Parade of Homes | Planting Sequoias

Though our local Parade of Homes was weeks and weeks ago now, I’m still salivating over the pictures I took.

This house’s 5k of square footage is no exception.

First things first. Could the sky be any blu-er? Seriously beautiful. I loved the way the house was set back from the road with an enormous yard yet lots of privacy. If I lived in this house I’d probably plant a half-dozen trees just above the sidewalk eventually because I love trees, but still.

The interior of this house was both moody and classic–they used a lot of traditional molding styles but racheted things up a notch by using more masculine colors. Here’s the family room looking out onto the wooded backyard.

The bathroom near the front door was also done in similar colors. I took this picture because I loved the prints on the walls–don’t they look like oversized instagram prints? And that vanity. So bold–yet it works. Not sure if I could handle those stripes in my place, however. I’m not that cool.

The kitchen was amazing. Where do I even begin? Everything felt very cozy and warm despite the large room sizes because of the darker colors used. I love the two-toned cabinets and don’t even get me started on those pendant lights.

If you turned just to the right of the above picture, you’d see this non-traditional sliding door–much like the ever-so-popular barn doors that are cropping up everywhere (much to my delight). I had to include this blurry picture because the door was so unique despite the embarrassment it is causing me…let me tell you, I am a pro at taking blurry pictures. Once blurry pictures start becoming popular, I’ll be all over that trend.

Here’s the second bathroom on the main floor (there were like 5 or 6 full baths in this house…take your pick!). The design of the shower is what won me over, and I thought the pendant lights (there were two) were very cool.

And then we got to the master bedroom. The tray ceiling was definitely the focal point of the room.

Here’s the first shot I snapped of the master bathroom and closet…gah.

And then the second, looking the other direction. So many great tile choices and built-ins. The far “room” with the diamond pattern on the walls was where the toilet was. I think this bathroom alone rivals the size of our apartment. 🙂

To conclude: yes, I could probably be quite content to live here, but I’d have to invest in a housekeeper or quit my job to clean the house full-time. I’d have to think about it, but it may be worth the sacrifice.

To see our other house touring adventures, check out this Pottery Barn style house (huge), this amazing nautical beach house (perfect), and this colorful modern home (surprisingly cozy). Dreamy sigh.

Ken and Anne joined several senior citizens this weekend and went on the Parade of Homes in our city…basically, we were ALLOWED and actually ENCOURAGED to be nosy and check out other people’s homes. DREAM COME TRUE. Ken also loved it, I think.

So over the next few weeks/months?, I’ll be sharing some of my favorites from the Parade, with commentary, of course.

Here’s my favorite we’ve seen thus far. LOVE: the wooded setting, the cupolas, and the driveway.

And then we went inside to see THIS. I nearly fainted.

Not sure if you can see, but this grand living room can (and is in this picture above) be opened to the outside by a WALL of sliding windows. You can see the wall of windows peeking out on the right.

This is the screened-in porch. It is bigger than our apartment. Oh, and did I mention that this house overlooks a RIVER? Because it does.

This bar area was directly to the left of the front door…this isn’t even the kitchen yet. Just wait.

HERE’S the kitchen. And there’s another whole wall of cabinets/desk/wine racks to the left that I couldn’t fit in the picture.

Seriously. It is good that Ken is so strong because he had to physically support me from falling over in nearly every room in this house.

Here’s the laundry room. The cabinets in person are a soft greenish yellow…grellow.

Here’s the master bedroom. Ken had to drag me out of here. LOVE the tray ceiling and the wall of windows and the deck.

And then next is the master bath. Note: there was a ladder in the closet to get to the cabinets above the sink. Having tall ceilings is hard.

And the other side, with a Keurig. Obviously.

AND THEN. Here’s the craft room in the basement. SWOON.

Back upstairs was this masculine office. Sorry about the blurriness–my hands were literally shaking because I kept forgetting to breathe.

Oh, and I had to include at least one picture of the outside. Here’s the firepit/patio area. I could probably get used to this. There was also a great sound system playing nice music, which you can not hear through the picture, obviously.

And there you have it. It is evident that I am a house-loving dork, but I’m okay with you knowing that, because this blog is a SAFE PLACE. Or something like that.

Now let’s play the game…what’s your favorite room/light fixture/detail? My head is still spinning from how cool this was, so your rational, well-thought-out decisions will help me calm down. Possibly…let’s try it. GO.