So I'm moving to a bit of dirt about 15 miles south of ann arbor and
building a home.  I've long been interested in home automation and
other such projects, and it'll obviously be wired for 1000baseT,
phone, cable, etc with space for future wire runs.  It'll also be
suitable for wireless use, but frankly I hate moving DVDs across slow
wireless connections.

So I have a few questions to brainstorm about:

1) What would you change about your house if you could?  Or more
specifically, what would you change that is easier to do at the start
than it is to retrofit later?

2) Assuming unlimited "dreaming" budget, what would you build into a
custom designed house?

3) Any new or old homebuilding technology that I should really look into?

4) What would you do with 10 acres of land?

So for my first thoughts:

1) I like home automation.  Would be cool to be able to control
electrical items using more than just a switch on the wall.  Would be
nice to have whole house sound, security...

2) Theater, rooftop gazebo or sod roof, passive solar heating,
cooling.  Geothermal heating/cooling.  Skylights, lots of natural
light.

3) Insulated concrete forms, steel frame construction, pole
construction, log home...

4) Orchards, gardens, animals, wood/metal shop, english gardens (hedge
maze!), small landing strip (land is around 1200' x 350'), wind &
solar electricity...

Of course, I won't be able to implement much dreamy stuff(time and
money), but the more stuff I think about before designing/building it,
the better off I'll be in the long run.

This is brainstorming!  No negative stuff!  I really do want to hear
your wacky unobtanium ideas.

Thanks!

-Adam
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