Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The Parade of Homes

(I made the 14' drapes in this music room)
Does anybody out there like the Parade of Homes anymore? Once upon a time many years ago when Paul and I first went they were normal sized houses with normal décor. In the last few years they have gone over the top. All homes must be at least 5,000 square feet, feature some kind of architectural detail reminiscent of a log cabin, and be dripping in velvet and puffy furniture. Oh, and if one room in the house has some homage to Tuscany then that is a bonus too.

So we stopped going. The main reason I would go to the Parade of homes was to get ideas on decorating, not on homebuilding. And since the trend in Utah has gone towards puffy, velvety furniture I haven’t gone in a couple of years. I hate velvet, faux finishes, and theme rooms. What is wrong with contemporary or modern furnishings? Does anyone in this state know the word ‘minimalist’ when it comes to decorating? Apparently not—judging by thesize of the modern (yea right) furniture room at RC Willey. It’s about a tenth of the size of the rest of the puffy furniture section in that store.

Well my friends, I am now dancing with the devil. I was hired by a designer two months ago to do all the sewing for one of the Parade of Homes. Because I am naïve I thought, oh sure, I can do this! A little sewing here, a little sewing there. Obviously I had forgotten that a home featured in the Parade of Homes home is huge and every project would be over the top. Judging by my paychecks I put in about 90 hours of sewing. That’s a lot of sewing when I have three kids to take care of, am trying to buy a new home, and simultaneously trying to sell my home. The month of April and half of May is a blur. So if you are out and about, check it out and think of my sore hands and all the Costco frozen meals I ate while sewing the many velvet drapes hanging throughout this giant house.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thankfully none of the stuff sewn for this home will ever be found in our new craftsman-style home.

Simply stylish is what we are! Theme rooms, theater rooms, workout rooms, steam rooms, you name it they are all for those with "more money than brains"!

The only thing to really wish for in these homes are the sub-zero refrigerators and commercial gas ranges. The irony is that most of the time the people buying these things never use them because they eat out or eat frozen dinners.

Someday they will call this what it is "The Parade of Nosy, Covetous Visitors in Blue Booties" or "The Fundraising Bonanza for the Utah Valley Homebuilders Association". The Cougar House is always worth seeing, but I'm not going to Eagle Mountain to check it out.

Lorraine Courigan said...

Good grief!

Now WHO lives in this house or homes like it??? I'm not familiar with the 'parade' but we enjoy visitng models in our area both to ogle over what we can't have and for design ideas

In our town, 5000 sq ft is over the top; 3500 is all about yuppies.

It's ALL about Tuscany here; we should BE so lucky to have a mountain feel! It's all called "ranch" anyway. Don't forget our front yards are gravel not grass. That should tell you something!

ANYwho, Chris and I enjoy decor and design and can only laugh at the notions of VELVET and FLUFFY.
Unfortunately, here it is all about dark cherry wood and/or southwest flair. (gag)

Nevertheless, here are your well-deserved back pats for your wonderful sewing abilities and your dedication. I'd be much more interested in touring your new home and its decor than the "parade" homes when I finally come to Utah!

Take care...

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