f13.net

Just a list of shit that you'd buy if you had a lot of money and somewhere to put it. A materialistic orgasm, if you will. I'll start it off:


The Aquapetics luxury steam shower. (http://www.aquapeutics.com/test/u6810b.html)

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/011236184002.jpg)
It has two handheld nozzles, mirrors, 8 side jets, a radio, an LCD TV, MP3 input, 6mm of tempered glass, a heater pump, steam generator, an alarm, 6 more jets, overhead lights, back accupuncture massage, a massage tub, towel racks, foot massage, ventilation fans and speakers. For the low price of $4300 (actually, pretty low!)

$4300 for that much comfort is a damned steal. Now on my list.

Edit: Of course, I'm not sure I'm willing to pay for that through paypal through what looks to be a fake website with renders.

Man and I though the shower in my house a couple of years ago was fancy because it had some lights and a radio (which was broken) built in.

edit: To contribute, I think I'd prefer to have a good quality wet room to that, with one of those tubs built into the floor. Of course that would probably end up costing a hell of a lot more.

Wow.  :ye_gods:

:ye_gods: I smell a lawsuit after somebody gets poked to death by the needles.

Or slips during the poking.....

Or attempts to get a nutsack massage...

It's just needle jets, high pressure water, a good showerhead has the same thing. And I'm not totally sure it's legit, but who cares, it is in my dream.

I knew that, I was making a joke at their use of the word "acupuncture".

That web site is horribly put together, and the hosting seems to NOT want to show you all the images.

All it needs is a urinal.

 :rimshot:

The problem with composite, single-unit ANYTHING is, if one piece of it breaks you're looking at a lovely repair bill, or having a useless piece in your unit. (Like NowhereMan's useless shower radio.)

Plus it's fucking ugly.  :grin:


My list:  Multi-zone HVAC system
3-person jacuzzi tub
Custom Kohler Shower system  (http://www.us.kohler.com/tech/products/why_showercomponents.jsp)
PEX tubing
Web-Joist construction
Summer Room w/ Retractable Window Wall

Really, though. Despite  working in the industry I don't have a long list of house wants.  I know I'll never afford it and only see such large houses as wastes of material and over the top materialism, so I don't dream much beyond hitting the 3k sq. ft. mark or having a basement at this point.  :awesome_for_real:

How much is installation and delivery?

Over $8900.

That thing wouldn't be anywhere near my dream house. I'm an old english manor type, give me a vast library with a roaring fireplace, secret passages, lots of stairs and a maze of twisty passages, which I'll leave unlit.

Exactly! With one of those rolling wooden ladders in the library that rolls along the library shelves!

Like the Biltmore Estate library.

(http://z.about.com/d/gosoutheast/1/0/J/0/-/-/libraryCMYK.jpg)

(http://a.abcnews.com/images/GMA/ht_XmasLibrary_071129_ssv.jpg)


Check this place out $22 million for 42,000 square feet. Yes I said 42,000, with three zeroes. No its not my dream, simply something I found while searching for Biltmore estate library pics.
http://www.larryhotz.com/blog/evans-ridge-estate/
(http://www.larryhotz.com/wp-content/files/EvansView.jpg)

You would love my in-law's house.  It's not an old English manor house, though.  It's a big stone house on a hill, overlooking the Clyde.  Tons of beautiful old wood, lots of rooms although I'm not sure about secret ones, nearly all of them have a fireplace.  In the kitchen is an Aga, which still heats the whole house with hot water, fueled by coal and wood.  There are book shelves and beautiful old book cupboards, not just in the study, but pretty much everywhere.  It only has about an acre lot that they own, but the homes aren't built close together.  I find it very very cold in the winter.  Even when I'm sitting next to a roaring fire sometimes I can't stop shivering - except for the kitchen which always feels nice and warm.  Here is what heats their house:

(http://cheesaholics.blogs.com/photos/the_anstey_farm/london_jan_06_003.jpg)

I can seriously see you living in a house like that.  Me?  I like wide open spaces spaces, modern and updated.  I do have a soft spot for Art Deco, especially French.  Righ probably enjoys your style a wee bit more than mine, actually.  He likes his old family house a lot.  I'd probably gut it, modernise everything, stuff it full of French Art Deco and Rennie Mackintosh furniture.   :ye_gods: 

I didn't know Apple made furniture?

