A house spelled T-A-R-D-I-S

I'm actually going to start with the non-real hopes, because otherwise I'm not going to make any sense. See, I love little houses from the outside. I have this image in my head of this little single story, four-ish room white cottage on a hillside, with roses climbing up a trellis next to the door. The problem is, on the inside, my dream house is about as big as the Von Trapp house in Sound of Music.

See what I mean? Clearly I'm going to be living in the TARDIS (which is totally an option, by the way).

For the inside of my house, I'm hoping for a library on an inner wall, so that I can paint windows "out" to various of my favorite scenes from books (I know I want the winter lamppost from Narnia, Bilbo's birthday party, and Hogsmeade for sure, and possibly some others depending on what kind of space I have - and I'll probably have to commission one of you to do the drawing so it actually looks like what I want it to...) under which I would build "window seats" for reading nooks. I also want a large(ish) kitchen - final size kinda depends on who all I'm feeding - and a front parlor that probably would almost never get used, but would just be an extra sitting space. Then there would be an upstairs with all the bedrooms (and a second story to the library that's closed off from the rest of the second floor and you can only access by a spiral staircase from the lower floor library - what?! I'm gonna have a lot of books!), with laundry chutes from each room down to a basement washroom that's next to the man-cave, assuming that by this point there's someone to NEED a man-cave. Oh and somewhere in all this mess there's a hot tub, because why not?

As for the rest of the non-real stuff, hmmmm... I'd kind of appreciate legs on the house, like Howl's moving castle, because then I could travel without leaving home (or worrying about finding accomodation). I'd also appreciate a pantry that always has exactly what you need for dinner, though I don't think I've ever read about one of those somewhere.

*sigh* Someday...

Dream House and More!

Interesting topic!

I want a large kitchen, something bigger than a galley that has lots of room and cabinet space. I want the kitchen, dining area, and living room to all open and connected so you can see everyone in the other rooms no matter where you are standing.

No fire places!

I want a reading nook, some little nook where I can I put some cushions and read, and I'd like to have a window so I can look outside or bask in the sunlight. A bay window would be great for this, but it's not necessary.

I want a house without a yard so I don't have to work in it but is situated within walking distance to a park. A community garden would be nice too.

Getting into some crazier stuff.

I'd love a wonky staircase. Maybe it's spiral, maybe it's just a zig zag pattern coming out of the wall that is some how able to support itself and you. I'd like something unique.

There is a blue house with purple accents in Pendleton and I WANT it because it is made of awesome.

I want a ceiling that reflects the night's sky.

I want the crazy smart house in that Disney movie! I have no idea what the movie is called, but the girl wakes up in the morning and realizes she didn't pick out clothes for school and a drawer folds out with an outfit and the house says "sensors indicate this is what you would have chosen." I NEED that.

I'm horrible about getting ready for work in the morning. I need a smart house to pick out my clothes for work, cook my breakfast, and pack my lunch while I'm enjoying my nice long hot shower. Also, there's a scene where the kids clean the house by throwing everything on the floor and the house just sucks up all the garbage (presumably to recycle it). Yes, please!

Morwen Doors and Tower Walls

I want the house on the corner of Court and Summit in Bowling Green. I've never actually been inside it, but from the outside, dream house.

My biggest pipe dream on a house is to have a tower. I'm talking full two-story, round tower right there on the house. The upstairs will be my office, the downstairs will be Chase's man-cave. I will paint my favorite quotes about creativity right on the walls in Ravenclaw colors and build curved bookshelves into the walls and no of course I haven't been planning this tower since I was 13, are you kidding?

But more realistically (I want the tower, but it's not gonna be a selling point), I want a big kitchen, with an island and lots of cupboard space and marble countertops where I can make candy. I've had hole-in-the-wall kitchens too many times in my life -- I want something open and big and spacious.

I also want a room that I can designate "The Library" (money to appropriately expand my book collection is, of course, understood), and if I can't have that, I need to have plenty of room for bookshelves.

I want a bunch of random things, too -- a fireplace to hang stockings from, a secret passageway/secret room, lots of quirkiness, a second-to-first-story slide, and if there was room in the backyard for a meditation garden, I certainly wouldn't complain.

In terms of the mystical/magical, I too would like a Weasley clock, but honestly, when I think of magical dwellings, my mind jumps to The Enchanted Forest Chronicles quicker than Hogwarts, and I want a Morwen door. In that series, Morwen is a witch whose house consists of a kitchen with two doors -- one leads to the front steps and one to the rest of the house. The door, in other words, goes wherever she wants it to. If she wants to go to the backyard, it leads to the backyard. If she wants to go to the library, it leads to the library. In other words, Morwen's door makes her house a Tardis. I want a Morwen door.

