Sweet Dream Home

Have you taken the video virtual tour of this year's HGTV Dream Home? Every year, it triggers the question "If I win, would I leave Minnesota and my family and friends and move in?" I was on the fence about last year's remote Utah lodge, but this year my answer is "heck, yes."

All it took was a photo of the tropical wood front porch furnished with charming woven chairs to make me fantasize about living in the "coastal cottage" on Kiawah Island, only 20 miles from Charleston, S. Carolina. The marshland surroundings and nearby Atlantic Ocean give it a "walking on the beach with Nick Nolte in Prince of Tides" kind of feeling.

The house is just my style - old-fashioned beachhouse-cottage architectural details on the outside and a clean-lined modern aesthetic on the inside. My to-die-for space is the second floor loft awash in a "tidal blue" color palette and suspended above the great room. And on hot and steamy evening, I'll sip a cocktail on the back porch surrounded by southern palmetto trees and an Infinity Plunge Pool that's lit up at night.

The builder/designer thought of every amenity for Southern comfort -- the structure can even withstand hurricanes. That's a relief.

I'm going to enter twice a day at www.hgtv.com and www.frontdoor.com until the Feb. 15 deadline to win the completely furnished home – plus $500,000 and a GMC SUV to sweeten the pot. Eight-one million dreamers entered last year.