OK, It's Nearly Wednesday...

But I suppose I'm still in time for Open House Tuesday. Or creative Tuesday or whatever but today for the sake of my being really busy and not wanting to think all that much, it's going to be Open House Tuesday, K? Oh and BTW, I'm not a celebrity type person. I don't really go to concerts and I hardly watch movies but guess who I saw at Franklin's pumpkin festival on Saturday? Why Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman and baby Sunday, of course. My parents were in town and we decided to go to the pumpkin festival (along with *everybody* else in Franklin and the surrounding counties, I think) and I noticed a guy that I immediately recognized as Keith Urban ducking into the back of a black Bentley- to get something baby related presumably. And who did I see on the corner of 9th and Main, but Nicole Kidman and baby Sunday strapped to her in a baby carrier thingy. I didn't snap any pictures because I didn't think of it and if I had I still wouldn't have because I would have felt like a creep. I'll leave that to the paparazzi, thanks. But the house I'm about to show you is on that same block. Although it's been professionally decked out for Halloween. The beautiful triple window on the front are now sporting some creepy skulls with eyeballs posters- ick. I wish I had a picture of that to show you.

Here's the link for the virtual tour if you're so inclined. And this house was purchased after we bought our house in late 2006 and they spent a bit of time remodeling it after they bought it. Which shows when you take a look, it's beautiful. The house is 4,780 sq. ft. with 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths and was built in 1920.

Here's the front of the historic Turley-Faw house. One of these days I'm going to research the reason behind the two names of these houses.

Here's the entryway with custom chandelier and two tone stained hardwood.

The living room with hand carved limestone fireplace and hardwood floors.

The parlor or music room with another custom chandelier.

The dining room with another fireplace that's not pictured.

The completely amazing kitchen with stainless Viking appliances and cabinets to the ceiling.The wine cellar rotunda. It's beautiful and artistic...and useful I'm sure.The expansive master bedroom with hardwoods and fireplace.And finally the master bath with beautiful claw foot tub.

And so concludes our tour. I love this house and hope you have too.

Open House Tuesday!

I finally have a second to myself (sort of) and I found a great house to let you gawk at along with me. Last week I promised a house that was fabulous and that we would probably never live in. I looked for a while last night and found a 33 million dollar compound in Franklin but I just wasn't feelin' it. I mean, do we really dream of having our own bowling alley? I don't. So I found something that is definitely beautiful and is probably out of reach for most of us today but who knows what the future holds? Maybe some of us will live in a $500,000 dollar home. And I have to say that this house is my favorite so far. I think I'll even give it the distinction of being my dream home. I love the historic homes that I've featured but I much prefer a new home if it has beautiful style and is built well with all of the modern conveniences that I'm looking for. I don't want wonky bedrooms, closets or plumbing. And I don't even want to change a light bulb in our next house. So are you ready to take a look?

This home is in a fabulous neighborhood in Franklin with easy I-65 access. The lots are large as are the homes. In all the listings I've seen, the lots are close to an acre. I suppose that doesn't qualify as "green " living but I love big yards. The home has 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, a 3 car garage and is 3,615 sq. ft. You can find a virtual tour with many more photos here.




This is the front of the home with painted brick and stacked stone accent.

The formal dining room. I think it's lacking a bit in character but it has a lot of room.
The expansive living room.The beautiful but thankfully not ridiculously huge master bedroom. I've seen master bedrooms before that had living room size sitting areas. I can't imagine Travis and I needing that much room. I love the trey ceiling.A guest bedroom.A very large bonus room.And here's the biggest reason I love this house. The big, beautiful and thankfully not terribly trendy kitchen. It has my dream double ovens and cabinets that won't be out of style in 5 years.The back of the home...And the expansive back yard.And that concludes our tour. So what do you think? I think I love it but you already knew that.

Open House Tuesday...Kitchen Edition

This is a special edition of Open House Tuesday. We're not going to a specific house, instead we're going to look at just kitchens!!! I was browsing HGTV.com and saw the headliner "Take Your Kitchen to Island Paradise". But apparently I read it wrong and thought it said "take your kitchen to *an* island paradise" and thought I was going to see a bunch of kitchens painted in tropical colors. But instead it is about islands- the kitchen variety. And, wow, I really love islands so it works out perfectly. But wait, there's more! Instead of just putting the pictures of the islands up, I am going to put up the pictures *and* pick one for each of the people that typically reads and comments on my blog. My Mom is an exception because I know she reads but rarely comments, so I'm picking one for her too. And I have a couple of requests...first, after looking at all the pictures please pick *one* and only one kitchen and tell us which one you picked. Second, I'd like for you to pick one for me and then I'll tell you which one I picked in the comments on Thursday. Are you ready? Here we go...