The Bland and the...Whatever the Opposite of Bland is...

Like I said, I've been thinking a lot about my future home, what with the possibilty of me moving out and being on my own actually reachable at this point.

First and foremost, I would like for the home to be located somewhere safe and relatively private.  I don't need prying neighbor eyes...ew...

Secondly, I want a "nerd cave."  Posters of all my geekiness all over the walls, all of my statutes and cool little geeky knickknacks spread out all over it, and an enormous desk where I can draw, write, or work on my computer.  Enormous bookshelves to accommodate my library, a comfy chair in which to read them, and ample lighting.  If it's done right, I'll never want to leave  =)

Thirdly, one of my few complaints about my current house is the size of the laundry room (or lack thereof).  Now, I don't love going to laundromats, but the one thing I did like about them is those huge tables they put out for folding clothing.  I would love a laundry room that has enough space in it not just for my washer and dryer, but also for one of those tables.  Also, lots of storage.

That's another hope/dream:  lots of storage!

Another something awesome would be an outdoor enclosure off the side of the house for my kitties.  Jack-Jack is going stir-crazy being locked inside all the time, so I wouldn't mind paying someone to build an outdoor habitat where I could just let him out and he can roam, climb trees, and run around like he used to.  And they'll be safe from predators that way, too.

Now, for the ridiculousness / awesomeness!  I want a "Weasley Clock."  There's no guarantee that I'll be near to any of your or my family when I get my own place, so I'd like to know how all of your are doing.  Even with all of the technological advances, things slip through the cracks, and one can go from "Hunkey-Dorey" to "Mortal Peril" in less than a second.  There would be hands for all of my immediate family, all of my extended family, all of my pets, and of course all of you.  Hm...I might need more than one clock...

Oh!  Also!  I want the ceiling of my bedroom to have the ability to show me the stars at night, the way they look in the actual sky.  Like the ceiling in the Great Hall at Hogwarts.  I would want it timed to after nightfall and for when I turn off my lights.  In that same sense, it would be great if the ceiling in my living room would reflect the way the sky looked outside.  That way I could get lots of lighting in there if I wanted, and I could know more accurately what the weather is doing outside.  Again, I would want it to be on my will.  I don't want to be watching movies while there's a storm raging above my head.

And a TARDIS in the backyard...with a Doctor to go along with it.  Preferably Doctor #11...

Pipe Dreams

This week's topic concerns future homes. I've been thinking a lot lately about what I want after I save up enough money and am able to move out of Mom's house. Do I want to have an apartment, or would I rather own something like a condo or even a small house? I know what I want inside said home, but not necessarily what the outside would look like.

So the topic is this: what features would be included in your ideal home? Granite countertops? Walk in closets? Close to work and family? Be creative!

To make things interesting, let's pretend that we're all witches and that the rules of Harry Potter magic apply. This should make it awesome =P

You don't HAVE to pretend that magic exists, but it'll make things more fun.

Related "Research"

Relaxation is hard to come by these days, and yet, this is the time I need it most. Most days I let myself watch something really stupid and uncomplicated on TV while I eat dinner (some one of the channels does Sabrina the Teenage Witch reruns from 6-7: JACKPOT on the brainless zombie-watching front!) I used to read for my de-stressing, and I still do now, but much less. Since the beginning of the year, I've read House of Hades and half of Crown of Midnight. Before school started, I had read at least 75 books, and was on track for making my year goal of 150 (which just seems laughable now, unless I'm allowed to count textbooks). I've found that reading comic books is a good substitute - it doesn't take quite as much brainpower, but still feels like reading. And of course, one of the perks of being in the humanities research fields (especially film) is that I can take a "night off" to watch a movie and still be doing "research" :P

That said, nothing beats a hot bubble bath and a cup of hot apple cinnamon or chai tea. I have had more bubble baths (and cups of tea) this semester than I think I have in the past 5 years or so. For some reason it's the only thing that can make the knot between my shoulders and my near-constant over-tiredness headache go almost completely away!

Going brainless

When I need to relax, I generally need to do something that doesn't require a lot of brain power, like watching a movie or playing a video game. Usually, when I need to relax, my brain is just over taxed, so I need to do something that means I don't have to think about it too hard so my head can just empty of whatever is buzzing around in there. Crafting, reading, or writing don't work because they still require a lot of thought.

Sitting with the kitties help, too, but only when they feel like staying on your lap.

I also like to take long hot showers.

When I was in school, I would get really jittery around finals. One of the girls mentioned that she would have a glass of wine while she studied because it helped her relax. I tried it the last couple weeks of school because I was so jittery that I couldn't study at all. It does actually help with the jitters, though you need to find the balance between the jitters being gone and your head being foggy, because then you can't study much either. :-p