My first weekend in Utah was a girl's weekend down in St. George. My parents just bought a home down there, so we went to check out the house, shop for home decor, and get ideas from the Parade of Homes.
It was gorgeous weather while there. A nice break from the snow in northern Utah.
My mom and I woke up early for a hike near Snow Canyon. So gorgeous. Very chilly :)
All the girlies.
This was my first Parade of Homes and I LOVED it! Some of the houses were not well done (at all) but most of them were really well decorated with good floor plans. The
Alice Lane houses were by far our favorites and we tried to get to all of them to see all the designs. I'll save my pennies to use their design services one day - ha!
We were all stylin' wearing these awesome booties :)
Check out this closet! One of my parents friends has these nifty little levers in their closets and I've saved it in my "one day" file in my brain, and there it was in this house! Perfect for vertically challenged people like myself!
We all loved this quote. It's so true!
This bathroom mirror had a TV on the mirror... strange.
Beautiful colors and textures!
On to House #20...
House #20 was gorgeous, breathtaking, over the top, incredible, and somewhat unbelievable.
The must-haves in our one-day house are these: when I walk in the front door, I want to see a wall of windows out to the backyard. I also want a service pantry; A full blown walk-in pantry with counter space and extra appliances to keep the mess and noise in the pantry, not in the main kitchen. And lastly, a big mud room, not just a small hallway with lockers/storage. The rest of the details and design will change with time and what's currently "in," but the bones of the house HAVE to have these 3 things.
With that said, I walked into House #20, and it had all of the things I was looking for, and then some. Let's begin... In no particular order. These pictures don't do the design of those house justice.
The kitchen was gorgeous - I want this stove! And the hallway to the bedrooms and office was arched, exposed brick. We saw a ceiling like this in Barcelona and since then, have said we want a ceiling like that in our house one day - and there it was! It's gorgeous.
The family room was one giant wall of windows. The design of the home was basically Restoration Hardware in it's best form. The exposed steel beams in the main living room were amazing and so gorgeous!
Cool idea to keep books looking uniform but still able to see the titles!
The brick arches. Uh-mazing.
Sliding barn doors for the office. The kids bunk room was incredible. Literal built in exposed pipe bunks!
Every single light fixture, bathroom fixture, window treatment, smallest detail was so thoroughly thought out. I love this light fixture! This builder did not skimp on anything.
We went outside to check out the pool and fire pit. You can't beat that view!
We were warming our toes by the fire and decided to head back inside. When we were heading back in, a guy stopped us and asked if we were the girls with our feet up by the fire. We all had the deer-in-the-headlights look and answered with a very slow, "Yesss....?" It turns out he was the builder and wanted to get a picture of us with our feet up for his website. Yes! We're celebrities!
In the picture below, my mom is demonstrating the service pantry. This pantry is EXACTLY what I want! It has all the counter space for kitchen aids, blenders, food, and it even had an extra sink, dishwasher, 2 ovens and a stove. I don't know if I need all that extra, but I will take all that space!
This view is from the service pantry looking into the normal kitchen. The kitchen is not huge, but still very generously sized, which is A-okay since all the mess can be made in the pantry. I am coveting!
The master closet and master bath. Um, look at that shower behind the tub!!
The theater was amazing and way over the top. Those doors are 300 lb doors and blocked out all sound. Amazing. I thought that sign was cute :)
House #20 was incredible. It was so full of people, it was hard to get great pictures of the flow of the house. It was so well designed and there were no stopping points in the house. Every room led to another part of the house, so it was one giant flowing loop. So cool! I got the builder's info and maybe if we end up in St. George we can use him here in... 15 years.
Here are some more Alice Lane pictures. So adorable.
My mom thought this was a cute idea. Seriously, nothing was overlooked at this parade of homes!
A big thank you to my in-laws for taking my boys while I was in St. George. It was a much-needed break for my sanity! And the girl time was much needed. I'm not around family enough, especially my mom, sister and sisters in law!
