More pics!

More pics!

More pics!

I like the tile waterfall in the 5th picture in the second group; my wife does not. 4 pic in the 4th group is awful. All those duplex receptacles, no upper cabinets, and the cup thingie in the corner. That has got "builders wife read Houzz and designed kitchen" written all over it.

Joe, the picture that you don't like is actually for a vet in a wheelchair that is why there are no upper cabinets and if you noticed the space under the range top so the wheelchair can go under. The ranch house even has an elevator to the basement.

I think that one is wheelchair accessible. No excuse for being so ugly but pretty sure that's why no uppers.

Is that a corrugated metal backsplash? Seriously cool idea!! (4th set, 1st pic)

I'm going to go back and look again but one thing I didn't see and maybe you can clarify, is maybe only 2 kitchens with prep sinks.

And I for one would love to see pics from other Parade of Homes.

blfenton, not sure how many had prep sinks.

I tried to take pictures when I had the chance to. Would have liked to take several pictures of each kitchen or a full shot of them , but because of the time frame and the people it wasn't possible. I wish they had longer hours, but being 11 to 5 doesn't give you a lot of time to look at all the houses since they're not all in one location.

I'll take pictures at the upcoming parades and post them. The next parades only have about 10 homes each so it should be easier to take more pictures. Maybe I can even take an exterior shot of the home and master bathroom too.

Curious, what are peoples favorite kitchens?

I like Romy's the best. :)

I'm surprised they let you take photos.

thank you! the one with white uppers, dark counters, and stained lowers -- the first in the group of " more pics" -- what do you all think of that? I like it (I think) but I haven't seen quite that look before. Thoughts.

nightowl - that one was my favorite. OP - thanks for the photos...!! enjoyed looking at them

That one is my favorite too, but the accessible kitchen is second. It was the only one to grab my attention as being different, all the others look the same to me = boring.

Accessibility is no excuse for poor design. How's he going to reach those duplexes?

It is interesting to me that not a single one has color.

Thanks for this. I would love to see the others. It will be interesting to see if there are regional differences. I was trying to determine whether there were any with either super functional or dysfunctional layouts but could not see enough to tell although it seems a few had cook tops in between sinks and fridges. But maybe there was a prep sink out of camera range? Of course, I am not faulting you for that with crowds and a time crunch.

The lack of color didn't surprise me but made me sad. Living in a neutral world is a tad boring. Were they all for sale? Maybe it was the staging?

I'm building in a parade neighborhood. We walked through 5 framed homes last night and the builder in 2 head spray painted the kitchen layout onto the subfloor.

The thing I noticed was that the kitchen layouts seemed to be really not thought out. We saw some barrier island setups and also really narrow walkways.

Surprised not to see any marble. Seems like the most popular countertop choice where I am, and popular on GW as well.

thanks so much for all the pics.....i would love to see pics from other Parade of Homes!!!
fav would be the the two toned kitchen also.....
was surprised to see the micro over the stove in some..

I loved looking through the pictures - and I'd love to see bathrooms too if you can manage it.

It's interesting to see the handicapped kitchen - as we get older I wonder how many of us here will need one in our home.

You know you can copy/paste images:

I think this is the friendliest kitchen....although I'm not sure if it's the two-tone or the accessories :)

I have been studying it. I think it is the lines and how the end cabinets go to the counter. Note the thick support across the glass cabinet center that aligns with the cabinet center molding. I generally don't like those little tiles, but these seem to work for me.

I found this kitchen to be different and unique...seems like I don't see the two-tone design with natural or lighter stained wood. Don't particularly like it...just found it different.

What I noticed was all the mosaic backsplashes. There were a couple with subways, but lots and lots of mosaics, some subtle, some sparkly, and some quite busy.

Casey, that's Cambria. Not sure of which pattern, but it's one of the newer Waterstone collection colors.

Thanks for posting. I, too, find it interesting to see how decorating differs among regions.

Quite a few of these had cabinets that don't go to the ceiling. Here in the northeast to-the-ceiling has become the norm in new kitchens I'm seeing.

Interesting information. I enjoyed studying the pictures -- they aren't quite as "polished" as Houzz and Pinterest pictures, and they look more like real people's kitchens. (Though I personally should get out of this chair and go spend some time cleaning my real people's kitchen.)

My biggest take-away is that the two "everyone's doing it" items are shaker cabinets and the standard appliance package. I would've guessed that white cabinets would've been the #1 trend. I also saw fewer white subway tiles than I would've expected.

I'm not too surprised that there aren't more white kitchens. We always talk about how 49% of kitchens are white, but that means that 51% are light, medium or dark wood or possibly some other color. Overall, white vs. wood is pretty evenly split for the nation as a whole with some areas leaning heavily one direction or another.

I'm glad everyone is enjoying the pictures.

I was also surprised that no one had marble counters, but a few had the marble looking quartz ones.

As for white kitchens, it started off that 7 of the 9 homes in the first subdivisions had white cabinets. I thought that most of them were going to be white, but it turned out that there were more stained then white.

Thanks for sharing the pics Aries. Are you celebrating the win?

