If you had to design your dream house what would it be?

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One thing that would be interesting would be to build a home inside an old missile silo.

In many ways, it would be really great:

*You wouldn't need to heat it in the winter or cool it in the summer -- after the first few feet, the temperature would be pretty much constant. Of course, that temperature might be too cool for some.

*Plenty of room

* Safety from storms. Tornadoes would have little effect.

* It would be very quiet.

Of course, there are some drawbacks. For one thing, the lack of a view. Also, some missile silos had a problem with water seeping in.

By the way, if I could afford to tear down and rebuild my house, I wouldn't hesitate to do so.

The house is old and crumbling. The problem is that it is relatively close to a creek. During heavy rains, water can come down the slope of the field and run right through the house. The rising water has come close to the front door, but not inside.

Because of this, what I'd probably do would be to build a simple brick building with a steel frame instead of a wood frame. The first floor would be a garage to park two or three cars and pickups plus an ATV. The living quarters would be above the garage. With that kind of construction, I'd probably go for something more like a loft conversion from an old warehouse kind of look with exposed bricks and with things like air vents, conduit, and plumbing visible.

Something like this:

My dream house would be a Country House or an Estate. Similar to the one on the Genesis Nursery Cryme album.

If I was designing my dream houses and assuming that money was no object, there are a few features that would certainly be there.

1) Any room with running water would have a drain in the floor and a mild slant in the floor to channel any spilled or running water toward the drain.

In the bathrooms, if the toilet, sink, or tub runs over, it should go down the drain without flooding anything.

In the laundry room, the water from a broken clothes washer would harmlessly flow down a drain.

In the kitchen, if the sink runs over or the dish washer breaks, there's no use flooding the room. Let it run down a drain.

2) There would be a large shower in at least the master bedroom that one could easily roll a wheel chair in, transfer to a bench, and push the wheel chair out of the way just in case it is ever needed.

If large enough, the tub and the shower could be together in one large section. Think of it as a shower room large enough to contain the bathtub.

3) I would use a water closet in the bathrooms -- that is, the toilet would be in its own compartment within the bathroom. There would be a sink there so that you could wash your hands immediately.

4) Any bedroom without its own bathroom would have a sink in the room with a mirror (and a drain in the floor) so that you wouldn't need to tie up the bathroom to shave or brush your teeth. Also, if you needed a glass of water in the middle of the night, it would be handy.

5) Absolutely no carpets. I hate carpets. They are filthy. A properly done dirt floor would be cleaner than any but the newest carpet. I'd go with either a wooden floor or a good quality tile. Use rugs where desired.

6) A separate library.

7) Wide doors on every room to make it easier if ever confined to a wheel chair. Also, no changes in elevation on the ground floor.

8 ) A full basement for storage and for pipes and wires to be accessed. Also, plenty of room to store things.

9) A tornado shelter in the ground outside. It could be right up against the house and connected to the basement for access from the house.

10) Superb grounding. I'd probably use a ground rod every few feet around the house. Also, the basement would be built of concrete with rebar to act as a Ufer ground (look it up).

11) No trees right up against the house. Over time, tree roots can be very damaging.

12) All cables would be in a conduit. For other than electrical power (i.e. telephone, ethernet, fiber optic, speaker wires, ...) , the conduit would only have to reach down to the basement. Once in the basement it could run over between conduits on wire guides.

A wall outlet every five to ten feet. Most would be unused but would be ready to use in the future. None of us knows what we might want to run in twenty years. Just use a blank wall plate when unused. And, of course, conduit down to the basement.

If we later wanted to put in an electrical outlet, we would just add new conduit a the bottom and run the electrical cable through it.

13) Light or bright colors. The dark bothers me except while sleeping and darkness can be achieved when sleeping by turning off the lights. Also, I'm rather colorblind. My best chance for seeing a color is if it is quite strong.

Depending on he architecture used, build with wainscoting on the lower parts of the wall to protect them from furniture. It also look quite classy. And wallpaper of various designs where the walls are visible. You don't see so much wallpaper any more, but I like it.

For adobe style architectures, wallpaper and wainscoting is seen less often. Instead, use diamond plaster to create a very smooth surface on the walls and make sure it is done by someone who has experience applying it correctly.

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Some other things that I would seriously consider:

1) Use of radiators for heating. In the bathrooms, there are radiators that are attached to the wall on which you can hang your bath towel and your bath robe so they will be warm. A warm bath towel and bath robe is heavenly.

If not radiators, either an oil or natural gas heating system.

2) The master bathroom would likely contain its own washer and dryer.

3) Evaporative cooling. Around here it is dry enough that an evaporative cooler can be very effective. Also ceiling fans. And high ceilings. Gotta save money to pay for all the drains.

4) A boot room with a sink to wash in when coming in.

5) A separate wash house. The clothes washer and dryer would go here. Also, a large walk-in shower that could be used to clean up if really dirty before going into the house.

If not a separate wash house, an outdoor wash basin on the side or back of the house to wash up in the summer before going inside. It would need a shutoff valve on the inside to shut the water off in the winter so that the pipes didn't freeze.

6) A kennel for the dogs with an inside they could go into to get out of the weather. Also, so that they could be fed separated from each other. It would also have running water to watch out the stalls and storage for their dog food and medicines.

7) A garden shed to keep the various garden tools. Maybe a small greenhouse to start things like tomatoes before planting them in the garden.

8 ) Separate plumbing for black and gray water. Use the water from the bathtubs, showers, sinks, clothes washer, and dish washer to water the grass and trees. Some portion of the gray water would probably need to go with the blackwater to help keep lines washed out.

9) Ethernet to every room in the house. Every room with its own wifi. Turn the power on the wifi's down to just cover the one room.

10) A separate interior room with very thick walls and ceiling to act as a tornado shelter.

It could be set up as a safe room. However, where I live there is so little crime that there is little need to lock your doors at night or when you are gone.

11) A heated garage. Most people don't understand how damaging it can be to start engines when it is really cold. If it is less than 40 degrees outside, I at least let the engine warm up for a few minutes before driving.

12) A screened side or back porch.

13) An emergency generator. Electricity around here is not always reliable.

A sturdy, warm little cabin in Wyoming far away from anyone else.

the audiophile in me likes the idea of using racks of clothing as acoustic room treatment, negating the need for closets as well as absorbing excess reflected sound, improving sonic clarity of stereophonic music reproduction.

Here's a bedroom and bathroom open to each other:



It's not clear if the closet is open as well.

be neat if it had a shower as well.