Somewhat more on topic, my new apartment is awesome like that, it's a 1200 sq ft duplex attic flat in a ~300 year old building so it has a lot of exposed beams, funny wall angles and so forth however it has been pretty tastefully modernised and made into an airy and pleasant place to live with a lot of character. Pictures are here (http://flickr.com/photos/12252757@N02/sets/72157613832804194/).

That's really quirky. I imagine you hit your head on that beam on that hallway. The guest bedroom looks bigger than the main! It looks really nice though, vaulted ceilings really make the place look huuuuge.

I personally want a modern-style house made of glass that overlooks a forest. You see them every once in a while on home & garden shows. The one I'm thinking of I saw recently on a 'amazing pools' type show, it was a open-floorplan house with one entire wall made of glass and a long but fairly narrow indoor/outdoor pool overlooking said woods, extended out into space with an infinity edge.

My dream house definitely has a heated pool with an infinity edge. For those who aren't familiar with the term, an infinity edge is a pool who's water overlaps the top and is recaptured in a catchpocket out of sight. This gives the illusion of the pool abruptly stopping as if by magic and is used most often on oceanfront pools to give people the illusion they are swimming in the ocean (without all that salt water/jellyfish hassle)

(http://www.filedump.net/dumped/infinity1236264002.jpg)

I have been through this when I built my house.  The things I actually managed to get was a hot tub on the screened-in porch that was sunk into the deck (actually a bad idea) and having two shower heads.  I don't actually use the second shower head most of the time, but that's because it is in the wrong place.

Things I did not get include a "batpole" going from my office upstairs to the garage.  I find that I should have put an electrical outlet on the kitchen island.  Tile backsplash behind the stove.  Attic fan (might install one this year, TBD once I know if I have a job and how much money I get for it).  Awnings in two places.  Turns out most of the things are kind of normal.  Except the secret passages and the gun mount.

The workshop, I did get it but it was all fucked up because I let the wife and the builder take care of it while I was working.  The workshop was going to be simply a separate room in the garage.  It was wired with 4-way outlets and plenty of juice.  One day my wife calls up and says that they were thinking the attic of the garage was huge and would be wasted, how about we put in some stairs and we can use it?  Sounded good on the phone.  What I found, however, was that the workshop had lost about one third of itself due to a huge traditional staircase.  I was thinking something like one of those prebuilt metal spiral jobs.  There are outlets under the stairs.  There is no room to build proper worktables along the walls, except in the back.  I asked them both how I was supposed to get lumber into the new upstairs workshop (which had just a few two-way outlets and shit particleboard floor) and the solution was to cut a hole in the ceiling of the garage.  The lesson here, kids, is that everyone working in the construction industry is a cockgobbling retard that deserves to be punched in the balls until they shit their pants.

I call vacation "contractor babysitting". If you're not on-site, even a good contractor will fuck things up.

Plan is to start the library next spring. This year I'm hoping just to get it painted and some cheap shelving in place and work on my wood shop, build a bench and get a few power tools. Then next year get a plumber to set up the gas fittings for the fireplace, rip out the walls and insulate/sheet rock it. Move the electric heater to a sensible spot, right now it spans the only long wall, I'll put two units under the windows. Then build in some shelves, because the space is too small and windowed to do much with bought shelves.

If we do a second-story addition, I hope to open up the ceiling and have a two-story library with a balcony and spiral staircase, but that's just in the wishland.

Yeg: my garage has a home-made staircase that hinges up flush with the ceiling. It's heavy as hell and can probably use a v2.0 redo, but the basics of it are sound and it's a great idea. You get a real staircase without losing any space.

My dream house would have a huge open space traversed by rope swinging, with little hammock spots by windows (20' off the floor) instead of reading niches. Also a pool with a climbing wall next to it.

Reading these posts made me come to a clear realization.  I work in a field that you don't really get to choose where you live (well... unless you're a star).  I find that my ideal home is one based more on location than on construction.  Give me a small, rustic house on a lake with mountains in the background and I'll be a very happy man.  Anything else is gravy. 

