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Second the mud room. A home on acreage means stuff you won't want to track into the house. You will be changing in and out of heavy wet coats, muddy boots, and in some cases completely shucking out of your clothes as you come in. Plan a place to sit down and a place to hang your coats and hats. The mud room is a great place for the laundry, with a laundry tub that you can put a 5 gallon bucket in for a bucket of hot water. There are times you will want to clean up your clothes before risking the washing machine. The mud room is a great place for a water heater and electrical panel. Leave room for a large chest freezer.
Don't forget a recycling area. Things build up until you can haul them to a recycling depot, so allow room for half a dozen 35 gallon garbage cans, preferably outside behind an obscuring fence. If you use a trash compactor, you can put that in the mud room too.
I'm not hot on the idea of putting a shop in the garage. People in the country have the option of spreading out to outbuildings. A separate shop and storage will keep clutter out of the garage. It will also allow for a larger door with more head height, which is helpful if someday you need to work on a travel trailer or RV. A shop should have a 12' door height. Plan your electrical distribution for outbuildings, well pump, etc. so you don't have to run the power into the house and then back out again. You will also need a transfer switch for a generator, since without power you won't have water. Plan a secondary heat source, like a wood stove, that doesn't require electricity. Generators run out of fuel, and are noisy. At most you want to run one 3 or 4 hours a day.
Outdoor living areas are great. We have French doors in the dining room, just off the kitchen, which open onto a large deck, a patio on the shady side of the house for warm weather relaxing, and a gazebo overlooking the creek that is wired for power and ethernet that doubles as an outdoor office. Wire the whole house with Cat 6, HDMI, audio and coax cable. Your TV will probably be a combination of OTA and satellite, so establish a central coax distribution hub in either the mud room or the utility room. WiFi is great, but it is not full duplex like ethernet, and will never match gigabit ethernet speeds. You can run ethernet cable 100 yards with no problem, so connect up the shop too.
I have a projection TV system that uses HDMI or component video, with an electronic screen that recesses into the ceiling when the TV is not in use. The projector sits in a small box in the ceiling. The sound system is THX certified. The vanishing screen avoids the "big eye" tv screen that ruins most living rooms for other purposes.
Raised beds for a kitchen garden, with an irrigation system on a timer. With a frame of plastic pipe covered with translucent fabric the raised bed will double as a cold frame and kitchen garden.
I'm hoping to build a house this year so have been thinking of this a lot.
A given: in the country, on acreage, with trees.
- geothermal heating
- combined with solar
- large screened in porches at front and back. One porch to have an area of grass for the kitties.
- And speaking of kitties, the screen on all windows and porch MUST be "florida" or "pet proof" type.
- Good air flow without air conditioning: doors/windows opposite of one another, and I'm even thinking of a cupola to draw warm air up and out. Maybe even a dry moat!
- Or if I build it further south, I'd love a central courtyard.
- I'm not going to say mud room, but a double entry. Our farm house had a lovely first entry with a coat closet, then the door to the rest of the house.
- Wood floors throughout, even in the kitchen and bathroom.
- Lots of built-in bookshelves and cabinets. My first house had a built in cedar closet, which was nice.
- Pocket doors.
- Oh yeah, a large bathroom with a huge walk in shower with a large rainfall showerhead and made of porcelain/glass - no plastic!
- Most especially, I want a small house built with the finest quality materials rather than a large house built cheaply.
- And since it's on an acreage I need a jeep with a snow plow attached, too. Or a bobcat - I've always wanted one of those!!!
-An entryway, rather than a front door that opens directly into a room, featuring a coat closet, a bench, and room for a piece of furniture with drawers to stash mail, hold gloves and keys, etc. This area also needs a mirror for quick checks as I leave the house.
-Some kind of mudroom at the back entry (or near the garage) so there is proper storage for boots, kid's school stuff, dog-walking items, etc.
-Generous closets in all the bedrooms and a walk-in closet in the master bedroom with double rods on one side, built-in shelving for stacked items, and a high shelf to store suitcases.
-A walk-in pantry in the kitchen.
-A linen closet in each bathroom.
-A double shower in the master bath and double sinks with enough counter space for a make-up area.
-An attractive home office with bookcases.
-A generous laundry room with space for a counter or table for folding clothes, a rod for hanging up wet things, multiple hampers to sort the laundry.
-A designated space in either the home office or the laundry to store craft supplies and gift-wrapping items and a table to do that kind of work, complete with a couple of seats.
-A garage that connects to the kitchen so groceries don't have to be carried all over the house.
-Good lighting and a decent sound system.
-A porch or a patio for outdoor socializing.
-A space for outdoor dining.
I have found that if one has good windows and lighting, as well as proper storage for the things that are used in a given area, a house doesn't need all that much furniture in it and rooms don't have to be as large as they often are in today's homes.
Lots of good ideas are already here. Just a few to mention:
-lots of bay windows and window seats with cupboards below
-garden window by kitchen sink
-nice deep kitchen sink
-ceiling fan outlets in most areas, ceiling fans and lights in all bedrooms
-extra deep shelved linen closets
-broom closet in kitchen
-walk-in pantry with a window
-fireplaces in living room and family room, No TV's above fireplaces, wiring elsewhere
-front and back porches with sturdy beams to hand a porch swing
-I agree with mudroom idea
-dog bath in mudroom or laundry room
-built-in bookcases throughout the house
-laundry room on both floors with sorting counter and basket shelves, and a hanging rod [as mentioned above],windows preferred
-old-fashioned laundry tub in 1st floor laundry
-electric outlets on porches and patios and for Christmas lights, as previously mentioned
-hard wired dawn-to-dusk wired outdoor lights and also a lamp post
-I'm short - so I would like some of the upper kitchen cupboards to be at lower height
-drawers inside the kitchen cabinets
-central a/c
-outdoor shower, please
-outdoor patio, water and electric nearby
- small room off master for nursery or office
-walk-in shower and double sinks in master bath
-windows in all rooms
-windows on the stairway
-a basement with a fireplace
Rooms don't have to be huge, the cozy spots with windows and shelves is what we want!
Porches and terraces, nooks and alcoves inside for reading and dining, great light, a sleeping porch, a library hall, large and multi-functional mud room/pantry, outdoor shower and a design studio.
Single story, no steps, so I can age in place
3 bedrooms, 3 baths, den/office
Open living/dining/kitchen
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