Parade of Homes 2013

On Sunday I dragged Derrick all over Cary to see the Wake County Parade of Homes. I didn't actually drag him. He put on a brave face and appeared happy to visit 9 gorgeous new homes. The Parade of Homes is a builder showcase. This year there are 190 parade homes that various builders have built around the Triangle and they are opened up during the month of October for anyone to go through and Ooooo and Ahhhhh at the gorgeousness of these homes.  If you haven't had a chance to take a tour, click on the link above and map out a route for this weekend. It's the last weekend the parade is open and it's open from 12:00-5:00 Saturday and Sunday. All of the homes are absolutely gorgeous and they range in price range from around $130K to 2.5 million!

Derrick and I were able to visit 9 homes in 3 hours on Sunday and these were big homes, so each one took a lot of poking around to get through them. We chose the ones closest to our apartment and I think the farthest from our apartment we got was about 5 miles and we didn't even hit them all. The new communities are usually nice and close and it made for a really fun date day! I see a lot of homes in my career, but Derrick and I haven't started any serious house hunting together so it's fun to walk through and daydream about what we like and what we don't like and what we'll only dream about affording one day.....i.e. million dollar house!

Here's a quick tour for you through the homes we got a chance to check out! The first one we checked out was completely adorable but of course I forgot pictures of the inside. It's in Kitt's Creek in Morrisville. It has a cool floorplan with two staircases. The back staircase led to a perfect guest room getaway! I loved the curb appeal of this one and it felt a lot larger inside then it looks from the outside. It's built by Lennar.

Next we hopped down further into Kitt's Creek and found this one literally less then a minute down the road.  Built by Revolution Homes, this baby had six bedrooms and two bonus rooms!! I don't think Derrick and I will ever need that many rooms, but it would be perfect for a large family! The neighborhood has a pool and a playground too!

 Look at that kitchen!! That island is almost as big as my bed...maybe bigger!

 The next stop was just down the road, only about  three minutes from Derrick and my current apartment and was one of Derrick's favorites of the tour. It was built by Walker Design Build.

Check out the stone detail in the kitchen. White kitchens are so popular right now that I thought it was nice to see a gorgeous darker toned kitchen.

And this...I LOVE! We saw a couple of these on the tour and I love the new trend. It's a small office, probably 10x8. It's the perfect use of space and I flipped out over it.

This one had my favorite closet, hands down! It was a total surprise and I'm pretty sure I screamed a little bit.

Derrick doesn't even know what to think about it. I think this was his face when I told him I'd have to buy more clothes to fill it up once we bought this house :)

 Hahaha....oh yeah. And this house had this in the kids bathroom.

 Ooooo....here is one of my favorites of the tour. It's the Miracle home built by Terramor Homes. They came to our office and told us about it and I was excited to see it in person. They got donations for items throughout the house and when it sold, they donated money to the Duke Children's Hospital.  If I remember correctly, they had raised $100,000.00 for the children's hospital.

Another little desk nook! It's only as wide as you see here. I think it's perfect!

 Next, we headed over to The Peninsula at Amberly to view a home built by Royal Oaks Building Group.  It was really crowded and I was busy taking mints out of the free mints jar so I unfortunately didn't get any interior pictures, although Derrick and I both agreed the floorplan was fantastic. Here's a picture of the front.

Next, we headed up the road to a home built by Baker Residential of the Carolinas. The most stand out feature of this home was the eat in kitchen. The kitchen itself was very grand, but the eat-in portion of it could have fit a table that seats 20. It was huge!

Next it was on to the million dollar home. It was built by Wardson Construction and was as spectacular as you would expect at that price point! Look at this gorgeous ceiling! It had the best yard that we saw. I wish I had gotten a picture of it!

 We were running out of steam by this point so chose two more to stop by that were on the way home. This was a really cute one built by Standard Pacific Homes. It was tall and skinny but didn't feel that way once you were inside.

It had an adorable office. You can opt out of the built-ins and this can be a formal dining room if you prefer that, though there is a great eating area right next to the kitchen. I think this tour made me realize my over-the-top love of cute offices. Like mine would ever look that clean...

Last, but not least! we stopped by a townhouse built by M/I homes. This one felt detached, and actually Derrick and I didn't know it was attached until we took another look at it outside. It's only attached by the storage unit in the back. No living walls are connected to the neighboring house.

Can't get enough of these gorgeous kitchens!

 I really liked the paint treatment in the master bedroom!

This was my first Parade of Homes and I loved it! It's so fun to see all of the gorgeously decorated homes! I would totally recommend it to anyone in town next weekend!