I've often dreamed of somthing similar but have boiled it down to getting out of the city every so often to get perspective = travel.

However, at heart I'm a minimalist. Over Christmas break I visited a couple who were friends of my girlfriend and I was awed because I stood in this apartment which was my dream apartment - Eames chairs, Herman Miller furniture, all this designer stuff (which I'm building up towards). But afterwards I reminded myself of my habits - I like travelling light. Keeping the necessities and ditching the rest.

A year or two ago I wanted to get rid of all my CD's and rip them to mp3. Ditch desktop computers and only have a nice laptop to hook up to a flatscreen. Purify and minimalize everything I have so that I had just what I needed.

I'm still working towards that. It's not that easy.