I’ve been waiting for this blog challenge prompt. “Describe how you would decorate your home if money was not an object.”

I have been creating dream homes since I was a young child. The home I grew up in had 3 bedrooms upstairs–and NO BATHROOM. I have a number of sketches scattered around in notebooks where I was plotting out how to convince my parents to renovate the closet in the eaves into a bathroom, since the eaves were right above the existing first floor bathroom and that would make the plumbing slightly easier. It never happened, and now that home is demolished and shoved into a pit and buried in what was our front yard. Said house is the picture for my blog–R.I.P., 1917 Montgomery Ward catalog home. You were beautiful, and I loved the built-in curio cabinets.

I also grew up with every Barbie Dream Home in existence, and that made me realize houses could in fact have more than 2 stories AND and elevator! Sign me up! The dream homes probably also contributed to my lack of fear when it comes to using not-neutral colors to decorate. I was really proud of the peach and white bathroom I had in one house as a young adult, and I had no problem painting my son’s room multiple colors when he asked for a puzzle piece room.

Shocker, people–it’s just paint and it only took 1 coat of primer to return it to a soft light yellow when he moved to a different bedroom in the house a few years later.

I have had several “dream home” ideas over the years that came to fruition. I really liked my laundry system at one of our houses.

Yes, my kids are color-coded–it makes life easier. With this system, I didn’t have to lug laundry baskets up 2 flights of stairs and the kids knew where to look for clean clothes if they didn’t have any in their rooms. It also made it easy for them to grab one basket at a time and know what drawer to dump it into when they did put their clothes away.

So– what would my dream home look like these days if money was no object?

Well, there are a few renovations I would do to the house we currently live in–we live with my mom, because 1, we could not afford a house payment on disability, and 2, we didn’t need a 6 bedroom house after the kids grew up and moved out. But there are a couple things I would love to do to make it more accessible as a disabled person. I currently am very limited in what I can do in the basement because I have like 40% lung function thanks to severe asthma, and stairs are my enemy. We need a chair lift so I can venture down there more often. We also need a bathroom in the basement so we can stay down there longer to work on projects. All of the plumbing is there, but the fixtures are not and there are currently no walls–so we need walls and fixtures. Then I would also add a she-shed/library/art studio/cat-condo out in the yard with AC/heat and plumbing so my books and craft supplies had a home.

Now, if money were no object and I could build a dream home from the ground up, that would be a whole different beast.

Think gothic monstrosity like the Munsters or Addams Family homes. Yes, I know that involves a lot of stairs–that’s why there will be an elevator tucked in behind the grand staircase. There would be a lot of woodwork, and I love cherry finish, so it won’t be light wood. How many floors? Well, once upon a time I read a book that had a sub-cellar below the basement, so we will have 2 basements–the sub-cellar would be a root cellar type room, but stone. I grew up with a dirt basement and I abhor snakes, so stone. And we need at least 3 stories above ground so I can have a little room up in the top where I can gaze out at the surrounding land a community. That cozy little turret will be decorated along the lines of Professor Trelawney’s room in the Harry Potter movies–lots of drapery and pillows and windows.

We need a media room–theater screen, sound system, karaoke area, comfortable seating. Gotta have a popcorn machine and soda fountain.

The library is wall-to-wall shelves, cherry finish woodwork, with a few cozy chairs and a couch and desk. I also need a book wheel, because I enjoy running down tangents when I am reading, too.

The kitchen would have a cabinet that contained the kitchen mixer and popped up to counter level to use it.

A double oven is a must-have. I have had several over the years, and they are mighty handy. I am not a fan of open flames, so the stove would be electric. Sidenote–need a generator for power outages. The refrigerator would have a water and ice dispenser in the door, and would be a 2-door one with plenty of room to slide in trays of goodies to cool or freeze as part of the construction process. There would be a large counter with bar stools so people can visit while hanging out in the kitchen.

The master bath needs to be accessible, because arthritis–but I like to soak in a tub, so I am tired of showers only.

Gotta have a king-size bed so all of the cats have a place to snooze. Walk-in closets would be great. I also need a large jewelry cabinet to put all of my earring collection in.

The basement would be a rec room–bar, pool table, card table, ping pong, skeeball, all of that jazz. There would also be a small kitchenette there for snacks.

We need a pool–I like aqua therapy for arthritis. We need an indoor one to use year-round, but an outdoor one would be cool, too. On the patio would be a firepit and seating. We would have a bat house and bird houses, and a fort made of sunflowers in the yard. I like redbud trees and spirea bushes. No lilacs or baby breath–I am severely allergic to those popular plants. We need a wooded area, a mini forest with a path to meander down.

It’s not part of the home, but we also need a chauffeur to handle driving duties and a comfy conversion van or RV so the family can go exploring and I can be relieved of driving duties.

So yeah–dream big or go home, right?