Obsession

One of the teachers I work with believes that we are all on the Autism spectrum, we just vary in our degree of quirkiness. Today I am feeling my "autistic tendency" (no, I am not autistic and am not being degrading to those with autism) to fixate on one thing. My fixation is beginning to drive me insane so I thought, maybe, if I write about it, it will go away. Lets find out...
I really want to build a house. I live in a townhouse right now and it just isn't working for me anymore. I need a basement, a mud room, more kitchen cabinets, storage for Sparky's crap, preferably two bedrooms in addition to mine with a separate bathroom, a half bath for guests, a kitchen open to the great room, a laundry room that is a room (not a closet or part of the kitchen), and an office would be a wonderful addition if possible, but I am willing to forgo that if necessary due to the expanse that would exist to me in the basement.
More specifically, I would like it all on one floor (other than the basement, obviously) and I would like the entrance from the garage to go through a mud room and then into the kitchen. I would also like a foyer so that people do not come right into the house and into the great room. I would like the master bedroom/bath to be on the other side of the house from the two other bedrooms. It would be nice if the two other bedrooms could be shut off from the house by a door or something so I can seal it off until I have children to fill those rooms and then again be sealed when they move away. (My grandpa would completely understand this desire, as his entire upstairs was sealed off from the rest of the house with a large trap door.)

So the dream home, if money wasn't an option:

And the floorplan:

I just don't think I can afford to build this house. I would love to. Here is a link to a site with lots of pictures of this house. You should check it out. I particularly love the coffered ceiling in the keeping room, but I wish that the jack and jill bathroom had the sinks separate from the bathtub and toilet so that one person can be taking a shower in privacy but another person can still be getting ready at the sink. I also don't need a lodge room and a keeping room, an eating nook and a dining room, but I would like them if I could have this house.


So in more realistic ideas here is another plan I like:

 and the floor plan: 

On this house I think I would add some small french doors off the foyer leading to the bedrooms to the right. That way I could close the doors and not heat those two rooms unless needed. For symmetry, I could add the same doors to the left off the foyer leading to the master suite and study, but those would stay open unless we were entertaining or something. This plan is pretty much ideal except those stairs that lead up to a bonus room above the garage would need to go down into the basement instead.
Notice the coffered ceiling in the great room. Sigh.