Here's kitchen #1 and I picked this one for....nobody. I thought about picking this one for Tracy because she likes to be different but in thinking about her decor, I decided that her design style is a little more traditional with perhaps a splash of whimsy...but not a kitchen she's going to hate and have to remodel in two years. Plus what's up with that tiny island?


This is kitchen #2 and (except for those hideous chairs) I'm picking this one for my Mom. It's more traditional like she is and has a ginormous island for those huge family get togethers she has. She refuses any bit of help and this kitchen is perfect with enough space for her to dash about like mad, while the rest of the family samples the 82 appetizers she's made- and my Aunts have room to help her when she's not looking.
This is kitchen #3 and I'm picking it for...Christy. I love the big island and think that it's homey and cottagey enough for Christy's big parties. I was definitely on the fence about this one because of the weird looking stone but I think with a different backsplash she'd settle in just fine.Here's kitchen #4 with another big beautiful island and I suspect that my Mom may like this one as well *but* the galley-ish style is making me say no.Here's kitchen #5 and I'm going to pick this one for my M-I-L. She has great taste and it's frilly and girly and she'd have no trouble putting a lot of pink in here. And she'd be able to host a Christmas party for us and her 85 closest relatives- seriously, I think there are that many.



And here's #6 and the one I'm picking for Angie and Julia. I wasn't sure at first but the farmhouse style sink and beautiful windows overlooking the back yard sealed the deal. I think it might possibly be too much- but we're talking about their mansions now, right? I have no trouble picturing their autumn decor fitting right in here. And probably a window treatment that changes with the seasons. Beachy in the summer, pumpkin for fall, red for Christmas...it lends itself to all seasons with architectural interest and the style of days gone by.

This kitchen is #7 and I'm picking this one for Tracy. I love the harlequin pattern on the backsplash and the exposed stainless steel range hood. I think it's a nice mix of traditional and modern and just a little bit different.OK, you know who I'm picking #8 for, right? It's Mary, of course. With clean lines, square and brushed nickel island light, blue glass tile back splash and a suite of stainless steel appliances, this one screams Mary to me. Hmmm, who to pick for #9...who to pick....who to pick? This is a tricky one because I can see Tisra all over it. With simple clean lines, stainless steel minimalism at it's finest, I wonder if she'd actually go for it. I'm going to say no though and pick....#10 for her instead. It still has clean lines but with the warmth of dark stained cabinets and interesting architectural lines. I think with her big family she'd pick a modern but not stark kitchen that is functional for the biggest family dinners, home school experiments and holiday baking. I'm doubtful that the "indulge" thing would stay though.And that's it. Please don't be afraid to say if you hate my pick, I can't imagine I'm batting 1,000 here- batting zero would let me know that I don't know nearly as much about you guys as I thought I did. But no worries because this is a strictly fun thing. And I must confess that I haven't actually picked a kitchen yet. I have a leaning but there are parts to each of them that I really like. That's the trouble with being the artsy type (which most of you are too) we just like too much stuff. I will narrow it down to one by Thursday though and I can't wait to see which ones you guys pick. Happy hunting.

Open House Tuesday!!!

Yes, it is open house Tuesday, even though I'm getting a late start. Since yesterday was Labor Day, I'm all messed up. I try to have open house Tuesday published on Monday night but I actually forgot about it until last night and spent a few minutes frantically trying to find a house to show you- and then I remembered this one. It is a historic home, as all the homes I've done so far have been, but this one is- let's say quirky. Cute, but quirky. I mean, really, we're all tired of looking at completely perfect homes with granite counter tops and polished wood floors, right? So the home we're looking at today is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,698 sq. ft. cottage listed at $319,500. It is actually the most reasonably priced home we've looked at to date and the location is great with just a short jaunt to downtown Franklin. Here's a link to the agent's virtual tour so you can see many more photos. Are you ready to go inside?

See, it's cute huh? I think that there's a beautiful window hiding behind that really overgrown bush. Now really, who doesn't know that you're supposed to trim the hedges *before* the realtor takes pictures.

