathroom attached to the master should have two rooms, one with the sink and counter, and one with the toilet and tub. This allows more people to get ready at the same time.

Downstairs, I want a big family room, a food storage room, another storage room, and two other bedrooms, with a bathroom near them. The arrangement down here is not as specific.

I want a lot that is 4-5 acres, has two-three out buildings (one big enough to house a hoist, and the other to store farming equipment). It should have an established tree fence, a deck off the kitchen, an attached garage, and lots of good climbing trees. It should not be located on a highway, but I want it close to the school and town. To add to all this, my husband is a farmer, and I don’t want to be more than a few miles away from the main fields. We choose this profession so he could be around home more. I don’t want him to have to travel far to get to work. This leaves only a few houses (in rural areas, houses are few and far between). Most of these homes are two-story 100 year old farmhouses that are in the family and stay in the family.

Sounds impossible to get this house? Well, we just bought it, and it had exactly what we wanted. This list existed before we found this house; we were just lucky enough to find one that fit the list. It also had extensive damage due to a pipe burst, which meant we could afford it, too. Luckily, my husband has some good handy-man skills, so we are able to repair it. In a few weeks, we’ll be moving into this dream house.

But, let’s look at a little less sensible option. I would love a master bedroom with a waterfall in it. I want a walk in shower that is the size of a room. I want a huge, whirlpool tub in there, too. The master area would also have a small kitchen in it, so we can keep the food that we don’t want the kids eating there. Yes, that means a freezer stocked entirely with the best ice cream. I want a sewing room that has floor to ceiling shelving for fabric, and an organization system for that. Speaking of floor to ceiling, I want a Beauty and the Beast style library. I want to look up and see books, as far as anyone can see. Just for fun, I’ll put a secret staircase in there that goes up to our master suite. My husband wants to have a tiled kitchen that has a slight slant to the floor, and all the furniture on metal legs. Then, there would a high-powered water system on one end. With the push of a button, it sprays water and soap across the floor and mops the floor. He figures we’d have a scrubber to hit the bad spots, and then would run a rinse on it. Sounds good to me. For décor, I love fresh flowers. Fake ones bug me. So, I want a constant delivery of real flowers that match my décor. I’ll add some really good chocolates to that delivery, too, not that those have anything to do with the house, but I would love a constant delivery of fine chocolates. I like the frosty machine idea, too. That can go into our home entertainment room, which has a movie theater in it, and every fun arcade game ever made. I want a very fun hang-out spot for teenagers. I want to have the house that teenagers hang out at, so that I know what is going on my kids’ lives. My husband wants to include an indoor slide park in there, because that would be fun, too. Lastly, it has to have a music room, with a gorgeous grand piano and areas to keep every other instrument my kids may ever want to learn, and lots and lots of music books for them to learn from. I would say it needs an exercise room, but I’m not sure that I would actually use it.

I’m happy with the house we have, though, and I love it. I’ll save the second house for my mansion in heaven. That would be better, anyway, because I’m pretty sure a resurrected body can handle all the ice cream, fine chocolates, and frosties that it wants. Then, I can skip the exercise room, too. Do I have to do housework there?