August 25,
2007 Portland / Vancouver -- This year's
Parade of Homes for Clark
County started with a stop to the
Ridgefield High School (The Spudders!) to park and be shuttled to the show location. We
were glad we brought good walking shoes as the location started with
a slight slope, which increased to quite a steep slope to negotiate
between the 3rd and 4th/5th homes. The return up the hill
required at least one stop to catch our breath (wonder what that will
be like when the winter ice/snow hits?).
The Architecture, Craftsmanship, and Materials used made the show
worth attending. Our family loves to get new ideas for
building and remodeling, and what we saw was excellent except for
one of the homes.
Knowing before-hand of the slope of the land at that location I was
personally interested in how the builders adjusted to that.
From the curb all the driveways had a slope that was reasonable
-- as it's never fun getting out of a car parked in a steeply-sloped
driveway!
Except for the first home, the 2-level "the Secret Garden," all the homes had
interior spaces on 3 levels! None of the 3-level homes had an
elevator or dumb-waiter to facilitate the vertical movement inside
the home. The Secret Garden, by Clark and Son, did have an
elevator shaft roughed-in, with a functional dumb-waiter in-place
(nice feature!) to
assist in moving those many bags of groceries from the parked car to
the Kitchen level.
My recommendation to all the builders, when you have homes with high
ceilings, especially with three levels, please allow for an
elevator. I see so many clients leaving their dream home of
many years because they can no longer reasonably negotiate the
stairs.
Our family also looks for the deck and patio
elements. Again, the Clark and Son home earned a big plus from
us for their huge wrap-around deck on the main level. Covered
by the home's eaves, with a tile surface, this deck invites you to
come outside and enjoy the fresh air from several different
locations. With a roof overhead, they've extended the
usefulness of this deck by several months out of the year.
All of the homes were Decorated with furniture and accessories.
Many rooms also had themes -- many we liked; and some we were not as
impressed. For you home sellers in the audience, a Decorated
home uses themes and elements customized to your particular tastes;
while a Staged Home® is
more "de-personalized" with the intent to appeal to a broader
spectrum of home buyers (in other words, improve your odds of
snagging that Buyer!). For the homes in the Parade, I think it
is great that they do both Decorating and Staging; we in the
audience can look at photos in books and magazines all day long and
not have the same impact as seeing the real thing in person.
In all we enjoyed the homes, and picked the Secret Garden as our
favorite home. If you went, which home was your favorite, and
what were elements you liked or did not like?
Please e-mail or call us with any questions
you may have with this information or your real estate questions in
general -- we're here to help!
|
Kathryn Alexander & John Slocum, Alexander
∞ Slocum Real Estate Team |
Our Featured Listings:
Featured
Homes & Listings in Clark County & Vancouver
