One of the most exciting things going on in our household is what we call "Future House". While most people who know me personally know that silliness is the core of my being (by contrast, on-line my persona is stuck as crutchety stereo type authority figure), I do take major life plans serious to the point of insanity.
When my wife and I got married, nearly 15 years ago, we had a plan. We would have 3 houses in our "effective lifetime" (only an engineer comes up with a term like that).
The first house would be our "Starter house". The second house would be our transitional house that would be nicer while we prepared for the "ultimate house".
Of course, we had no idea what scale these various houses would be. But the plan was to try to afford as much house as we could by the time my wife and I hit 40. This wasn't merely due to distracting ourselves from our various pre-planned midlife crisis's (well sure it was but anyway...) it was also because we wanted to make sure our "final" house was set up while our kids were still young enough to think of that house as their home.
2 years ago, I bought about 3.5 acres of property near work for the project and this Spring, the trucks move in to begin clearing things and start building. It will take about 2.5 years for the house to be built. If all goes well, we'll be moved in right around the time my wife hits 40 (I'll still be 39).
For both my wife and I, the whole project is surreal. For myself, I grew up in a 2 bedroom apartment with my mom. Through her frugal management of money, we eventually moved into a house in a very nice neighborhood. Her house is about 1,000 square feet (though I'm sure she'll correct me on the exact). It was a great house to grow up in since it was just the 2 of us.
When I got out of college and the first product I made (a PC game for OS/2) helped the company take off, I used the fame of that game (our publisher didn't pay us so I only had glory but no money yet) to launch additional products which we published ourselves (And thus got to actually see the money). That allowed my new wife and I to buy our first home. 2,500 square feet. Very nice house. Had a little pond in back that I dug and had woods near by.
When we had two kids and thoughts of having a third, we decided on a whim (after being talked into it by my diabolical neighbor and friend and now coworker who had just moved to a new neighborhood) to get house #2 which is 4,000 square feet, not counting the finished basement. It is a really nice house, great neighborhood.
But the house we're in, as nice as it is, isn't our dream home. First, there's no woods around. It's completely in a sub-division so there are houses on all sides. Even as I type here in my pajamas (I am a blogger after all) I am sure the neighbor across the way can see right into my window at my ever expanding gut (I'm shirtless).
I like neighbors, but I don't like having them on all sides. Plus, my wife wants a pool and I'd like to have some space for having various critters in the house (I love animals of all types but don't dare have them here). The house we're in was obviously designed by a guy. Very small laundry room and tiny mud room.
So for the past couple of years, we've been deciding on the features of our dream house. I won't go into too many details as I recognize that there's plenty of people who get resentful over "conspicuous consumption" but my feeling is that life is short and having a cool house is something I've always wanted and now we have the means to do everything we've always wanted.
Even my kook side can be placated with hidden rooms, alternative power sources, conservatory with water supply for all kinds of animals (I want to build a mini eco system), a lower floor lab for robotics, electronics, etc. A mini shop for beekeeping stuff and building other stuff.
The idea is that this will be the house we retire in. Our last house. So we're trying to make sure that a) it has everything we can think of today and 
it's got space and flexibility to have what we think of in the future added.
The lot itself is beautiful. Totally wooded (Which is a bit heart breaking as trees have to be cut down to build the house -- a LOT of trees). The wood, however, is being used on the house rather than scrapped so the wood won't be really going anywhere, it'll simply be reformed. 
So over the coming 2.5 years, you'll likely see some pictures and notes. A great adventure is about to begin.