On Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:50:39 -0600, George Shirley
> wrote:

> Since all guests end up in my kitchen I would like to have a house with
> about 1200 feet of open kitchen, dining area, and living room.

Isn't that what the current Great Room composition is all about?

> At the
> far end of that would be three or four bedrooms and a couple of
> bathrooms. The kitchen must have a ten X ten pantry and a ten X ten
> office and a half bath would be nice too.

My ideal house is H shaped with partially covered patios (complete
with overhead fans) in the open parts of the back to back U's. One
side is the bedroom wing and there will be a private guest suite at
the very end of it with a small sink/refrigerator/burner unit for
snacking purposes without feeling like they're rummaging someone
else's kitchen. The bedroom wing will have a hallway with a glass
wall on the interior side The other side is the kitchen/family room
wing, connected by a living room area. The courtyard facing the
street will have a wall with a gate. The dining room will face that
courtyard and there will be a huge picture window with doors that push
back to let the outside in. One of the patios will have an outdoor
kitchen and the other a fireplace, but the locations switch depending
on which dream I'm in at the time.

--

Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground.