Parade of Homes 2011- June 11-19

[beachmouse]

A pdf of this year's booklet is now up at:

http://www.biaow.org/parade-of-homes...formation.html

Looks like some interesting homes in a wide variety of prices this year, including a new (though small) home south of the Freeport bridge for $155K.

[Gidget]

Glad to see some EarthCents homes on the list!

http://www.gulfpower.com/earthcentshome/home.asp

[Gidget]

We toured the beautiful O'Shea ICF house - impressive and solid as a bunker. Philip O'Shea made the concrete countertops in the kitchen and they are incredible.

http://www.waltonsun.com/news/homes-...rade-year.html

[beachmouse]

I usually really love the O'Shea homes, but from a decor standpoint, that house was a bit of a cold mess once you got out of the lovely kitchen. (Backsplash was awesome too, IMO.) Or at least what you could see of it since the combination of low wattage light bulbs and walls painted black weren't exactly great for visibility. And then they staged with, IIRC fairly dark linens in the bedrooms to contribute to the kind of Southern gothic gloom. And it was like they realized they had taken it a little bit too edgy at the end. (I couldn't stop cracking up at the charging rhino oil painting right across from the bed in the master bedroom, and was puzzled by the flashing wall light sculpture in the designated sullen teenager suite.) But instead of putting in better light bulbs, which would have helped, they put the $%*! scented vanilla candles in every room to try to soften it up and make people think 'cookies' instead of 'rock concert afterparty avec groupies', and the perfesser, who is sensitive to such things, had to bail on me early to get some fresh air.

Darn it, I wanted to really like this one because the builder usually does such wonderful and interesting things, and they did such a nice job of keeping the trees in front of the house, but it just didn't work for me.

But at least it didn't hit total hot mess threshold like the one on the bay in Destin did. 12 different bad black columns in the living-dining area alone, the strange shower on the second floor where there was no way not to flash passing boaters, the LED fireplace in the master bathroom... Mattie Kelly needs to get her incorporeal ass out of the adjoining masoleum and haunt their rears for not only turning out what was supposed to be a nature preserve into a subdivision, but for then putting up something so tacky on top of it all. (And yes, that one generated our and probably only first midget joke of this year's Parade. The other homes this year are far too tasteful for that.)

And less you think I'm a total jealous grump about these kinds of thing, I'll say that I loved this year's Watercolor house. But then I don't thing I've ever disliked a house I've seen out there- their building standards require so many fussy details that other developments don't. (and consequently builders don't include when they build the 'same' house elsewhere.)

[Gidget]

I guess I wasn't looking at it from a decor standpoint as I know those things can be changed to the suit the person living there (I'd never have a tv on my porch or over my tub lol) I was looking at the quality work done on the house - it was so solidly built. We asked about insulation - blown top and bottom and insulation laid between floors. I thought the showers were done wonderfully well too - very impressed with all the workmanship. A lot of attention to detail; I doubt you'd see rust showing up on this house as it was built to withstand the elements. And I might add, ICF is very energy efficient.

Here's a pic of the house for those interested

[BeachArkie]

I was really disappointed by that house. I specifically went to see it because I want to build an ICF house, and it seemed well built, but once inside, I couldn't get past the horrible decor. So dark and just not my taste at all. The upper level bedrooms needed to have more height or more dormers.

The rhino picture was actually my favorite art, but that is probably because I saw it after the master bath! If you must decorate your master bath with a bad copy of a famous work of art (Gustav Klimt's The Kiss), at least hang it up correctly. The painting is of 2 people standing up kissing, not laying on top of each other.

Didn't notice the concrete countertops, but the kitchen backsplash tile is available at Home Depot - it is a natural stone product, tumbled crema marfil and dark emperador marble. (I just bought some and it's $9 a square foot and is actually a matte finish, they had some sort of sealer/finish on it to make it shiny).

The Watercolor house was definitely the best one - loved the curved staircase, the brick (only wished it wasn't painted white), the wood beams, the "fort storage area," and the outdoor spaces. They spent some serious dough on the finishes and it showed - all that white marble tile (Ann Sacks?) including for a bunk room bathroom is far beyond my budget.

We were also pleasantly surprised by the Redfish condo. The views were amazing and the outdoor porches alone are bigger than my friend's condo.

The Horton home off of Thompson did a good job of decor and seemed like a good functional place for a young family to live and work close to 30-a. Nice back porch area and large master bedroom. The lack of a garage was the only major drawback.

[scooterbug44]

"Less is more" is certainly true for decor and paint colors. It is nice to tour homes with furniture and art in them, but most of the time it detracts from the house - especially those model houses where it seems like they just threw stuff in there that a decorator had in storage (like a sectional sofa floating in a bunk room instead of beds or colors that drastically change from room to room).

The O'Shea house was consistently decorated and well built, unfortunately it just wasn't in a style that most of us here like. Some people probably toured it and wished they could buy it fully furnished or copy it in their house.

Me, I think black toilets are on par with wire coat hangers. Never!