MetaChat - What's your alternate-path fantasy home life?

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17 May 2007

What's your alternate-path fantasy home life? I asked about the fantasy job last time. This time I'm curious about where and how you'd live if you didn't live where you do live.→[More:]Mine:
1. On an island off the coast of Maine or MA, where a mail boat comes once a day and not on Sundays or in bad weather. Woodstove-heated (I do the splitting), small, and old. Grassy yard with lilac bush. Pantry full of dry goods. Porch with porch swing. Propane generator. On the island, the commercial strip might include one grocery/cafe/restaurant/post office, one B & B, one art gallery for the tourists, and one bait/marina/gas station.

2. In a once-gracious but now slightly shabby grand old beach house in a coastal town, year-round. Actually I know the exact town - festive in summer, but in the off season, a peaceful seaside place that gets a bit smaller when the tourists are gone. Secondhand bookstore, cafe or two, a couple of gen-u-wine old hardware stores that sell useful things right downtown, a couple of excellent old-school bakeries that sell crumb buns and cinnamon buns and Italian cookies, a lot of closed gift shops with signs in the window saying "Thank you for your business! See you next summer!," church bells on Sunday on quiet streets where occasionally, traffic moves along in no particular hurry.

post by: Miko at: 10:57 | 36 comments

off the coast of Maine or MA

Hey! I'll let you know that my home state of New Hampshire has 13 miles of coastline!

For me I would either live in: (1) New York City; or (2) up in the country of Northern California (Mendocino/Humboldt).

posted by Claudia_SF 17 May | 11:01

I'd probably still live in New York, but if money were no object, I'd have a whole floor of a building or a whole row house with a basement done up like a bar with a pool table and digital jukebox and neon (and possibly a stripper pole). I'd have a deck even bigger than my porch with a grill and a speaker system where I'd have great parties, and I'd have all my stuff arranged and set up and my tech all perfectly networked and I'd run my internet radio show/culture 'zine/crime empire out of my home office where I'd work in my underwear all day occasionaly venturing out to the diner for grub.

posted by jonmc 17 May | 11:03

I did live in my dream place: Santa Barbara ("The American Riviera"). And I took it for granted. Now that I live in Texas and have some perspective on what people outside of Paradise think and how they live, my dream place would still be Santa Barbara, except full of people who would put down the goddamned bong once in awhile and wouldn't take paradise for granted so much :-)

posted by WolfDaddy 17 May | 11:06

I'd live on one of the smaller of the Hawaiian islands running a dive shop and charter service with Dad. Probably have kids and a few dogs. Also I would be independently wealthy (from the wicked idea that I'm gonna see about patenting - seriously) so all the profits from the dive shop could go to local charities and back into the shop. I'd also need a decent set of staff to run the place when I leave so Dad and I can go traveling and diving in other places. If Hawaii doesn't work out Northeastern Australia or Fiji (or anywhere in Micronesia) will do nicely. I'm tired of being cold all the time.

posted by LunaticFringe 17 May | 11:08

I'd live in Florida near the beach in a house with lots of windows and natural light, and in the summer I'd go up to Ocean City, NJ and live in that beautiful white and blue house right off the boardwalk.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 17 May | 11:09

I'd like to live in one of those big, grand old houses on the East Side of Milwaukee, a few blocks from the lake. (Since this is fantasy, I assume somebody else would be doing most of the caretaking -- housework, yardwork and maintenance on a place like that can be a $ and time sink.) I'd be the quirky eccentric neighbor who rides his bicycle downtown twice a week for a fresh supply of books to read, and most of the backyard would be an herb garden. Apart from the kitchen and living room, the place would be amazingly sparely furnished apart from whatever a succession of former girlfriends talked me into buying. At Hallowe'en, I'd give the kiddies each a crisp new dollar bill for trick-or-treat, and my Christmas lights would be on every night from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving until Epiphany.

posted by PaxDigita 17 May | 11:15

On the Vegas Strip instead of 1/2 mile from the Vegas Strip. I have my eye on a place that is 100 feet from the Strip behind a Carls Jr.

posted by mischief 17 May | 11:26

I'd like to live in an Art Deco house overlooking the sea, one of those white houses that looks like an ocean liner.

posted by essexjan 17 May | 11:27

I'd have a little house in Brookline, MA, just a few blocks from Coolidge Corner. It'd have a backyard where I could grow tomatoes and a little tower room full of windows, and a spiral staircase and a huge kitchen with granite countertops and a picture window looking out on a park.

