mtbc | My dream house (Reply)

While we didn't remain there I am glad that for a while we lived in rural Ohio. While it was

mst3kmoxie who found us the house, over our time there I grew to love it. I miss it, but I am glad of what it taught me of what makes me happy. Once the children are grown it should be quite affordable to move back to somewhere that ticks all the boxes, especially if I may telecommute or otherwise work from home. I therefore think it worth noting now what I liked, while I still remember well.

I like the house being sited on a good few acres. Land is cheap in much of the US and in rural areas zoning typically allows one to buy a hayfield and build a house on it. It is nice to be able to do things around my property, on my car, etc., without feeling overlooked by neighbors. I found myself quite enjoying falling into a routine of small chores like walking around to find, fetch, stack the fallen branches.

I want to grow easy food like root vegetables. I never quite got that far, but I was progressively clearing some long grass with our small mower, and I had taken care to buy one that could tow a rototiller. So, the plot should include some fairly flat arable land.

I don't want to have to think about flooding and drainage. Our house's base was ten feet above a nearby pond; that kind of terrain would be fine, with soil that's perhaps a bit more sand than clay.

I'm quite happy off-grid. We had no telephone line or mains water or sewerage. I was fine with the routine of feeding the water purifier its consumables. I also notice that the price of solar panels and suchlike continues to fall. I may not even need to be near good roads if I live somewhere with decent enough winters that I need a vehicle that can get through that snow anyway. (And, cross-country skiing is great exercise; I can carry a backpack.) An artesian well would be lovely so I don't even need power to get potable water.

I'd like a decent garage or barn, somewhere with an electrical outlet that can power a decent compressor for air tools, and plenty of room to put a car and do some carpentry.

… and also a full finished basement for the house. These seem uncommon in the UK but I love them. Everybody around here seems to fill their garage with their stuff instead. Concrete floor and walls are fine, I just need a dry temperate lit place to install shelving. If the house is on a slope, a doorway from the cellar to the outside is a plus.

Light and porches. I love to see the outdoors. Again, decent long porches aren't so common in the UK. With some outdoor electrical outlets and wifi I can happily work outdoors. I can live with the bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. even being built into the ground, especially if that also helps with energy efficiency, but I'd like the living and working areas and kitchen to have some large windows.

Three bedrooms. Without the children living with us I still want room to have a good work desk and shelving and musical instruments. Though somewhere rather open-plan would be fine too.

Basically, I want what is actually fairly common in rural America. I can wait. Our previous house was nice indeed: many of the rooms had tall windows, the house had three porches, the garage was enormous, but that's all surplus to requirements.

It's relevant to make a note about regret. I generally avoid some experiences because I fear that I would rather like them and then have to live with the knowledge that I miss them but amn't in a position to make them a routine part of my life. A nice thing about having enjoyed living in the house I now remember fondly is that I am at least patient: it is much easier to miss it knowing that I am likely to be able to return someday to a more modest version of it. When I did live there I was mindful of how I should appreciate it at the time.