Romy, I'm glad they won. At least we have 1 team that we can depend on to win.

Here are a few in our area, ranging 300-450k

Amber, thanks for the pictures. Curious, what area are they from?

I am not feeling this massive duct cover:

Aries, these are in Okaloosa and Walton counties, FL. The white kitchen is in Niceville,FL, which tends to have more expensive homes.

I have to say, there is just something about the inset kitchen that's calling to me. Obviously the fact that it's inset, but it feels very.. Home-y? Now I'm considering adding a cabinet that goes to the countertop. Since I'm already over budget on cabinets... Why not?

I live in the Madison
area. My husband and I have been to two of the six Parade neighborhoods so far. In one, the homes were around the $550k. In the other, I’d say they were around $300k-350k. I heard someone mention that the lesser
priced houses were a welcome addition to the Parade of Homes this year; that in
years past, it was only more expensive homes.

We have a 1200sf ranch,
and we are almost finished building our new screened in porch. The next big
project is the kitchen… and finishing up our single bathroom remodel. We enjoy
going to the Parade of Homes to get ideas. We each bring a tape measure, and we
constantly measure aisle widths, island dimensions, countertops, etc. It’s a huge help while we work on our
renovation plans.

I tend to look at
overall layout and function. Here are
some of my comments:

- 9 of 10 homes have a
great room set up, with a kitchen/DR/LR open plan space. The living room is often super tall (2 or
more stories), and frequently, the only place to put a TV is above the
fireplace. I’m torn on the super tall ceiling in the LR –
I’m not sure I like the scale, and it tends to make the rooms feel taller,
rather than wide, which makes them feel smaller in footprint than they really
are. Also, TV is important to me, but
above the fireplace is just. Too. High.

-Speaking of TV, there
is often a second TV room in the basement, or on a landing on the second floor.
It seems like there is no way to close off the ancillary TV spaces from the first
floor great room, which may or may not have its own TV. (open stairways to the basement, open
railings to the great room, etc.)
Really??? Is that cool?

-Several homes had the
kitchen sink in plain sight of the front door.
In new construction (i.e., when all of the options are available to
you), I’m not sure I like that.

- Lots of pocket doors.
I Love them!!!! However, I don’t love
the dinky little hardware you have to fiddle with to get the teensy little handle
thingees to pop out. There has to be a better way!

-We looked carefully at
the detailing in the screened in porches.
Ours is DIY, and nearly finished.
I was generally not impressed with what I saw. In just one of the lesser priced houses, we
quite liked the detailing and quality of the work. In most of the houses, the screened in porches
and decks were generic, regardless of the style or price of the house. (I like ours best!)

-All of the 10 homes I’ve
seen have a master bedroom suite on the first floor. It’s not uncommon to be able to lay in bed,
and look straight out into the kitchen.
(even in the more expensive homes).
This is something I’ve been thinking about, because this will most
likely be the case in our ranch home after our kitchen remodel.

-In the majority of MBR
suites, the closet can ONLY be accessed through the master bathroom. I am not
impressed.

-First or second floor
laundry is standard now, which is pretty cool.

-Mud rooms were an area
that were greatly expanded in more expensive houses. In the less expensive
houses, they typically felt quite cramped.

-Yards seem small to me, in ALL of the houses, and the houses are close together.

Kitchen comments:

-For me, a 42” aisle is
perfect. (our house and kitchen are small, so this dimension is important to
me.)

-For me, 12” overhang
for seating at a 36” high counter is plenty.
One kitchen had a 9.75” overhang for seating, and it was bad.

-some of the islands
are just out of control – too big! Too deep,
too many angles in the differing counter heights. The above pictures almost always cut off the
high/bar height portions of the islands.

-One house had a giant
pantry/storage area between the mud room and the kitchen. It was AWESOME.

-Only the pricier homes
had kitchens with lower drawers instead of regular lower cabinets.

-I MUST have a landing
space for the fridge – either across an aisle, or to the right of the fridge as
you look at it. I saw one fridge that
was all by itself next to a pantry closet, with no landing space within 7 feet
of it in all directions.

-I only saw a few prep
sinks, only in the pricier homes. I can’t say I’m sold. They seem like a bandaid for poorly designed
kitchens, IMHO. I have a friend who has one; she never uses it.

-one kitchen (in a
pretty pricey home) had a 32” aisle in front of a French door fridge. It was too small.

-I hate MW below the
countertop. hate it. Hate it. Hate it.
(I am a heavy MW user).

-Undermount sinks tend
to be deeper than I like.

-Several of the more
pricy kitchens had GLASS pantry doors at a 45 degree angle in the corner of the
kitchen, with the word “pantry” etched in. Really? Does anyone really want to display their
pantry contents???

-Many homes don’t seem
to have a formal dining room at all. If
they do, it often seemed small (to me), and were typically near the front door,
around the corner from the kitchen, with double doors that faced the great
room. They seemed better suited for
offices. But, I’m not a fan of an office
that opens up in to the main social space of the house. And if it’s a dining room, I’d like better
access to the kitchen.