h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Other people's journals got me thinking about decorating and stuff... If money were no object, I would build a brand new place for me and my DF to live together in.

Inspired by a superb holiday cottage we stayed in last year, it would have a large kitchen with all mod cons and mixed levels so that we could both cook, either standing or sitting. Decor-wise it would have groovy black appliances and pale units in contrast, with probably plum coloured walls, and link in with the dining room next door. The bathroom would also be like the holiday cottage - a large wetroom with state of the art shower and a white, blue and green sea-like theme.

We would have a big lounge, with luxurious neutral coloured walls and carpet and contrasting sofa, and state of the art TV and music centre. We would also have a computer and games room for our work and hobbies. The bedrooms would have really thick carpet in them, in warm colours, and plenty of storage for our books and stuff.



My flat is pretty close to my ideal home, though - not massive, but tastefully decorated, and there is a computer zone and a dining zone in the corners of the living room. DF and I get on with the facilities very well when we're here together - enough to each have our own space within the place, the kitchen is just big enough for us to cook together, and the lounge zone is not bad at all for lounging luxury.

Now this is a subject to dream on. Like you I am content with what I have but if I had my choosings, I have this dream of one room, soundproofed so as not to cause any problems for the neighbours. Not for those reasons, behave yourselves.

An entertainment room. Cinema seats, projector and big screen, huge speakers, music system to make your ears bleed. And a few guitars and keyboards.

And a bar, dart board, and shove halfpenny slate.

And Kate Beckinsale pulling the pints.

I really like my flat/house... partly because its a bit quirky in its design, but mainly because of its location and closeness to both the town center, and the train station, and also that its near Mill Road, which is, a more bohemian area of town, shopping wise, (with most of the better shops that exist here; town center can be a bit generic really, cept for a few shops that ar nice independants or just useful things like banks and phone shops etc)

\the main downfall with here, is also the locaion.... this road wasn't so* bad when I first lived here, but now, its so noisey for most of he time, and the drug addicts/homless/down-and-outs/alcos can be a pain up the street soemtimes... just annoyin really I guess...
The other main problem is I don't have a garden

My ideal place would be detached, eitehr a house or a bungalow, with a decnt sized front garden/drive, and a large back garden, nicely secluded at the back...

I'd like for it to have a cellar, but I've a constant quandry as to what I'd do with it; it'd make a fabulus place to oundproof out, or my music studeo, bt ... it might also make a rahter neat 'dungeon'

The main feature though, wouldbe in the garden... I have... a plan you see... its a slightly odd plan... perhaps, but might also help solve the problem of whatto do with the cellar in the house.

I'd build a cloistry... cloistures. err, however its spelt.... astone path, running alongside a wall (pref a side wall of teh garden), about 9 ft wide, with a double walled bit on the 'garden side' of it (to create a herb garden), a stone floor to it, of course, plus the stone wall at teh side, and then a stone roof of some kind, and open to the air, between the top of the low walls enclosing the herb garden 'strip', and the top of the roof area....

You'd walk down it, in a straght line.... quite a decent length would be cool.... then at teh end of it, you can turn back, to face bak towards teh house, but descend, steps, into a repae of the ara, but underground, roofed by the slabs that were the 'floor' on the above ground bit... basically just a very odd folly, loosely based on a monistry style cloister...

\Big big kitchen... with tons* and tons of worktop space; a two deck commercial bakery oven (plus a smaller regular oven for day-to-day stuff), gas hobs, of course, planty of work top space for rolling out baguettes and pitta bread on... and a big ish proper* pantry <blushNot ever sure if I'd want ultra moden, or a more old style to it though... perhaps a mix of the two, f that'd work.

Sperate laundry/utility room (that really is so useful, and I love having that little utility room here, to jst keep that stuff seperate from the kitchen).

Probably a dinding area, in the kitchen/off the kitchen.

a proper wet room shower room, nice n big, and ten a seperate bathroom with bath etc.

