I want to get this down before it leaves my memory. Last night I had a dream in which my mum and my old dog Nittany appeared, as did Wife, Daughter, and my Older Brother (OB) as he usually appears in my dreams: like he was when we were in high school.
The dream began (or at least this bit) with my approaching a house that my parents just moved into. It was white, as were all the doors. To my left was another door which was mostly window, like at a beach house. It had horizontal blinds, and OB exited it along with a coworker from the past (whose name I won't use.)
Once I entered the house, the first room was large. The walls were white, and the carpet was tan, which I would discover all over the house. There was a wraparound corner couch (blue), a TV, and the far side opened to a small kitchen with a fridge and stove. That floor was tiled with tan tiles. My dog Nittany (dead now 7 years) lay on the couch, sleeping.
Halfway through that room, on the left, was a staircase that I climbed. It led to another floor. There was a small room off to the side, with a small bed, a crib, and stuffed animals, all red and pink. There was a door on the other side that led to another bedroom, but I didn't enter that- I knew these were guest rooms. Exiting back to the hallway (where the first stairway ended), there was a short staircase of maybe 5 steps which led to a large kitchen, with wooden cabinets and marble counter. The floor was tiled to look like brick and was the only floor that wasn't tan.) There was a large kitchen "island" as well. It was the biggest non-commercial kitchen I'd ever seen.
Walking to the other side of that, and turning left I entered a large room, maybe 50 by 40 feet, that was mostly empty except for a large, overstuffed couch along one wall and a huge, almost wall sized high-definition TV, on which was a football game. On the right-side wall were large windows, again like one would see in a beach house. It was night, so I didn't see the view. I knew this was the main "living room" and wasn't finished. After all, they'd just moved in.
While all rooms (except where I mention) were lit, only the kitchens had light fixtures in the ceiling. I saw no lamps or lights in any other room, yet they were lit.
The living room had two adjacent rooms. To the left, past a hallway back to the stairs and guest rooms, was a large entry (no door) to a room maybe 30 by 40 feet with another exit on the right-side wall (90 degrees from the one I entered). Suddenly my brother was there. I said, "this would make a great game room" and he agreed. I then said, "I assume you have your room already picked out." He smiled and left the room. I proceeded through the other exit into a long room, which also opened to the living room.
This room was maybe 40 feet long and 20 feet wide, with windows on the far wall and the right side wall (which lined up with the living room windows.) On the left wall was the entry to another up stairwell which I took. It went to another floor with narrower halls. At the top of those stairs was the entrance to a room on the right, some steps up to a room ahead, and a stairwell going down to the left. My daughter was standing there, and we hugged. I told her I missed her so much, and she said she missed me too. She said that the room to the right was hers. I looked through the open door (only the second interior door I'd seen) to see a large room with a canopy bed with floral yellow covers, and some of her art on the walls. There was a white dresser and doors to what I knew was a walk-in closet. She turned and went into her room. I saw the room ahead of me was huge, with windows along the far wall, but I didn't enter it. On the left of that room, I saw another kitchen similar to the one in the entry room. I went down the stairs to the left. I remember thinking "we don't need all this space."
This led to a darkened hallway with two exits. This hallway was lit by small wall sconces that had yellow glass shades. These walls were paneled in cheap fake wooden paneling like from the 60s. I took the left exit, where my mum met me. This was completely normal (despite her being dead.) She said she had a surprise for me. She opened a large set of dark wood double cabinet doors, and inside was a 40-inch TV with large stereo speakers below it. The screen was all static, as the cable hadn't been hooked up here yet (but it was upstairs?). The room with this TV was narrow, like a finished basement, and it had wooden benches lining the walls. The room was lit by two floor lamps again with yellow glass shades. I asked her where OB's room was, and she said he had a suite of rooms on the top floor, where I also knew was a balcony. I never found out where my parents' rooms were.
In any case, she indicated an entryway with two steps going down to another room. This room was small, maybe 10 feet by 20, with a door on the right wall. The far wall had a window that faced out to a driveway and a highway, which I could clearly hear. The carpet was a gold shag, but the walls were white. The only furnishings were a rust covered couch, and another floor lamp with a yellow glass shade. Mum said "this is your room."
Through the other door was a stairway going up, but not connected to the others. I followed mum up to the next floor, which was back to the white walls and tan carpet. She went into yet another kitchen. To the right was a hallway, at the end of which was another large room. Wife was there trying to figure out where to put things, as this was her room. It had a balcony on the other side through sliding glass doors. To the right was a stairway that I knew connected to my daughter's room.
That's when I woke up, feeling very sad. The house was massive and twisting, and I knew I hadn't seen it all, but I'd seen enough. It was where life was going on without me. I'd seen places like this in dreams before with rooms upon rooms, but they were always businesses or such. This was the family house, where they would be happy.
