2016 Parade Highlights
Parade of Homes this year was so much fun!
Sure, it was full of trends, but there were also beautiful and interesting details in almost every home. I thought I’d share with you some of the pretty things that caught my eye. To be fair, I only made it to 11 of the 16 homes and forgot to take good pictures in a few, so if I don’t mention a specific property or builder it’s not because there was nothing good there – I just might not have made it to that house.
One reality of the Parade is that there is really no way to know which interiors will have the most special and unique features. The floor plans and square footage information is somewhat helpful, but I have realized through the past few years of visiting that the more interesting interiors are in pre-purchased homes. So this year I narrowed down priority visits based on which were pre-purchased (as opposed to spec houses that were still on the market). Then I added as many other homes as I could after fitting in the priority homes. This approach worked really well – feel free to steal that tip. Or maybe you all knew that already. 😉
If you’d like to find any more information about any of the houses I’m showing, check out the online catalog. It has floor plans and information about each builder – very helpful!
Let’s get started!
House # 12
Town & Country built this home (and as far as I know it’s still for sale). It made it into my list of priority homes (despite being a spec) because I know the quality this builder always puts into his homes, and he’s got a top notch designer on staff who outfits the home beautifully. Her backsplash selection was my favorite (by far!) out of any of the 11 homes I saw:
This transom window over the office door was immediately on your left when walking in. This is such a great idea! It brings the light from the front room into the hallway and feels more open and airy than a standard door alone:
There were several homes with designated mudroom built ins, but this was my favorite. Extremely practical space for shoes underneath!
House #16
Innovative Home Designs built this one, and they nailed it on the hardware. Of course every home had good hardware, but I particularly noticed the handles on the front doors and the pulls on the kitchen cabinets:
And speaking of kitchen cabinets, the two tone look with white cabinets on top and gray below was one of my favorites:
The guest bath had a very cool textured wall paper:
In the basement the builders built an industrial bar with galvanized pipe holding the pendants and large metal pipes as foot rests below:
House #4:
Fireside homes didn’t disappoint me last year and I was so glad to see their work was awesome again this year. This was the house with the gray trim and it also had one of my favorite foyer lights:
The gray kitchen with white subway tile was very pretty:
I also liked the look of the fireplace wall – similar to house #12, you’ll notice.
But my favorite thing about this house was the back. I very much liked the fact that it had a covered porch area, with steps down to a gracious uncovered patio, and then had these gorgeous chiseled stones leading down to the grass (with a pond beyond). Just beautiful! And bonus – they had a goregoeus gigantic stone fountain (I want one!).
House #8:
Team Construction built this home, which had one of my favorite showers. Side note: apologies for the fact that when I looked away for a minute my daughter hopped inside… but she told me she just needed to write down a few notes about the beautiful shower.
I saw this two toned staircase in several homes and I still really like it!
And the fireplace had a really lovely tile surround.
House # 9
Everyone has asked me: did you see the Dave Mark Construction home? Probably because it was a big one. I mean, BIG. 6,557 square feet. With all that space there was a lot to see. One of my favorite details that I couldn’t really photograph was the situation with the flooring. The house has some rooms that are angled, so a consistent wood flooring was laid throughout the home, which meant that in some rooms it ran straight, but in some rooms it looked angled (because the room was angled). I don’t know if that makes sense, but it was really cool.
I really liked the black sink in the kitchen.
There was a ‘hearth room’ near the kitchen that was just beautiful. It was scaled just right and had a beautiful wood ceiling and light fixture. In the midst of a very large home it felt cozy.
The basement had a double sided fireplace, media room, and wine cellar…but my favorite thing was the dishwasher in the basement kitchen. It’s one of those “luxuries” that’s super practical!
This house had two laundry rooms – one on the main level and one on the upper level – and I had to share with you the whimsical knobs on the laundry cabinets. Great, right?
House #13
Ooh, this one was good. First of all Kevin Yoder (K.W. Yoder Construction) was just very friendly and conversational, but he also let us in about 10 minutes before closing and stayed a few minutes after to let us finish our tour, which was very kind. But about the house:
I was admiring the kitchen backsplash when Kevin pointed out: no outlets! No wonder it looked so good! I took a picture up under the cabinets so you can see where they got placed instead. I have to wonder if other homes did the same and I just didn’t notice.
I also liked the traditional built ins on either side of the fireplace. The way they were tucked back into their own nooks was really lovely.
This home had pretty bling – not only the light fixtures (one of those is from the master closet) but also in knobs around the house.
And both Bruce and I just loved the combinations of tile used on the walk in shower (and the layout with no door – and no glass to clean either). In fact, there was only one time Bruce said “I want that”…and it was in this house when he saw the shower floor tile. I think we can make that happen sometime in the future.
House #7:
Ok, I just realized I lied. Bruce wanted this too:
Side note: Why is it that a bathroom picture with a toilet doesn’t seem inappropriate but this does?
This home by M. J. Construction had some touches that I would call trends – but they looked great.
Industrial open shelving:
reclaimed wood in a couple of places:
and barn doors:
I didn’t get a great picture of this (the giraffe sorta stole the show 😉 ) but the stairwell to the basement was really light and bright and open:
House #3
I saved the boldest house, built by Fireside Homes, for last. This house exterior should have been my first clue that the owner is not afraid to take risks:
Inside we were greeted to the right with a jewel box of a dining room in a rich dark blue (color!!!! Not gray!!!!). The chandelier was absolutely gorgeous and blingy. Forgive the bad image – it was hard to get a shot of this room with the light as bright as it was.
To the left was an office with a subtly patterned wallpaper. Nice!
In the living room the coffered ceiling – with more blue – caught my eye.
And the dining room had absolutely beautiful custom drapery panels.
The back entrance to the home was very nice. Spacious, with great light, tons of storage and sit down space, a huge walk in closet, and a half bath just around the corner.
The upstairs had a wonderful layout, and in the center space between all the rooms was another living room. It gave the whole floor of the home a college dorm feel (in a good way). Very interesting. And….I didn’t get a picture of it. Aarg! However I did get a picture of the master bathroom tub – my favorite tub from the parade this year.
And I’m going to end this show with this home’s master bedroom, because I have a suspicion that this was one of the more memorable rooms from the parade this year. Again the homeowner chose this bold blue. This time it was paired with a wall of small textured tile as a headboard. Definitely makes a statement!!
And that, my friends, is all I have to show you. Whew! I got through it all! I am sure I missed so many lovely details from these homes (not to mention details from the homes I didn’t get to see), and next year I plan to take even more pictures! Which detail was your favorite?