Dream Big at the Parade of Homes

Get inspired at the Parade of Homes. The final day of the event is today, Sunday, April 3 and it culminates with the Remodelers Showcase.

The Remodelers Showcase is a great place for ideas on ways to make your old home work better for you.

As someone who has just finished a remodel and will be heading into another spurt soon, I am particularly interested in the Remodeler’s Showcase: 69 beautifully remodeled homes from 57 remodeling firms, in 26 communities across the extended Twin Cities metropolitan area. There are 12 homes in Minneapolis and three in St. Paul (including one Dream Home which is To Die For!), making it particularly convenient for those of us who live in the Big M.

Browse homes from noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday, April 3. The event web site is also full of information, and many homes have virtual tours.

R52 is a must see in St. Paul. There's a $5 admission fee, but it's well worth it to get inside this stately Tudor that has been completely redone. Gorgeous.

I recommend visiting R52 off Edgcumbe Road in St. Paul: A stately 1926 English Tudor in Highland Park. It’s a beauty. This "whole-home" remodel showcases stained cherry and painted cabinetry, a formal dining room filled with stone, butler's pantry, mud room, Carrera marble, soapstone, granite, and more. The details make the home. While some of the remodeled homes we saw had choppy layouts, this addition flowed seamlessly. The $5 cost to view was well worth it; and the money went to a good cause, the Builder’s Outreach Foundation which helps build low-income families homes in the Twin Cities area.

Don’t bother seeing the home on Summit Avenue, even though it is across from the Governor’s Mansion. It’s just a plain basement with a really big TV. Nothing special. It is gorgeous from the outside, however; I was dying to get upstairs but only the basement was open to visitors. All right. Maybe you want to drive by it. It is gorgeous from the outside.

The Parade of Homes web site has an easy-to-use search engine where you can look by city, project type (such as addition, kitchen, master’s suite, bathroom) or remodeler. Save the houses you are interested in to generate directions later. Finding the houses are easy; just follow the bright yellow and red signs. Usually, the number of parked cars gives it away, too. You can also pick up a guidebook at any Holiday Stationstore. Oh, and wear slip-on shoes. You'll be taking them off at each home.

If you’re more interested in new houses, opt to view some of the 342 new homes on display in 74 cities. A few hot spots are Blaine (35 homes), Woodbury (22) and Maple Grove (21). The nice thing is that not all the homes are high-end, high-buck. There are five are priced below $150,000. Over 70% of the homes are priced below $500,000. There are two Dream Homes priced over $3,000,000. It costs $5 to get into either of these beauties, but again the donation goes to a good cause. This time proceeds are helping fund a third ReBuild Haiti trip.

I was inspired by this library fashioned out of simple wooden shelves and fancy supports. How easy would this be to add to a room?

I was definitely inspired by this year’s Remodelers Showcase. It’s not always the big things, but instead the little touches a home has that stick with me. For instance, I have a lot of books and I’ve been trying to decide how to store them. One home on the tour in the Seward neighborhood had a beautiful library made of simple wooden shelves and fancy supports set against a great wall color. I could easily incorporate that into my own house.

Those are the ideas I’m looking for. Of course, seeing the fancy stuff is fun too!