Like most people I love reading about people who have built their dream home, or dream garage, dream add on and think about how I would want to do something similar.

As an aside, in 1999 I created a 5 year vision plan for my life. Part of this plan involved the type of house I wanted to live in and I went into great detail down to paint schemes, wood choices, etc. I read it every day for a year and then put it away. In 2005 I was going through old back up CDs and found a copy of my vision. I realized in 2004 I had bought that house design and remodeled it subconsciously to my vision several years earlier, even down to the wallpaper and paint.

Today, I've come to realize for my family its not so important to have a modest house or expensive accouterments, (of which we have managed a few)but enough rooms & bathrooms for us plus guests. A larger kitchen area for gatherings. In a perfect world I'd move from my suburbia (in albeit a nice house)to a piece of land with a little acreage and well or spring water. Call it fortified or a bunker but a underground basement that could be considered secure. Whether that security involved the whole structure IDK. I'd also put a nice barn/garage on the property for work space, small cardio/weight set up, endless pool, bathroom, maybe even have the guest room here if I had to compromise on the house.

A power system that was on grid but could supplemented by solar or converted to solar and generator, run at least a few items like the lights and other small items on 12v outlets. Maybe even run the whole place on propane, but not sure how that would work.

In an effort to shorten this up quickly and appeal to previous thread on ETS, I have dreamed of an underground home or dome home. A modest victory garden, maybe some chickens.

Which brings me to the point.

My vision, if even a never realized dream, requires more knowledge than just putting my stamp on someone elses work. How could I go about CHEAPLY OR FREE, as a exercise (in possible futility) going from my thoughts to seeing if what I want to do is even possible?

Have any of you done this before using blueprints or such? In the middle of the build out? Do any of you have a set up similar to what I described, in any aspect. Have any of you set up an extra 12v power system in your house in case of power failure or use it in a way to conserve power on certain power uses like lights throughout the house or part of the house.

apologies for a long OP