(Goddammit, I miss Brookline.)

posted by Fuzzbean 17 May | 11:29

Cabarete, Dominican Republic. At least untill they start building big hotels there. I love that beach and the intersting folks who come from Germany, France and Canada for the wind serfing.

posted by arse_hat 17 May | 11:31

Folly Beach, SC, a ramshackle wandering old beach house with a big porch and climbing roses. Or a Soho loft.

posted by mygothlaundry 17 May | 11:34

Hey! I'll let you know that my home state of New Hampshire has 13 miles of coastline

I know...but I already live there!

I'd go up to Ocean City, NJ

That's my perfect beach town!

posted by Miko 17 May | 11:34

I haven't been back since I was a child; I'm hoping it hasn't changed. And that the white and blue house is still there, so someday I can buy it.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 17 May | 11:39

One of these days I'll be able to live in Trinity County near the Oregon border. I'll spend my time surfing or sitting in one of the trout streams, or hiking in the redwoods.

It'll be a little, easy-to-maintain house with a porch and a small vegetable garden. And a cecil bruner rose running amok up one side. In other words, it'll be my Indiana house, but near Crescent City.

posted by small_ruminant 17 May | 11:41

There's this house I always see now when I drive to the north shore of Lake Superior; it's up on a bluff north of Two Harbors, overlooking highway 61, the Lake, and a sweet-ass tunnel going through a small mountain. In the alternate path, I live there along with my wife and our current pet menagerie, with maybe an extra dog to take some of the dog-entertainment burden off of us.

posted by cobra! 17 May | 11:43

I'm hoping it hasn't changed

It pretty much hasn't. (Though I don't know that house)

posted by Miko 17 May | 11:45

I'd move back to London, I think - and buy a 4-bedroom house with a large garden near one of the major parks. (That's why it's a fantasy - I could move back to London at any time but couldn't live anywhere with space, or anywhere central). I'd take my SO with me and we'd have children and I'd sort out my time management issues and work part-time and he'd work part-time too and we'd share the childcare.

posted by altolinguistic 17 May | 11:49

In an eco house in a city with a good live music scene, food, cafes, bars, cycle paths, licensing laws and other signs of civilisation.

posted by asok 17 May | 11:49

I'd live in NYC in an offbeat neighborhood. I'd have a 2000 SF top floor condo with a big balcony partially covered so we could still sit outside in the rain, and we could have some container gardens to grow tomatoes and rosemary. It'd face west so we could watch the sunset every night.

Then we'd also have to have a helicopter pad so we could get to our passive solar modular house in the NC mountains near the New River and we could canoe and hike and walk with the pooches in the woods.

& Wolfdaddy, Santa Barbara is nice - I was only there for a few hours but it was beautiful. That's be a close second for me.

posted by chewatadistance 17 May | 11:59

I'd live in a suite at the Waldorf. Or maybe I'd convert one of those Swiss air force hangars they have inside the mountains into a palatial residence, leaving open one or two of the airstrips, and generate all my household energy via filthy lucre. Or maybe I'd live on a sampan. Or maybe I'd find the right hot spring on the right mountainside in Japan, build a modest palace there with several rotemburo (outdoor baths) with the most scenic of vistas, and write down everything I know about living forever.

posted by Hugh Janus 17 May | 12:03

≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by taz 17 May | 12:14

I feel so sorry for you all because I am pretty much in my dream home, albeit with a too-small kitchen and bathroom, highway noise from the 101* and frequent invasions of all the local micro-fauna. Otherwise, in the hills midway between downtown San Luis Obispo and Pismo Beach, it's pretty darn awesome. The area has all the things asok listed (in fact there's a much-used bike lane between my front door and that highway - very cool). A quarter-million people in the county, a University, wineries, good local media, shopping alternatives (local businesses AND the better big chains), light tourism... the main regional flaws are high-priced housing and a doctor shortage, both of which I have personally been able to overcome. I fell in love with this area while I was in college and finally got to move here when I ended up on disability. WolfDaddy, it's what Santa Barbara would be if they put down the bong. I wholeheartedly recommend this area to any MeChatter seeking a lifestyle, but I do NOT have room for anyone to crash at my place (which I consider another plus).

*Highway noise bothers me much less than most people; I developed an immunity growing up half-a-block from an L.A. freeway.

posted by wendell 17 May | 12:25

I smell an Ocean City, NJ meetup in our future!

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 17 May | 12:37

I'm already living my alternate-path fantasy home life. :)

I'm in SF living cheaply with a bunch of freaks and I'm surrounded by art and paradise and I'm so dreadfully normal here it hurts and I've been waiting almost 5 years to get here and... yes. Oh yes. Life is so good I don't even have usually have time for the internet. Suck it, haters!

posted by loquacious 17 May | 12:59

I'd totally divide my time between a place on Manitoulin Island, and somewhere in (probably Northern) California where I could grow LOTS of our own food. No good, rats-a-fratsing, harsh Canadian climate.

