Up until Shreve, Crump & Lowe (old-time fabulous Boston jewelry store) moved out of its original building in the early 2000's they still had a pneumatic message system that the salepeople would use to send orders to the stock room, and a runner would come up with the merchandise.

We actually have left a space in the master bathroom for a potential future composting toilet. Turns out those suckers are expensive!

The hotel I stayed at in DC had the mail chute thingies. It wasn't pneumatic, though, you just dropped your postcard in the slot by the elevator shaft and it fell all the way to the box on the ground floor.

Mine too. Plus I want a dumbwaiter. And a bookshelf that's a doorway to a secret compartment. And a dragon living under the stairs.

YES, THESE ALSO. And a turret. Possibly two, because I assume Pete would want his curmudgeonly artist refuge in one.

I know a guy who has not one, but two dumbwaiters in his house. I got to see the mechanical side, which was pretty awesome.

The building I live in has a mail chute.

Our hospital has a (very well padded) pneumatic tube system that I think is still occasionally used for sending stat fluid and tissue samples to the lab -- the elevators are pretty good but sometimes wonky, and folks on the 12th-15th floors like being able to send a sample down to the 5th floor in a few seconds instead of send a clinical staffer who's got a billion other things to do trotting off down the stairs. They're the last holdouts, but when I started here the tubes were in regular use by everyone.

My forever house should have a wraparound porch, treehouse, claw-foot tub, washer/dryer, HEPA filter air cleaners in all the rooms, solar panels, a full bar, a library, and a couple of supplemental bookshelves in all the other rooms too. Fireplaces can be functioning or non-, but there should be at least two mantels. And a spiral staircase. And a dusty attic with an old dollhouse and a birdhouse and trunks full of vintage clothes and linens.

And a dusty attic with an old dollhouse and a birdhouse and trunks full of vintage clothes and linens.

I thought this went without saying.

A carriage house would be nice, too. With a second floor full of bedrooms for staff guests.

Pneumatic tubes are still normal for hospitals. RRUCLA is maybe five years old, and they had a system put in. No one wants to walk the small stuff to the labs if they don't have to, and crap like that.

I want a pneumatic vacuum cleaner pipe in each room, so you can just carry the hose around and plug it in when you clean. That way the compressor is loud down in the basement.

I want not only a screen porch, but also a catatorium where the cats can go out via a screen tunnel to their own little outdoor room.