The woman and I have our "when we win the lotto" house all planned out with a bar in the basement that has a glass wall that behind it that shows through to the pool.
I also want slides and a Sharp 108 (http://www.electricpig.co.uk/2009/02/25/sharp-108-inch-lcd-tv-on-sale-in-uk-tomorrow/) for the mancave portion of he house 

Ah, I forgot about the underground bunker.  Technically that's not part of the house, though.

Amen. That's what sold me on my house. I like the place, it's cozy and got a non-traditional layout (originally two buildings in 1930, joined in the 40s best I can guess). But it's got a massive lot for the city and trees on two sides, dead-end street, great neighbors. Driving home last night I realized there's only two houses on my entire street that have garages as large as mine, I'm really in a great spot especially if I improve the lot a bit.

Finishing the basement is something I hope I can fit in the five year plan. The drums and weight bench will go down there pretty soon, if things stay dry this spring.

(http://z.about.com/d/gocalifornia/1/0/K/K/hcnt-lib.jpg)

(http://farm1.static.flickr.com/124/374369021_9935e737a8.jpg)

(edit) I'm pretty sure my entire house could fit in either of those rooms.

See, i just think that's ugly. I hate that style of decoration.

That second one? The only one who should be living in that is...

Ok, harder time finding Leonidas from South Park than I thought.

I like the *idea* of old libraries and such like the ones posted above, but really, they come across as being owned by stuffy old assholes who collect books rather than read them and would spend their wealth on things that makes it look like they have some sort of important heritage and life beyond their giant prison.

In short, No.

If I had my way, I'd have a giant warehouse with movable dividers and a very, very modern kitchen. Also, possibly, something that I could turn on and off that would spit fire at unwanted guests.

I have one of those. We've been married for six years now.

See I would absolutely love to live in a house with an old library like that. I'd probably like a smaller one since I'd like to think I could read at least a significant proportion of the books but I would fucking love to do so in that kind of room with nice leather armchairs.

I could do it wearing a smoking jacket :drill:

NEC and IRC requires this, actually, and I'm surprised you don't have at least one.  Most local building codes are starting to require multiples for the 'oversized' islands that are popular these days.  


Fuck you too!  :grin:

Actually, most of the field guys went into the job at 17 or 18 after blowing-off high school. Educmacated they are not so I'm, unfortunatly, not surprised of your low opinion of them.  The "good" guys are all hired by Commercial construction firms, the next tier (or those who hate commercial) go into production housing, then the guys who can't hack that, or say "fuck you I know how to swing a hammer. You can't tell me how to build!  I do NOT need to put more wood under that load!" open their own small builder firm.

Couldnt you get a job teaching in Montana or Wyoming (Wind River Range) or someplace with mountains close buy? Or go back to practicing again?
Any place where medical schools and mountains co-exist?

The problem being that jobs in academia are not common and you are further limited by whether you're going to fit with the general tenor of the deparment (in the humanities at least). Unless you're really well known there needs to be a job open, you need to have a specialisation they want and you need to be a decent 'fit' since your future colleagues will get a say in who gets hired. On top of all that there will probably be 50 people going for the post so it really doesn't matter where you want to teach. If you get an offer you go there.

The only difference between the library pictured and my ideal library is that the shelves of my ideal library would have a lot more sci-fi on them and a lot fewer books that look like movie props.

We're just about to enter the dragon's den of contractors. Our house isn't large enough for a third and we are one lab result away from starting on the process of creating a microperson. We've talked a lot about this stuff.

Right now we have a 1 1/2 floor cape, the downstairs being half an open kitchen/living room with a cathedral ceiling instead of a second floor. The other half is split between a dining room with a walkout onto a deck and a bedroom that's an office. Above that side upstairs iis a tiny cape cod house bedroom, which we sleep in. The standard expansion for a cape is to add a dormer, bringing one of the sides of the roof from peaked to almost horizontal, expanding useable space upstairs. We'd then have a full size bedroom and we're thinking an open loft space above the kitchen. Also finish half our basement. And we want a combination Florida room/pantry which would be off the living/kitchen, probably with a fireplace so we could use it occasionally in the winter.