And, to fill my day? Ideally a world-class recording studio. I dunno if I'd have the ear for it, but I know a couple guys with great ears and less money, so...I'd hang out and opine. Maybe that'd work out for the Manitoulin Island digs. For the time I spend in CA, I think I'd fuck around with wood. Maybe build some furniture, etc. Yeah, that'd be sweet.

posted by richat 17 May | 13:00

Right now? Right this minute? I'd be a nomad. No house. No kids. No husband. Just me. Drinkin' and sluttin' my way around the world.

posted by jrossi4r 17 May | 13:14

I'd be in Seattle, doing pretty much what I'm doing now (working in higher ed, advising students and doing some teaching). I'd be living in a nice little wood-framed house with a fireplace and room for a garden, maybe a view of the water -- in other words, the kind of place that I could have bought if I'd moved there in the '80s and is now out of my reach forever. Despite which, I *am* getting the wheels in motion to move out there this year, even if it means living in a crappy efficiency.

posted by kat allison 17 May | 13:23

My fantasy house is ... well, my current house, which we gutted, renovated and added onto last summer after eight years of planning and saving. We love it now, and whenever anyone asks us where our next vacation trip will be, we tell them our address. ;-)

But my fantasy vacation place would probably be a shack on a pond or lake in my home state of Maine, or an apartment overlooking a small canal in a non-touristy sestiere of Venice, Italy.

posted by initapplette 17 May | 14:28

Maybe Austin TX or Miami FL, though I'm pretty well settled right here where I am.

posted by BoringPostcards 17 May | 14:37

I'm pretty much living my dream. I've complained about my house before, but it's pretty ideal. If I had a little more energy it could be a palace.

My fantasy house would be located in the area in Florida where I live now, maybe a little farther south. I'm envisioning a waterfront "Island" or "Caribbean style" house in a pastel color, with an aluminum roof, wraparound porch, and lots of tropical plants. I'll need a dock, a big back yard and a pool. My dream place sounds like the vacation house we'll be going to this June. Except, I'd want more neighbors and more activity. Fine for vacation, but not for living.

posted by LoriFLA 17 May | 14:49

ooo... I want jrossi's fantasy life instead.

posted by small_ruminant 17 May | 14:54

(yeah, me too, small_ruminant)

posted by gaspode 17 May | 15:03

I have too many but here is one:

I would live on a ranch - some place with wide open spaces and I would have horses and I would be really skilled at riding these horses. I would wear dungarees and cowboy boots at all times. We would have a fire pit and at night we would play guitar under the stars.

There would also be no cancer at this ranch - so I could smoke cigarettes too.

And even though it doesn't really fit into the scenario, the ranch would have an olympic sized swimming pool, perfectly heated to 78 degrees at all times.

posted by Lola_G 17 May | 15:15

There is a house here that is on the river and has close access to the ocean that has always been my dream home - it has about 2 acres of riverfront land, with huge trees and a huge home with beautiful proportions. I used to go past it on the river regularly, because it was on our route from where we worked on boats to where we sea-trialled them and I always thought "one day, I'd like to buy that house" - it's just as unattainable today as it was then, as it would list at about $5M on today's market. The other one was the home owned by ex-F1 driver Alan Jones (I built a boat for him back in the day), which is in the middle of the city, but is a small island in the river with a gated bridge to reach it. The location is sublime, but the house is butt-ugly and I hate the thought of knocking down a perfectly good house.

posted by dg 17 May | 18:46

I would live in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, in one of the shuttered factories. I'd do all of my shopping online and take a cab into the city when I needed some amusement.

Red Hook would stay pristine and deserted, just as it was in 1994, when I first moved to Brooklyn. Ikea would never set up a store. The neighborhood would be quiet and I would be able to smell the ocean from my window.

Sigh.

posted by jason's_planet 17 May | 19:24

I'd like a medium sized house made of stone, natural field and smooth river rock type stone. Three big bedrooms upstairs with a full bath, and the master bedroom suite downstairs. Wrap around porch, with a screened/glassed four season room overlooking the lake (no motor boats). A small barn so I could have a horse or two. I'd love to live somewhere in Pennsylvania (I'd really love to live in Maine, but the Mr. doesn't want to live that far north). I'd have bird feeders everywhere, so I could take pictures of birds from inside the house.

Or I could just drink and slut around with jrossi. That'd be fun, too.

posted by redvixen 17 May | 20:19

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