My husband always asks where I’d like to live. We move around according to his work, a few years here permanent, a year contract. We do get around and love seeing different areas of the country, and the world. We have to take practical matters to heart. I think we would both love to have a small lakeside retreat as a home base to travel from.
We grew up in such different places Northeast/TX and have different priorities. For me my kitchen reigns supreme and I need dining and living space for family and friends. For Jim, when he was a kid he built a workshop and did a lot of experiments and invented things. So our home would need those features. Anything else is added, fireplace, etc.
Jim and I love the Western post and beam construction with lots of glass, great kitchen with places to congregate, but also places for privacy. I always wanted a trickling Italian (Renaissance, not styrofoam cherub peeing in the pool) fountain in a place with slate stepping stones, thyme as ground cover, ferns and perhaps evergreens and hardwood trees for a shady reading area.
What’s your favorite dream house? I’d have slate floors in the kitchen with granite countertops, gas top range, electric wall ovens w/convection. Separate area with extra frig, laundry, dog bath (hey, I’ll be 70 by that time and I don’t send her out to be cleaned so should have a tub at my level!).
More importantly, what’s essential in YOUR kitchen??? Cheers, Dee
Cooking with Dee 
I think you meant to say timberframe style construction. Post and beam is a type of foundation with concrete posts every so often and beams between the posts. Post and beam can be a great foundation but costs more than a slab. Nanny’s house is built on a post and beam foundation. They were more common before concrete trucks were widely available. I believe concrete trucks changed the cost equation.