HAHAHA! nearly spit chai all over the keyboard, thanks.
I made the bedroom wing part of the house in google sketch up. If you have the program (and it's
free and useful!) you can download and view it here:
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B8FAVD31EZ-jOTg3NGYxNjQtZGU0Ny00NTM0LWFmMGItNjk2NDkyY2YxNmY3&hl=en We're planning for a timber framed structure, hence the right angles and lack of curves (sorry cobbers - we don't have enough clay or patience for that). Keeping in mind that our plan for heating is radiant floor, otherwise the well insulated adult spaces would be ice boxes. The idea is that this is the "bedroom" wing, and that there is a large greatroom/kitchen off the edge where the wall doesn't exist. A shower room right next to the eastern bedroom would provide a bit of dead air between the public greatroom and bedroom wing. The larger bedrooms are on the southern wall, and are for adults, with foot thick walls. The 8 foot wide anti-chambers between them are designed for sound privacy and to provide a semi-public space for people to hang in, without going into their private rooms. Book, coat, shoe storage maybe. They also let sunlight back into the north half of the house (there are sliding glass doors to the outside in each of the anti-chambers). The smaller rooms are the kids quarters. We figured the younger kids could bunk in shared rooms until they don't like that idea anymore (the central two rooms could even be one larger room), then chop up the attic for teenagers who need more space. And again, the spaces between the kids rooms could be play space, toy/clothing storage, etc. The two small rooms on either end of the hallway are toilets with a sink.
In all honesty Ken, I wasn't thinking that there would be big rowdy "PAAAAARRRTYYYY!!!" type parties happening in our farmhouse, but there will definitely be celebrations, dances, large potlucks, etc. And I suppose they could become rowdy with a healthy supply of mead for the farmer folks.....
If you have a sick baby who wants to sleep during an event like this, it's important that you can get away from the action of the public space. Creating walls with good insulating and sound proofing/absorbing material is a start (we're attracted to light earth - woodchips and clay). Keeping the bedrooms in a separate, quiet wing of the house will help create a feeling of isolation, even if it's not "real" isolation.
The entire house is about 3,000 square feet, but we could get away with just building the "public space" ourselves and put a temporary bedroom in that half of the house while we find other people as nuts as ourselves. THEN we build the west wing for the crowd.