Big master bedroom, with walk in wardrobes, and a seperate dressing room and a eb-suite
A study/library/computer room as I guess like a 'back', or secondary 'front room', would be cool.... oh, and a decent brick garage where I could re-initiate myself with doing woodwork again which I've not done in years

mmm... and maybea sunken bath somewhre and maybe an outside brick, wood-fired bread oven then everything else ust quite straight forward and normal.... small holding at the back of the garden, stables, goats, horses, ducks chicken, geese, maybe a couple of sheep

Hope you are buying the lottery tickets 2legs

Like the cloister idea, will remember that when when the Tower Bridge sale goes through.

Don't think I've ever bought a lottery ticket Thanks to the out of control house prices, here in Cambridge, I've nearly had 300% rise in teh value of my house, since I bought it, late 1999 which is insane really... sadly, this means I can't afford to move even one street from where I am, as other parts of the place havegone up even more... heck there are places smaller than mine, little one bed places, near the station for half a million pounds now.... little victorian terraces for about the same... I'm still tempted by the idea of moving to Norwich, a town/city I love, and like a lot (and so does William), where house prices are a lot* more sensible.... I think with a bit of help from a builder, for the trickier bits, I could build most of teh cloister thing/idea myself ... maybe...

Saw a loverly bungalow in Norwich, a few weeks back, a little* bit out of the main centeral area, detached, garden, etc., etc., less than my place here, by a few tens of thousadns of pounds... Mnd, there was another bungalow there (albeit with a room in what was* the loft), whichI saw ages ago, in Nrowch, even* cheaper, and that did* have a dressing room and en-suite with the master bedroom A pity most f the older buildings in Norwich though, are probably too expsnive, or all end up being terraces/semis

My ideal home changes with the weather. I spend a lot of time whilst out walking the dog or waiting to fall asleep at night musing over what kind of home I'd like. By the sea or by a river? Bungalow or two storey? Edwardian or olde worlde?

I like to waste time on www.rightmove.co.uk as well. Lots of drool-worthy homes on there.

Deb

[Amy P]

Wow! Some very cool ideal home ideas there

I sometimes drool over houses on rightmove, too - the Sunday paper my parents get has a good property section that sets us off on a journey!

Love the sound of the entertainments room

Detached would be good, noisewise, too - I'm lucky that my flat comes with just enough garden for my requirements. I do like the sound of the cloister idea, though...

A second bathroom with sunken bath would definitely be a good idea

Clearly, one problem i have is not quite* being dead set on waht I'd like; was drooling over a couple propertys the last few days (all actually in my price range, though some right near the top of it), I really* liked the sound of one; four storeys, victorian, with kitchen/dinning room in the basement but... of course its a terrace... nice and central location, but just* enough outside the center to not be major busy roads etc... near the river too etc.... (actually quite near the cloisters in the cathedral) then, looking a page or two further down.... twenty or thirty thousadn pounds cheaper, a bit* further out of the city center, but still maybe ten or fifteen mins walk away from the center, you find detached places, front and rear private gardens, often brick garage (re workshop for me to re-remember how to do woodwork), three bed, one or two reception rooms (or a front room and conservatory room etc), utility room, one or two bathrooms, etc... But... yes, its seperate/detached.... but* its a bit* further out of where one really wants to be in relation to teh city, and, sort of silliest of all, but perhaps most important; boring.... not any character, no age, 'just a house'... but it was detached/.... Simularly, then saw a few nice looking bungalows, which always have the advantage of being easier for one to maintain (paint repair etc) easier, when ones only got the one storey high building descisions descision....

Of course, the cheaper propertys also incur less stamp duty, which is a consideration.... plus there'd be more money to spend on the place.... boring detached house no character... money left over... build a damn basement/dungeon! all pipe dreams, mind, maybe... though it is a tempting idea....