The other option is my partner's parents live on a 3 acre lot on a pond in a tiny house so tiny that it would count as an "in law apartment" and we could sell our place and build a new home there. That would be the whole dream house idea and we'd have a decent budget for it since we'd already own the land and just be dealing with construction/furnishing. Almost all my luxuries would be in the kitchen. I'd love dual ovens, a vented grill station, and/or a wok burner. The big crazy extravagance would be a small sauna, which I doubt if we'd go for both because of the initial cost and the cost in energy of running it. Bathrooms don't mean a lot to us, other than having one. We're big into simple scan design type of things. We'd like to make it energy efficient and possibly do solar voltaic and a heat pump (HPs are rare here). A lot of wood and a lot of natural light and ventilation.

Eh, I'm a purist to a degree, at least when it comes to additions. I like to drive around town and critique odd (and usually common) things like the bumpout you're considering. As you say, standard, and there's a shitload of capes in my town, most houses in my neighborhood are tract capes from the 50s, about half are bumped out. Main thing to consider is snow load, if you're in that area. Otherwise, it's just a matter of cost, taste and available space. Another peeve is adding a sunporch to one side of a federal without balancing the other side. Eww!

I'm hoping to have my second floor addition (crossing my fingers the engineers green light it for the whole footprint) actually create some architectural style for my house, which is a very odd little place.

If I had the budget, I'd go for the new construction on the land with the inlaws (but I like my inlaws). Also, at least around here, land is piddling compared to construction cost of the house.

There's only one university in Wyoming and it's in Laramie (high plains).  I'd give my arm for a job in the Tetons or Wind Rivers region.  My problem is a) finding a university with a cancer center, b) finding a university that needs someone with my area of expertise and c) finding a university that can afford to provide the infrastructure for my research. 

Believe me when I tell you that I've been applying for jobs in this region.  Unfortunately, most PhD level positions have HUNDREDS of applicants.  I applied for a position at U of Vermont last year and they had over 310 applicants for a single position.  Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado are VERY VERY competitive places to land a job.  Especially since I didn't get my PhD degree from one of the big 5 schools.

looks like samwises pics are from Hearsts Castle.  Anyhoo my list would include an awesome view, a very large all weather type of outdoor living area, a nice pool shaped in such a way that you could swim 25 meter laps in it and maybe a racquetball court since they seem to be rare in Austin.

Correct.  Very much worth visiting if you ever happen to be in the area.  It's a fucking impressive building and is pretty close to what I would live in if I had too much money and not enough sense.

Like Nebu said, though, location is the really important thing.  If I built my own castle I'd have to build it where I'm living now or it wouldn't be worth it.

Yea, I really meant residential freelancers.  The people you mentioned are the people who refuse to hire many of the people who built my house; those are the guys who are late to get something built because they were in jail.  The guy who built my deck was nearly illiterate.  I could have saved myself a huge amount of hassle by picking a better general, but at least I saved a lot of money.

The best thing about my house is how I don't have any other houses next to me.

Most areas of both with both the scenery he describes and real colleges have been invaded by Californians with too much money to burn after they dumped their million-dollar crackerboxes in LA.  There's still some nice territory around Missoula and Dillon, and you can teach at Washington State University in Pullman and live just across the Idaho border (make sure that you're a good distance from the nearest white supremacist compound, there aren't actually *that* many of them, and most of them are north of Coeur d'Alene, but they turn up all over northern Idaho and far western Montana).  And I really have no idea if any of those might have a medical school, I never heard of one when I lived in that area.

Really, his best bet is *still* western Washington and Oregon.  Lots of accessible mountain valleys with small lakes, and most of the cities are strung out along I-5 with fairly wild country within 10 miles in either direction.  Even Seattle is 100 miles long and about 25 wide.

--Dave

Best bet would probably be the University of Utah with the Huntsman Cancer Center. There are plenty of cool places to live up in Summit County or up in the Uintas that still have pretty good accessibility down to the valley here. I imagine that is a VERY difficult place to get a job however.

As to the thread, I would really like a nice bar. And I mean a full on bar. I have my "bar" distributed through about three rooms right now as there is no single place to put all the booze, glasses, wine storage and mixing facilities.

Well in all sincerity Im sad to hear that for you. Its definitely an eye opener though. Its funny how you always hear, "get a job in healthcare and work anywhere you want."  I guess once you become specialized though that might not necessarily be the truth such as in your case.

Have you thought about leaving your current field and doing wilderness or high altitude? Maybe look for a staff position with the Wilderness Medical Institute which is part of NOLS in Wyoming? Or doing work as an expedition doctor for high altitude climbs?

