My Dream Home

My Dream Home

When I strike it rich, I will build the most unusual, awesome home campus ever.  This is how it goes:

My home campus will be on a small plot of land similar in size to Rhode Island.  Or at least no less than 25 acres.  In the woods, winding little path to get to the home campus.  Large, mature oak trees with branches overhanging the path (and I will have them brought in if there aren't any on the land I choose).

I say home campus, because it will not be one large mansion.  I will have a cluster of buildings.  My own home will be in front.  It will look very much like an old Louisiana plantation house.  White, three stories or more, wraparound porch on each floor, white rocking chairs lining each porch, French doors from every room to the porches, 15-foot ceilings in every room, with floor-to-ceiling windows.  My living room will include a stage for the Jazz band that will perform when we have guests over for dinner.  I will have a gourmet kitchen with a walk-in pantry big enough to park an RV in it.  Restaurant-grade walk-in refrigerator and freezer.  Fully stocked by my assistant.  I would never go grocery shopping again.

And a glass-enclosed walkway connecting each of the other buildings, which will be arranged in sort of a circular pattern, with a large swimming pool in the center.  There will be a rock slide from the balcony on the middle floor of each building, spiraling down into the swimming pool.

The building to the left of mine will be the guest house.  I'll let my mother design that one.

On the other side of that will be the pool house, complete with showers, floor-length mirrors, changing stations, toilets, etc.

The building to the right of mine will be my daughter's.  It will be a giant dollhouse, and she will get to decorate that one.

Next to hers will be the mini zoo.  Angelyn loves animals, and I think she should have cats and dogs and monkeys and ponies and whatever she wants, as long as they stay in their home.  Maybe a giant aquarium, big enough for dolphins.

Somewhere between the guesthouse and the mini zoo will be Johnny's Man Cave.  He will have his own dwelling, not because I want to get rid of him (any more - just kidding, Hubby), but because I think he would love it.  He could have his music/movies up as loud as he wants, and we would both be perfectly happy.  Of course, there would be a skywalk from the top floor of my house into the top floor of his.  His place would look more like a skyscraper, I think.  Tall and skinny, so you cross from my house into the tower, and take the elevator down below ground (or you can stop at the 2nd floor for the water slide).  No natural lighting in his place.  Think dungeon.  Cold, dark, just the way he likes it.  Deep underground you would find a theater with concession stand (proceeds would benefit the Saints), sports room with batting cages, basketball courts, etc., library for his movie collection, and a room just for sports memorabilia.

We would have an assistant assigned each building on campus, hired to do whatever needs to be done - cook if we're hungry, clean if we're not, run errands, scratch Angelyn's back, catch the baseball for Johnny, be a tour guide for guests, etc..  Maybe a chauffer or a helicopter pad so I could take little, quick trips into town.

A river running through the property and into the Red River will be nice.  Have a houseboat on it, and we can just take off whenever we feel like it.

Well, I could scale down, in case my fortune isn't large enough to handle the expense of such a massive campus.  I could consolidate the guest house and Angelyn's dollhouse into mine, and just give them each a wing.  Or a floor.  Or a room.  My house could be a bit smaller, with normal-sized ceilings and such.  And we could lose the skywalk, the zoo, and the river.  And Johnny's place could just be a normal structure instead of an excavation project.  He doesn't have to have his own batting cages, and we could skip the concessions.  Just a theater room with a trophy case for his memorabilia and a bed will do, but I do want to keep him in his own place.  We have a conflict with noise levels.  We don't have to have four rock slides going into the pool, but one would be fun.  I would like a little pool house with outside restroom facilities for swimmers, but that's not really necessary, either.

But then again, since I'm the one doing the dreaming, I can set the limits on my own fortune, and I say I CAN HAVE IT ALL!!!