Challenge #23 - My Dream House

My first BlogThis challenge post! And I was going to get this post done sooooo much sooner. I hate handing in my homework at the last minute (but I always, always did....)

Given that the back half of my *cough* dream home currently looks like this...

Note the LGBB's bedroom in the photo below, in pink, displaying just one wall without exposure to the elements:

Hence, the three year-old overtaking our living space in the main house

... and it means that our family of three has been smooshed into very close quarters while the back half of the house is closed off to accommodate the new extension, it's sort of a given that I'm squeezed for time. We're doing the Owner-Builder Thang. So I am chief nursemaid, nurturer, cook, site manager, hardware orderer, building inspection organiser and boudoire extraordinnaire (er.... some rare nights, fatigue permitting). But I also couldn't go past this challenge!


I'd be living with my family somewhere on the coast, with cool green forest and a bit of open pasture as well (I'm sure that place exists!). I'd live in Australia. Though I am really drawn to the north eastern corner of the US/south eastern corner of Canada. Yes... Anne Shirley country.


Let's start with the bathroom, shall we? I'm assuming that in this challenge, there are ample funds for a twice-daily clean by ... I'd say cleaner but, well, as long as it's anyone other than me and they do a sparkling job, I don't mind. I'm particularly drawn to this one not only due to the glorious "swanning" room (to simply swan about, in the middle there, with my arms out - can you tell we're living in very close quarters during this reno?), but also because of the muted tones, the romantic lighting, the glossy surfaces (I just want to confirm.... there is a cleaner coming, right?), the little tele mounted up there in the corner and the gorgey little firebox.

If I had my way, in a house anytime during my life, it'd have a fire place of some sort in it. Preferably one that was double sided, able to be enjoyed in bedroom/parents' retreat and bathroom. My love affair with the design started here, at Chocolate Gannets on the Great Ocean Road.



When I was doing this challenge, I noticed I was drawn to water. Still water, preferably (though rocky crags get me going too - I do love the ocean and often feel compelled to be near it, the wilder the better, just to gaze).

Therefore, this outdoor spa would most likely be my little stopping point from the house on the way to the....

Horizon pool.

Which I'd get to via the...

Pool by the house.

Mind you, all this water may lead you to believe I swim. I don't. I can't. True story. I just love being with water. Just not often in it.

Keeping on the same theme for the moment, I'd throw in a couple of vantage points of this water I am apparently so deeply enamoured with (yes, I am a Water sign - a Cancerian, if you please).

This one

And one of these for good measure

(with or without my dearly beloved and a glass of bubbly and a rug for my knees)

I also wouldn't complain if this were the view that greeted me every day, off my bedroom.


Speaking of bedrooms, okay it's a tricky one. See, I LOVE fresh linen. I love nothing more than the feel of crisp, clean sheets as I glide into them. If I weren't environmentally conscious (and if I had the time or the will), I'd be changing my bed sheets every day. Sooooo.... seeing as this is my fantasy house-life, I'd have to say that I would create three bedrooms in this masterpiece.

One: My Day Bedroom - the decoy (oooh except, sans the fussy insect netting, blurgh - although, they do tend to lend themselves as accompaniments to a good, luxurious, lay-about read of a Jane Austin or other such novel, don't they?). White. Soft. Voluptuous, cool, clean, crisp, minimal white. I love the angles on this ceiling. I'd go a trippy roof/ceiling height and design throughout the house too, for good measure.


Two: The Real Bedroom.
The one that Steve is allowed to use, with me. Because, let's face it, boys do mussy up bed linen faster than nothing else (except a bouncy toddler doing knee spins on your duvet.... grrrrr), even if they're lying still as a log. How do they DO that? He messes up the pillows and just. Doesn't. I dunno, sleep neat or something *ok now I'm just showing signs we've been together a looong time*. So I'd need to know there was another bedroom I could scarper to, just to know it hadn't been "boyed up".


Three: The aptly-titled "PoW bedroom" (well, it was on the website I found it on, anyway - Palace On Wheels, it's called....... *shifting feet uneasily* That's unlike any palace I've ever seen, just quietly).

So this is the one he'd be banished to if he ever came and messed up the sheets in my girly bedroom:



The guest room would be something cute and cosy. Like this (oh yeah, totally, you could come stay! You know how to clean and polish bathroom surfaces?)


A bedroom for the Lolster would be hard. I mean, I think this is gorgeous:


But whether she would, is the point. At present, she is telling me she wants a blue and green bedroom. Green I can accommodate. But blue? Mmmmmmmm, not together anyway. So perhaps her fancy would be more like this:




The girl has some eye for colour. On thinking about it, green is a great bedroom colour (right Karelle? ;)

I would also dearly love to have the time, patience and follow through to do something like this on her wall. Just discreetly:



Okay, enough with sleeping arrangements.


I wouldn't have a ridiculous kitchen. And I do love clean lines in this room of the house. So this would be about it and I'd be happy. Again, especially if it gets cleaned for me. Huzzah!



Off the kitchen, I'd have to go for a cosy feel for family and friend gatherings. Something gorgeous and soft and with lots of natural light, like this:



Naturally, I'd also want to know there was a place for little people to go tearing about. So I'd make sure there was some sort of light-filled atrium, with views to a garden of tall palms and other cool greenery (not that I could find ANY images of one of those, mind, but it's there, just off the side of this shot in my mind's eye):



There would also be a nice, quiet place for me and Steve to sit and read and just be in silence and stillness together.



Oh, and I'd go for something like this for my office/work space. Something not too girlied up and gender neutral, strong but not imposing, comfortable with a laptop on my knees and the iMac somewhere over yonder on a simple glossy wooden counter along the wall:





I never knew, before doing this, how "into" white I am. Ha. And here I have been, trying my damndest to break out the bold colours.

Don't think I will now, when the extension is done. I think I'll stick with cool whites, greens and wood tones. Hahhhhhh. Easy, breezy!

It's been a bit of a trip. An eye opener. I've realised I don't go for glitz and glamour so much as comfort and what I personify as style. I love soft, muted colours and clean, simple stuff. A bit of homely clutter of furniture in some gathering rooms, but wide open space to roar around in others. Above all, I don't think I'd be all that happy in anything too grand. And I'm extremely happy to know that.