Three rooms? I think you need to start going to meetings or something.  :grin:

I'm not licensed to practice and am a dedicated researcher.  It's common for PhD's that went to med school.   My choices are to a) find a job at a med school or research center and continue my research, b) Leave research and take a purely teaching position, or c) leave my field altogether and do something new. 

I've been talking to Abagadro about law schools for reason c).  A guy with my background can make pretty nice money as an intellectual property attorney in the pharmaceutical industry.  I figure I could work 10 years and retire early.  Yeah, those 10 years wouldn't be much fun... but it's nice to be young enough to enjoy retirement.

Sorry for the derail.  Back to houses!  PM me if you want to discuss this more.

There are no white supremacist groups around Pullman/Moscow and different ethnic/religious/sexual orientation groups are treated fairly well, but once you leave those two areas and get into the smaller hick towns there's no shortage of garden-variety redneck assholes.

This (http://www.webs.uidaho.edu/wwami/) is the closest WSU and UI have to a medical school, though.  Got to get over to University of Washington for a good-sized medical program.

Personally, I'd like a two-story cottage of modern construction, but with a faux half-timbered facade, in an alpine environment, near a small pond and conifer forest, far enough from civilization that light pollution wouldn't fuck the view at night. The kitchen would need both a modern gas range and a wood-fired open hearth, with a small wine cellar beneath it. The rest of the first floor would largely be taken up by the dining room and drawing room, decorated in a blend of Shaker, ski-lodge and Victorian styles. I'd put a guest bathroom down here as well.

On the second floor, I'd like a traditional study, with a nice wooden writing desk in the corner with a window flanking either side of it - one looking up towards the mountains, the other out onto the pond and trees. Proper armchairs and an array of books are a must. I'd have some sort of modified armoire that opens up to reveal the computer workspace, and I'd get one of Nerf's dad's awesome steampunk cases for it and inset the monitor into the wall, framed to look like a painting. Two bedrooms and a bathroom as well, natch. I'd finish the attic, but use it for storage.

About a quarter of the basement would be the wine cellar. I'd put in a small utility room for the usual washer, dryer, other appliances. In the remainder, I'd have a workout room, with a stairwell leading up to the back yard so I could exercise in the outdoors on nice days.

Out back I'd build a low deck, half-shaded by an overhanging section of the second story.

Back in reality, it's pretty much all about location for me. I've a highly specialized skill set in a small industry that demands a lot of mobility, so it's unlikely I'll own a house or settle down for a long time; when I do, I probably won't get much choice in terms of cities, and I hate commuting so I'd live in-town anyway. One of the nice things about Iceland, though, is that I can find summerhouses that meet some of the basic criteria above and rent them for not terribly much money in the off-season. Makes for a nice getaway weekend.

Currently, I tend to rent with an eye towards short commutes, quiet neighborhoods and decent proximity to stores and nightlife; the actual contents of the place basically need to let me sleep, shower and shit - anything beyond that is just extra, although I do prefer places with decent kitchens.

Rooftop observatory.

(http://www.bearcreekobservatory.com/dome.jpg)

Storage for the CD collection.

(http://stephensonstrategies.com/images/2007/11/04/Government_Data.jpg)

Oh dear.  That's not what I had in mind at all!   

-in a real city that doesn't suck
-high up, at least 8 stories off the ground
-the roof is designed to have lots of people on it and I have exclusive access
-infinity pool on the roof, looking out over the Pacific Ocean
-put a hot tub up there as well
-also a glass enclosure for days when it rains of reasonable size, enough room to seat say 4, in nice comfy chairs, can be opened up on sunny days

That's pretty much it.  Basically I want to own an income producing tall building with unobstructed water views of the Pacific.  I want to turn the top floor into a penthouse and redo the roof into something amazing where I can spend most of my time.    That is pretty much heaven in my mind...

/sigh

Well, you're pretty much in the best city next to the Pacific (from what I recall?), so you've got that covered at least.  :grin:


I've always liked the look of dark wood, like a nautical thing going on maybe. That and lots of red and black. Basically just give me a house that a Pirate Dracula would live in.

He's also living in exactly the wrong sort of place geologically to be placing hundreds of tons of water on top of a tall building.

welcome to west texas where neighbors are 50 miles apart and they all have 1 of these.