I’ve put together some of my favorite parts of home-a-rama. There was so much great stuff to see! We actually went twice. Overall, I loved all of the houses. I feel like the backyard, basements, and bonus rooms are where the builders really show off, so I picked winners in these categories and a few others. Check it out!
Best basement (tie):
Christopher Scott Homes. I loved this sophisticated basement! It felt like you had your own bar/restaurant in the basement. I’d love to escape and entertain in this space!G & G Custom Homes. A brewery in my basement? I’ll take it!
Best Outdoor Area (tie):
G & G Custom Homes. I dream of a covered outdoor space. This was by far the largest covered outdoor space, so it immediately made it into my winner circle.
Christopher Scott Homes. You could probably entertain 50 people very comfortably in this backyard. There are two covered areas, a fire pit, a dinner table, and a cocktail table near the grill. I was a sucker for the sunken area off the basement. This house was a surprise favorite of mine. It is not my normal decor style, but I really loved this house AND loved how they kept a consistent design style throughout!
Best Floor Plan:
Old Town Design Group. This was the only house with more than one designated living space on the main floor. That (and the way it was layed out) made this hands-down the best floor plan in my opinion! The floor plan, unique details (see later in the post), and transitional decor make this my favorite house overall. In the top right picture, you can get the best idea of how the first floor is layed out. The main living area is behind/to the right of me (I’m standing next to the leather chair that you see in the bottom right pic) and the other living area is through the opening by the dining table.
Best original detail:
Old Town Design Group. I thought the indoor windows were really creative. I think its a nice idea for the second story. It allows for the upstairs to be quiet, but still somewhat open to the main floor. However, if I were going to do this, I think I would want them to open? I think it would be nice to open it to talk to someone downstairs.
Best bonus room (three way tie):
McKenzie CollectionG & G Custom HomesMcKenzie Collection. This is in the same house as the white bunk room above. This was staged as an art studio. It is SUCH a cool room! What would you use it for??
Best Mudroom:
G & G Custom Homes. The laundry basket area was in a laundry room that was attached to the mudroom (basically behind it). I liked that the laundry was right there but also separate. These were two spacious rooms that would really be high on function! (I have to give Parker props. I think our mudroom could compete with any of the mudrooms we saw!)
For me, floor plan is the most important! It’s difficult and expensive to address floor plan issues, so if I were going to pick one of these houses to be my own, I would definitely choose the Old Town house. I also loved the curb appeal on this house (despite an unfortunate garage lighting choice imo).
My pick as the overall winner. Old Town Design Group
I would LOVE to hear your thoughts if you attended. What house would you choose? why? What were some of your favorite features this year? Any disappointments? Comment below!
So I mentioned in my Home-a-rama preview post (after getting a sneak peek at one house) that in the years we’ve attended in the past, there seemed to be a new trend that each house incorporated. For example, last year all/most of the basements left the ceiling joists exposed and didn’t cover the concrete floor. After… Read More
We are calling the mudroom done! This will probably be the first of many pictures you will see. I love it, and I can already tell that it will help us stay a lot more organized and tidy. We just put stuff in there for the first time tonight! There will be some additions like… Read More
It’s like our house found out we are blogging about it. “Oh, you have a blog? Well I’ll just get painted the wrong color…that’ll be a good story. Oooh, let’s flood the basement. GREAT story!” Saturday we got up with the plans of Parker working in the mudroom in the morning and then heading to… Read More
We did some more painting in the mudroom…not the walls, though! Those are perfect. We painted the ceiling Sherwin Williams Iron Ore. That was the darker color that we were thinking about for the walls. When we decided to go all white, this was the perfect solution for still getting to use the dark colors… Read More
The last time we talked about painting the mudroom, we were deciding between these 2 colors: Then I teased on a recent mudroom post that we might end up with a totally different color. Well, the mudroom got painted Thursday, and we ended up with a color nobody expected! Let me explain. I had… Read More
I love pretty much any chance I can get to go on a house tour. Parker is pretty into it, too. And even our kids seem to like it! Home-A-Rama is a custom-home showcase put on by the Builders Association of Greater Indianapolis. We’ve attended the past two years and plan to attend this year,… Read More
The frequent hot air balloon shows! It never gets old. This is also the first time I’ve shown the front of our house on the blog. Remember that we need to work on the landscaping in front 🙂 And most of these photos are just from the cell phone. Does… Read More
We are so close. Yet, it feels like so far 🙂 Parker got all of the holes filled and seams caulked a few weeks ago. After that, he taped up the room to get ready for paint. Then we didn’t know what to do. Should we try to paint it on our own or should… Read More
We have had a lot of landscaping mishaps in our past. It has just not been one of our strengths. You can flip through the pictures of our first corner house and see that we needed some help! We’ve also made some mistakes at our current house. There was some landscaping provided for us by… Read More
