Magical Architect

[dspringer1]

Harry would be uncomfortable staying at Molly's house for too long for many reasons, not the least of which is that would be a favor owed to the Winter Lady.

He would also buy a real home as he has Maggie.  Parenthood changes parents - at least those who want to be good parents.

I visited this mansion in NC that this really cool setup for AC that involved no electronics at all.  Open a few strategic windows, and cool air flowed from subbasement.  Open different windows and warm air flowed from the furnace throughout the house.  All done with air pressure.  Perfect for a wizard's house.

I would argue that lighting is a concern as well.  Some nice bared skylights would give good light in a largish house during the day.  But at night you are pretty much stuck with candles or oil lamps unless he goes the magic route or buys a few warehouses of glow sticks.   But it is possible some obscure places has chemical lighting he can use -- although it would take someone like Butters to identify that something like that even existed.   

I like the idea of holy water dispensers, but a full sprinkler system could too likely be triggered by a battle and handicap him.  But I can see 'safety equipment" to be stashed in every room and some kind of emergency UV lighting system that may - or may not - work.   

Of course Harry will equip the house with a top notch circle as that is so useful for so many types of magic. 

A well equipped medical/hospital room with the ability to triage most gunshot/blade/claw wounds would allow harry to treat his normal combat damage without going to the hospital. 

[circe]

Big thumbs up to this thread.   

[jb3435]

8. This wouldn't necessarily cost money, but Dresden should spend some time scrolling the walls with the right runes so that Bonnie can effectively use the house as her skull. Instant Smart House, literally.

Yes! I love it. Don't see it happening but I love it lol. Harry needs at least a couple means of secret egress in the event of being under siege both mundane and magical you know pull a book on a bookshelf and it swings out uncovering a underground tunnel. Even better if in addition to a portal somewhere in the house the escape tunnel has both an exit far enough away to not be seen from the house and outside a reasonable siege area and a separate portal hidden in it. Of course if I were Harry I would have several tunnels complete with mundane and magical traps. Wouldn't stop someone from tracking him by scent to discover what tunnel but would hinder a lot coming after him. Of course that's after they battle through his defenses at the perimeter of his land and before or after the defenses of his house depending on if he wants to attempt to fight or wait them out or flee before hand. Much like a castle with a moat as its first line of defense Harry would have a warded wall and wards and other magical traps keyed to not trigger from select people ie him, daughter, Mouse, etc. Then the warded walls and whatever threshold he can get out of his house which might be more if he has his daughter living with him are like the walls of the castle. Go one step further and have wards on his floors inside to trap/hinder the already weakened creatures that bash through his threshold. Then of course he needs variants to protect him from vanilla humans. Oh and might as well throw a panic room or two in here. This is in addition to the lists that others came up with.

I play D&D so I tend to try to think over prepared. Played a rogue once that had a longsword, 7 daggers, 2 sets of lockpicking tools, bow and arrows, throwing darts, blowgun, several various magical grenade type things and a couple other specific items that I can't think of right now. 1 dagger was hidden in the sole of his boot you know spy style and one set of lockpicking tools was hidden in the other sole. 1 dagger at his side, 1 inside of each boot (bootknife) 1 up each sleeve and one at his lower back. Basically he had his main weapon the sword and several backups to hopefully not get found if searched lol. Think the DM said that it would take 10-15 minutes to fully dearm myself. So yea Harry needs to design his home like I made that rogue. Try to prepare for anything. Oh and if any of you that played are thinking about the weight for one I had a slightly high strength score for a rogue as well as the backpack version of the bag of holding, the whatever the belt of holding is called. I was rich...rogue duh I...acquired valuables.

[Rasins]

I'd be a bit concerned with the concept of my entire house being a sanctum for SOIs.  think about how much Bob would have been able to bug Harry if he could have just followed him around the apartment begging to be let out.

I'm not saying that's what Bonnie would do, but ....

[dspringer1]

The spirit can reside in any house, so long as he is protected by a threshold during the day.  Same deal with Ghost Dresden surviving the day in the grave.  Many examples of Bob moving around the house when given permission to leave the skull. 

The skull is something very different. 
1) It provides control over the spirit
2) It gives the spirit some mobility during the day -- ie carry the skull
3) It provides a private residence for the spirit.

Making the home "the new skull" achieves none of these in any useful way.   You cannot make the house a control object or the loyalty of the spirit will change every time somebody knocks on the door.   The house cannot move, so the spirit cannot be moved during the day.  And having access to the house is a trivial improvement on the accommodations Bob already has within the skull.    It achieves nothing beyond exposing Bob (Or bonnie) to risk.      I suspect it is also really hard to do. 

[Rasins]

AND not privacy.  LOL

[RobReece]

Yes! I love it. Don't see it happening but I love it lol. Harry needs at least a couple means of secret egress in the event of being under siege both mundane and magical you know pull a book on a bookshelf and it swings out uncovering a underground tunnel. Even better if in addition to a portal somewhere in the house the escape tunnel has both an exit far enough away to not be seen from the house and outside a reasonable siege area and a separate portal hidden in it. Of course if I were Harry I would have several tunnels complete with mundane and magical traps. Wouldn't stop someone from tracking him by scent to discover what tunnel but would hinder a lot coming after him. Of course that's after they battle through his defenses at the perimeter of his land and before or after the defenses of his house depending on if he wants to attempt to fight or wait them out or flee before hand. Much like a castle with a moat as its first line of defense Harry would have a warded wall and wards and other magical traps keyed to not trigger from select people ie him, daughter, Mouse, etc. Then the warded walls and whatever threshold he can get out of his house which might be more if he has his daughter living with him are like the walls of the castle. Go one step further and have wards on his floors inside to trap/hinder the already weakened creatures that bash through his threshold. Then of course he needs variants to protect him from vanilla humans. Oh and might as well throw a panic room or two in here. This is in addition to the lists that others came up with.

if he was going to go to this extreme, he'd be better off building it on the island... Otherwise, he's going to need something a bit smaller and less remote to still be in Chicagoland...

[KurtinStGeorge]

If Harry gets to use some of the money that will come from the diamonds he got in Skin Game, I could see Harry buying out several properties in a cul-de-sac so he could avoid collateral damage to neighbors should his new domicile ever get attacked.  Wherever Harry decides to move to I bet avoiding collateral damage will be a concern.

One thing I think could be added to the list of items Harry would want for his new home.  The back yard, not the interior.  A brick fired pizza oven.   

[Butter8808]

I like the cul de sac idea. Will and Georgia could live on one side and butters and his lady on the other.
I think somehow he is going to end up close to the carpenters. There is no safer bolt hole from the supernatural

[RobReece]

Maybe he'll take the house that Molly bought, just down the street from Michaels house...

[Rasins]

I like the cul de sac idea. Will and Georgia could live on one side and butters and his lady on the other.
I think somehow he is going to end up close to the carpenters. There is no safer bolt hole from the supernatural

I like that thought.  And they remove all the fences in the back yards to give Mouse (and the Alphas) room to run.

[Phariah]

hmm.... well the Lighthouse is made of the glyphed stones which hold amazing power. would just rebuild and add a practice field outside to add some feng shui (sp?).  I mean the island has a built in summoning circle better than anything he could afford to build. most would be cosmetic adjustments and at least a nice workshop/ lab.