Welcome to my perfumed garden

Holmfirth looks very pretty. the places you linked to have more spacious rooms than i'm used to thinking with european houses. my head links european = old = cut up tiny rooms with not a lot of space. one thing i'm glad about is that america has lots of land available for me to buy - not so hot on neighbors right next door.

i'd like to retire to Wyoming - thinking eastern Wyoming, because western Wyoming is much pricier - on a small farm. check this out:

http://www.eaglestar.net/hth18-.html

i grew jup in a tutor-style house, and frankly, i love them. they're pretty awesome.

this is actually pretty close to what i grew up in:

http://www.houseplans.com/plan_details.asp?id=17777

this would be bloody awesome:

http://www.houseplans.com/plan_details.asp?id=5704

i'd love to have this:

http://www.houseplans.com/plan_details.asp?id=30492

or this:
http://www.houseplans.com/plan_details.asp?id=30516

cause i *love* the art gallery (but i'd totally move all the bedrooms upstairs, where they otta' be!). but as my dad always said, my eyes are bigger than my stomach, heh. the actual plans i'm drawing up are for a geodesic dome home mansion-ish thing. you can do that with 4 interconnected domes, which have basements and 2nd floors.

the dome exteriors would be similar to these:

http://www.domes.com/plans.html

but since i'd have 4, i'd vastly revamp the interiors. the domes themselves aren't that expensive, and since they can free-stand (ie, don't need interior load-bearing walls) i can design the interior anyway i want. and i'd design it to be a bit more traditional. and have one of the domes dedicated to a library. the whole dome. full of books. ::sighs happily::

um, where was i? oh yes - domes are much more energy efficient than a lot of traditional structures, except maybe adobe buildings. that's the main reason i'm think about that. i don't know if i'll manage to get improved land - ie, with power running to it, and water and cable, etc - so i may have to try to live off the grid. and even if i'm mostly on the grid, with a dome structure, i can invest in a combination of solar power and wind power energy producers to off-set the cost of operating the house.

anyway, the idea is to set up my retirement home to be as independent as possible, with modern amenities. both to show it *can* be done - and because i don't want to have to worry about major bills other than car insurance when i'm old. i'd like to pay off the house before i actually retire. it'd be nice.

-bs, excited about houses... again...