Parade of Homes...Time to dream

On Friday my friend Angie and I checked out some gorgeous homes in the "Parade of Homes."
The Parade of Homes is basically a bunch of model homes or homes that are for sale that have open houses so you can go inside and take a peek.

We were squealing with delight all night as we looked at these incredible homes. Oh the envy! But we decided, when it was all said and done, that it's sure fun to dream but we would never be comfortable living in that kind of luxury knowing that there is so much injustice in this world. Knowing that there are children dying because they don't even have clean water to drink. But it was still...SO MUCH FUN even though we know we will never be living like millionaires.

Wrought iron railings are all the rage! And notice the stairs...they're a mixture of stained wood and painted wood. We saw that over and over again in these million dollar homes. And curved walls...do you see how that wall is curved at the bottom of the stairs and the molding is curved too...so fancy. It was beautiful.

Wouldn't you just love to cook in this kitchen? Now what would you think if I told you this was the basement? Crazy huh!

Another picture of that basement from a different angle!

I love to just sit and study a room like this. I think it's always complicated to figure out where to put the TV when you have a fireplace in the room. I don't think this room solved that problem, but I do love where they placed the wall art and how there are side chairs on either side of the fireplace.

We saw lots of stone mixed with brick.

Love the curved couch! It probably cost a fortune, but I still love it. It makes for a cozy room.

At first I loved this drawer microwave, but now I don't think I like it because look where all the buttons are. You would have to bend over to see which button you're pushing. Still a very cool idea.

I walked away with a few practical things too...I love these doors and you can get them at home improvement stores and I've decided that if we end up building a house you might just see these doors in it! I LOVE them!

Here's another idea I would not have thought of and if they can do it in a million dollar home, it's good enough for me.

Notice ((again)) how the steps are stained hardwood, but it's also painted wood. Then look at the landing...it's carpet. I would have never thought to do that, but it really looked nice!

I love this room because it shows you how to create a great conversational area, in a small room, without a couch! So you don't always have to have a couch for every living room or family room! I guess it depends on how you want to use the room, but I loved this look. Love the round coffee table in the middle that pulls it all together.

I am always tempted to leave my hallways empty or to put up just a few small pictures. I always thought big pictures would make the hall way feel small...not true. This hall way had two huge pictures hanging on the wall and it almost made the hallway seem bigger.

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Now you got to take a peek inside some million dollar homes too! Wasn't that fun??

I think I'm going to be visiting some more model homes in the future, do you want to see more pictures?