Dream Home

[aggienaut]

   Many people like to think about their dream home, and, I admit it, I too sometimes think about such things.

   Typically I get the impression "dream homes" consist of palatial mansions with "dream cars" in front. Inside there is likely a trophy wife with large fake "trophies" of her own (or a trophy man-floozy for the women's dreams). If you are superhappytime someone else's trophy wife may be found in your dream home.

   I found myself thinking about my dream home frequently on my recent road trip up the West Coast to Seattle and back. Typically these thoughts would hit me as we drove through some beautiful idyllic little valley. I'd look around and say to my compatriots

   "I could set up 100 beehives just right there, and a little cottage, and I'd be set!!"

   I don't know how many times I said this to my roadtrip-mates, but it was a lot. (=
   And the cottage has to have a thatched roof. I've always loved thatched roofs.
   Thatched roofs, it turns out are competitive with modern insulations in terms of insulation ability, and do not catch fire any more frequently than shingles.
   The major drawback to thatched roofs, however, is that they are more labour intensive to install. Once installed they don't need major maintainance for 15 years (60 apparently if you use seagrass), but putting a thatched roof up, well then you need a whole pile of thatchers.

   And then of course, if this were my dream house, I would need ample room for my brewing hobby. Probably an additional outbuilding (also stone with thatched roof) with small industrial brewkettles big enough to make 53 gallon batches -- the size of the standard oak barrel. And then of course there'd need to be a cellar for said barrels. And of course a nice copper still.

   As for location, I'm not sure exactly. I definitely need to do more exploring before I land that dream publishing deal and become filthy rich ;D But definitely somewhere lush and green. I.e. not here. Oregon, Washington, and Northern California are nice, but so are a lot of other places. Clearly I need to hunt down the ideal location for my dream house.

   As to the dream car to accompany this dream house? ::shrug:: one that works?

   With the copious amounts of free time I'd no doubt have in this dream scenario, I'd probably take up additional crafty hobbies in addition to brewing and distilling. Maybe work on the garden (I presently have no gardening experience). And, of course, I'd still be blogging. (=

Comments

[magsmom.livejournal.com]

The important thing is to dream. Without that you won't know when it's come true.

[abbismom.livejournal.com]

Do you ever use honey in your brewing?

[hopefulspirit.livejournal.com]

I love the sound of your dream home. :-) I was thinking about this exact same thing last night. Location is the hard part for me too.

[colt-4-5.livejournal.com]

With the way the price of houses is where I live, my dream home would be something other than this 2 bedroom apt! lol. But serioulsy, I want 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a room to put my guitars in. w00t!

[lunabee.livejournal.com]

I can't even imagine having a thatched roof since I live in Miami and it would probably blow away in a hurricane. My dream house is a 3/2 Mediterranean style house or villa w/ Spanish tile roof. Not too big of a backyard. Just enough for my dog to poop and for a patio set. The car outside would be a Prius.

[sirwingate.livejournal.com]

I spend a lot of time on the road, and I've thought about this before. I actually want a wine cellar, because if I had the extra space I'd really like to get into making wine and mead (can't drink beer because of gluten intolerance).

I've heard that green roofs improve the interior environment on top of having the competitive insulation value.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Yeah in this dream house scenario I think I would definitely try my hand at making mead and wine as well.

Where abouts do you find yourself on the road?

[superhappytime.livejournal.com]

I used to dream about a nice home in the suburbs with a back yard and a pool and a pool house converted into a home theater and dogs and the woman of my dreams who I love more than anything.

Then she ripped my heart out and left it bleeding on the floor and I've never recovered and now all I dream about is living anywhere but here...or not living at all.

[gaeln.livejournal.com]

I was gonna tell you all about my dream house but [Unknown site tag] has depressed me so...never mind

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

Hahaha superhappytime?

[gaeln.livejournal.com]

yeah, superhappytime sorry that didn't work right. Normally I check when I TRY html but I was late picking up the kid from school so...

[sirwingate.livejournal.com]

(Sorry it's taken me so long to reply, I went AWOL from LJ for a little while).

I've been wanting to try making the stuff for awhile, but my apartment doesn't exactly have the space I need. I'm especially interested in mead. The directions make it sound easier, and there's quicker turnaround.

Most of my travels are confined to Virginia, thankfully that means they're single day, although I do have to spend time in Mississippi and Pennsylvania.

[emo-snal.livejournal.com]

I had gotten the impression the turnaround on mead was longer than other things. Like a few months compared to a few weeks.

[sirwingate.livejournal.com]

I could be mistaken, given the sampling I've had of recipes being rather limited. What I am basing that on is that I've actually seen a couple of mead recipes that take weeks, a timespan I haven't seen on any wine recipes. Since I can't drink beer, I don't know what the time difference is there.