I confess, I've always been obsessed with houses. I love to explore all the nooks and crannies, best-lit napping rooms, and warm and cozy fireplaces. They seem to evoke a long standing, primal urge to have a cushy rest after a long work day. Something about vaulted ceilings and open kitchens just excites me in a way only traveling can compete with. But enough about me...
Have you ever been to a Parade/Festival of Homes? We went to our first one about a month ago, and it was a wonderful, albeit exhausting, experience. The premises is to visit ten houses, each different in size, builder, architecture, etc. and from this tour, you gain perspective on things such as landscaping, layout, and decorating. At the end of it all, you vote on three different “bests.” There was one house that simply blew us away and got 2/3rds of our votes.The house was an old Gothic style that has been around town for awhile but was recently updated and ready to be back on the market.
As you can tell it’s ginormous in both feeling and physical size...and this is only the informal dining room table located in the open kitchen area.
There were four levels in total, but about five or six flights of stairs and at the very top, taking up part of the MASTER FLOOR (can you believe it had its own floor) was a little kid's loft. It had four bean bag chairs, a reading nook, a vertical climbing space as well as a horizontal or crawl space, and a built-in bookshelf. Needless to say, we fell in love.
Here are a few of our favorite snapshots from the rest of the house:
And of course, a few from the entire tour. These are just highlights, to get the full experience you really have to go for yourself.
Honestly, I don't know how I'm going to be able to wait for next year's showing! However, we're also planning to go with a few friends to the Parade of Homes in Seattle (long flight, totally worth it) because the pictures they showed us gave these houses a serious run for their money!
Pro Tip: Look for participating sellers. We opted to get our tickets at the bank instead of the local grocery store and saved $3 on a $10 ticket. While this may not seem like a whole lot, it also came with a free soda and a discount on a local meal, great things to have while driving around for eight hours looking at houses you'll some day - cross your fingers - be able to afford.
What do the Parade of Homes houses look like in your area? Share it with us on the main lifestyle blog page comments at the bottom!
