My wife and I were house hunting between 2 and 3 years when we decided we could not find a house to our liking.  A major consideration is energy source for our next home.  We have seen the results of a geothermal heating system and could not bring ourselves to purchase a home with anything but a geothermally heated home.  My wife is also a work from home mom of three small girls.  Our oldest daughter Abigail will attend Kindergarten next school year, Julia will be in a pre-K program for half days and Natalie turned two in January.  My wife needs a space to work while she can also keep a watchful eye on the little ones while they are home.  I like to cook – funny, I know, a guy who likes to cook, but just look at Emeril, right?  Ok, so given those wants for our new home, we did not find a way to accomplish our goals buying an existing home.  So, we set out to design our own home and build it just the way we wanted it.  My wife loves covered porches, so we selected a farm style house, regularly shaped as such, a medium / large rectangular footprint with a three sided wrap around covered porch.  The property we selected to build on is a great location for a walk out basement, so as such we designed a functional basement.  We also love to eat dinners in the summer out on our deck at our previous home so we designed a large deck, extending off the covered porch.