Joy loves to bake. She is a master. Deserts from this woman are unreal, I kid not. I once made the comment that a particular place has amazing deserts (Cafe Intermezzo, in Atlanta) and it lead to all heck as I said a particular one was better than hers. I don't mean heck in that I got in trouble for saying it, but heck as in "okay, try this variation I made, what do you think" for a few weeks until she blew away what Intermezzo was producing. She is a wonderful woman.
Looking to build a house, for her, is about how to arrange the kitchen. The rest of the house is pretty much an extension of the kitchen (only those parts relevent to baking), with a sleeping area, and ideally a nice garden. The laundry room needs to be away from the kitchen (dryers and cakes don't mix), the kitchen windows should face south-east (herbs like morning sun), etc. The wall to the south west of the kitchen must not be a supporting wall as it will be expanded later, etc. Don't get me started on hearths in the kitchen.
I tend to see it as building something which I will need to take care of over the years. My grandfather built houses professionally and I was inundated in the right way to build a house (spend a whole afternoon and evening shimming joists with slate so that the entire length of the wall is perfectly level and you have my grandfather's standard for "the right way"). I care deeply about how the foundation is laid, how the bearing walls are arranged, and how its being wired. I also care deeply about the trees, but that is another matter. Trees make a house.
Which of us is desiging the house the right way? Which approach to object/relational mapping is correct? Is a house even the best thing to live (cook) in?