Monday, May 16, 2011

Parade of Homes Tour - Home 1

Good Morning!  Are you ready for a Parade of Homes Tour?  I certainly hope so!

If you are just joining me let me explain.  I went to a local Parade of Homes last week and have oodles of photos to share with you.  I've decided that since there were five homes on the tour I will share one home a day with you all of this week.  Sound fun?

Great! I am glad you think so.  I love home tours!  Our local builders association hosts the Parade of Homes tours and usually has more then five homes to show.  They also usually have very large, show stopping homes.  However with the housing bubble bursting in 2008 they have been on hiatus for the last few years.  I am so glad to see they had enough hope to return this year, and they should! All but one of the houses on the tour had already sold by the day I went and that was only day number 3 of a two week event.  That's encouraging!

Disclaimer; Being an amateur photographer at best, I found getting good photos in various ever changing light settings with a crowd of people wandering around you to be very difficult.  I apologize ahead of time that these pictures leave much to be desired.  However, I do feel they were sufficient enough for you to enjoy...and I hope you will.

Sooooo....enough of the chit chat let's get on with the show!

House Number One is 3,850 sq.ft and called Heavenly Bliss.  I have 77 photos of this house to share so feel free to skip my commentary if you must..but honestly, I just couldn't help myself.


I love the mix of brick, stone and shaker siding on this house.


Landscaping is a must at the Parade too.


Nice front door! Let's go inside.

Foyer from the Dining Room

Sorry, camera went yellow on this shot.  I just love a round table in the dining room.


The walls were a painted mural from a local artist, NOT wall paper.

In the den there were two built in's on each side wall and windows across the back.



Here is the second built in that was in the den.  I just love this!  Now that's a bar!


Another small built in pantry in between the dining room and kitchen.

Very large kitchen with a breakfast area and a keeping room too. 



My girlfriend and I just loved these window treatments...neat idea!


More beautiful built ins on each side of the window in the breakfast area.  I certainly hope whomever bought this house is a dish collector too! 

Loved this table!

Here's the keeping room off of the kitchen and a small screened porch is off the side of this.




This was the laundry/mud room off the kitchen.

Isn't this just the cutest idea ever?  I think so!!!

Half bath in between the kitchen and garage across from the mudroom.  Oops!  Looks like I caught the toilet seat up.  Somebody must have used this room.  LOL!

Master Suite



Of course you have to look up at these tours.

Or you'll miss some very pretty accents.

Master bath...who's that lady there in my picture?

Turn around Debbie.  LOL!  That's my girl friend.  I told her not to worry about getting out of the way.  I was trying to take pictures so fast before many others got in my picture and I wanted her to enjoy the tour too and not worry about dodging my camera, so you will see parts of her throughout the tour.



I like the three mirrors here.

Peek a boo!  I see you too!  I just had to do one of these with silly me.  LOL!

Check out this glass tile.

Very large walk in closet with two separate spaces.

This room was an additional room downstairs to be used a guest room or office.

OMG!  I just loved this bed and the bedding too!



Chenille headboard.



Beautiful shade!


There was a bathroom off of this room but for some reason the only photo I took was of the tile in the shower.  LOL!  Must of gotten a bit crowded.

Okay, let's go upstairs.


This is a study area built in at the top of the stairs in between the bedrooms.

I loved the use of vinyl decals to decorate the walls here.  Very cute!

Hold on to your hearts ladies, this little girls room is going to steal it for sure!



Love, love, love it!

Adorable combination of fabrics!



And looking up again...  Beautiful!

Private bathroom off of this room.


Now for the little boys room.



This was in the closet.  I thought it was a great idea for a child's room.


Boys bathroom.

This was totally cute, very impractical, but so cute for the show! 

And the final room of the tour in this house is the FROG..finished room over Garage.

I loved this.  This is the way we used to always set up Monopoly when I was little.    I tried this with my kids at first, then they decided to keep their money under the table or in their hands.  LOL!


Ahhh!  I could just sit right down and put my feet up right here, couldn't you?   Whew!  Rest up because there's four more homes to go.  I do hope you will come back tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!
Have a great Monday!
Mary

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Do you hear the Birds?

Look at the birds in the air, they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable then they?  - Matthew 6:26

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God.  Indeed the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  Don’t be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.  – Luke 12:6-7



What do you hear when you awake each morning?  I hear birds, many, many birds!  We are in an area where the birds are loud and abundant each morning.  I have always been blessed to the hear birds in every home I have ever lived.  I cannot even imagine how it would be to not hear the birds as they greet each new day. 

The wonderful sound of birds also serves as a constant reminder for me.   Because when I awake I don't just hear birds, I hear the songs of promise and hope eternal. 

 What about you?  Do you hear that song too?  Maybe you have never really thought about it in that way.  I love how the above verses are in red in the bible and are directly from Jesus himself.  He was very concerned that we understand just how valuable we are to God.  I have shared these verses today because I have promised to stay focused on showing you just how much Jesus Love's you.

  The scriptures before and after both of the above verse's also deal with worry..our worry.  It is very easy to be consumed with worry in our world with all that is going on.  We certainly have had quite a bit of disasters lately.  I think it is interesting that wedged in between Jesus's verses to us about how we are not to worry about that which God will take care of.   He also makes a point of establishing our worth. 

You can put your trust in God, because
 He LOVES you!!!
If you don't believe me, just listen to the birds every morning!

Thank you for Sharing Jesus Sunday with me!
Have a blessed afternoon!
Mary