I want a huge fireplace.  big enough to stand in.  A walk in fireplace.  Something you can have a bonfire on.  I don’t want to have to bend over and hit my head on the mantle.  Oh, and the mantle should be awesome too.  Ornate, or just big and awesome as well.

Ball pits are awesome.  Maybe I could tie in a play room that would have the ball pit and the soft cushy surface there.  Surprisingly, I think the balls for ball pits are pretty cheap, and I don’t think a room would be all that difficult to make  The only thing I would see is them getting dirty and having to somehow wash them all eventually.  Kids would love it, and I would too.

related:  http://blog.xkcd.com/2008/02/27/ballpit-phase-ii/

I don’t know what the fascination is, but I really like over-sized stuffed animals.  I think that the attraction to bean bags and other large soft cushy surfaces are coming from the same neurological wiring.  I’d love to have a room with a huge couch or stuffed animal surface place thing area.  Yeah, you know what that means.

I want to “rebuild” something in the house.  I’m not sure whether it’s just a room that is a replica of another room of a house I lived in, or a famous room from somewhere else, like the Whitehouse.  At Winterthur and Nemacolin Woodlands, they have areas where the walls are actual storefronts so the room or hallway feels like a city street.  Something like that would work too.

Without going into the dream that inspired it, I want to have a basement or at least a low level room/area that is only accessible by a staircase that is on a third or second story.  The ides is to have a normal stairwell where staircases are stacked on top of each other, but it skips a floor, and then the stairs go the opposite direction on that lower level.  I’ll probably need to mock up a 3D model or something if you can’t understand that.  That area would come in handy if you were being invaded by robbers, they’d expect the basement to only be accessible by the 1st floor, or by going down, but you have to go up to go down…

One of my favorite things in industrial and functional art is efficient use of space.  People design their furniture and living spaces to make life work well in small places.  This ins’t your feng shui movement/placement, this is getting the best use out of space.  I’ve seen hgtv shows where couples fit everything they own, neatly and conveniently, in a 400 sq ft condo.  I should pull out some of those links…everything from single foot staggered stairs, to entire walls that move and can be used for storage.

This little idea of storing books in the staircase is pretty awesome.  Kallie and I have a lot of books, and if we ever live on a boat, this would be one place we could store them all.  Kind of gives a new meaning to treading lightly on the words you speak.

http://www.geekologie.com/2008/02/bookshelf_stairs_are_freaking.php

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/at-europe/at-europe-london-closeup-the-amazing-staircase-042543

I like showers.  I like gadgets.  Put them together, and you have an extreme shower.  It’s probably a little spacey for me honestly, maybe i’d just put it in the guest bathroom.

http://www.aquapeutics.com/test/u6810b.html

Heaven.  That’s the only word I can use to describe Jay Walker’s (the brilliant brain/entrepreneur behind priceline.com) library.  I love it.  Every aspect of it.  The personalization, the M. C. Escher floors, the lighting, the collection, everything.  It’s perfect.

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-10/ff_walker?currentPage=all

Contrary to what you may believe, I enjoy privacy.  I’d love to have every room in the house completely sound proof.  ESPECIALLY the bathrooms.  I would like to think I’ll have people over often, and I hate feeling like someone is going to hear me in the bathroom.  along with the bathrooms, I’d like to have a lot of them.  All over the house.  I want to be able to go to the bathroom anywhere I want in the house.

I have 2 favorite smells.  fragrant tobacco from a pipe and concrete.  Concrete reminds me of my childhood.  Not only was there a lot of concrete pouring going on around the house as I was a kid, but my dad and I used to go watch people make roads.  I love that smell.  I also, love concrete.  It’s basically like grown up play-doh.   Well, maybe not in the function of playing with it (or eating it) but that you can make whatever you want out of it.  It’s like a miracle solution transmogrification substance…yeah.  I like it because it’s functional and cheap.  You can make entire houses out of concrete.  Or just kitchen counters.  or stair cases.  or huge sculptures.  I plan on using concrete A LOT in a house that i would design and build.  You can color it, texture it, and shape it how ever you like.  I like customizable things.