> 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

Congrats!

I'm also interested in this topic because we're thinking about a new
house because my wife can barely walk anymore.

> 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.

I think that's a good idea.

> 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?

Right now we need a single-floor home, with a basement for my shop.

One big thing we need is that the house must be wheelchair/walker friendly.

Another thing is that we have specific requirements for the master bathroom.

Make sure that your bathrooms and kitchen are the size you want. Changing
this later can be expensive.

And it would probably be a good idea to keep the kitchen hidden from the
front door and living room. Who needs their dirty dishes in plain sight?

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

I've always wanted a tower. :)

On a more serious note, I'd want a walk-out basement that can be easily
ventilated.

I'd want the house as low-maintenance as possible. I'm lazy.

A *dry* basement.

Room for *all* my books.

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

You might want to take a look at modular homes. I'd try the Haven Homes
site for information (http://www.havenhomes.com/).

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

Sell it and get a smaller plot so that I can build a better house.

On the other hand, I've always wanted an English Maze.
-- 
D. Jay Newman           ! Author of:
jay@sprucegrove.com     ! _Linux Robotics: Building Smarter Robots_
http://enerd.ws/robots/ !    "A backward poet writes inverse."
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