Here's the living room complete with fireplace and orange-ish ceiling. Now, you'll hear no complaints from me because I *love* color. When I do a painting they tend to be bright *but* not every buyer likes this much color...and it would take a *lot* of primer and paint to make it not so colorful. And who wants to paint a ceiling?

Here's the colorful dining room....And the colorful kitchen. I really like the yellow and think it works well in here. What you can't see is that another wall is painted cobalt blue halfway up.

Here's the den with a purple ceiling...

And the pepto-purple master...I'm going to guess that they are using this as their daughter's room.

Here's the surprisingly tame, and really pretty bonus room. And another upstairs bedroom that I suspect may be the master- with super-cool painted floors.Here is the room that I'd buy this house for- no matter what color the ceiling is. It's a perfectly beautiful sunroom with gorgeous windows and wonderful stone floor. And the outside courtyard.So what say ye? Do you like the color or would it send you running for a can (or 20) of primer?

Open House Tuesday!

It's open house Tuesday again and as seems to be my habit I've found a stunning historic home that is completely remodeled, in the perfect location and is probably my most recent dream home. If I'm going to be completely honest, I'm a bit of a sucker for this style of home. You can walk to downtown franklin *or* the factory from here. Could you imagine waking up on a Saturday morning and walking to get fresh, organic produce at the Saturday morning farmer's market? A girl can dream, right? But you'd probably like the know the particulars. It is a 4 bedroom ,4 bath, 2 half bath, 4,111 sq. ft. home built in 1930, and is listed at $1, 295,000 you can find the agent's listing here. I usually try to find a house that has a virtual tour as well but this house was so beautiful that I made an exception. So here we go...I love dining rooms with beautiful fireplaces. It makes me think of family dinners at Thanksgiving and Christmas...and snow...The beautifully redone kitchen. I doubt that there's anything historically accurate about it *but* it's beautiful nonetheless. Another view of the kitchen.A greatroom dining combo, maybe?Beautiful staircase and gorgeous hardwood floors.I'm not sure why there's a picture of the bannister...it's pretty though.The quad-shot of the bedroom. I actually hate it when realtors do this. It makes it really hard to see. I do see a beautiful claw foot tub though. And the gorgeous back porch with the beautiful back yard. The lot size isn't listed but a beautiful secluded lot, this close to downtown is a great find.
So what do you think? Is this kind of property for you? And I also want to know what you think of Open House Tuesday. Do you enjoy it or would you rather hear about my exciting life on Tuesdays like every other day? I asked Travis what he thought and he said he'd read my blog even if I have boring Wednesdays, garlic Thursdays and onion Fridays...well, he's not reading on onion Fridays...I don't know garlic Thursdays sound kind of fun...I could probably come up with something.

Open House Tuesday!

It's Open House Tuesday at Lemons and Roses. The house we're touring today is a darling little cottage in the heart of downtown Franklin. It's a two bedroom, one and a half bath, with 1,475 sq. ft. that's listed at $424,900. That's a pretty big chunk of change, I think, but let's see what you think. And you can find a full virtual tour here.

This is what the listing agent has to say about this home-

"Charming historic cottage in convenient downtown Franklin just steps away from restaurants and shopping. Completely renovated with hardwood floors, slate tile, and granite. Vaulted ceiling in den adds to an open feel. " I think it looks sweet and unassuming from the outside so why don't we step inside for a look. I love the rocking chair front porch.

Here's the den with wood floors and painted wood paneled walls and ceiling. There are much better pictures of this room on the virtual tour. The formal living room with beautiful fireplace. I actually like the moulding painted that color. But what do you think? I'm not loving the rug in there but it doesn't come with the house, right?Galley style kitchen with slate floors. I love that transom above the door. I'm going to guess that the den is an add on because that looks like an exterior door, doesn't it?

The dramatic formal dining room with beautiful fireplace. I think that this could be a double sided fireplace for the living room and the dining room.
Here's the full bath. I think out of all the rooms, I like this one the least. I think it's the rusty bathtub. Yes, it's probably a style thing.

Another view of the living room and gorgeous staircase.And a bedroom with, um, a ceiling fan. I hate it that they don't show it in the regular photos, but on the virtual tour they show an upstairs bedroom that was made by finishing out the attic. It actually has what I think is the brick chimney going through a corner of it. Here's the built in covered porch. And really, what good southern cottage doesn't have one of these?

And the beautiful, and nicely sized backyard.
And that's a wrap. So what do you think? Is it worth $288 per square foot? I think it's absolutely darling and the location is perfect. But I'll just have to keep gawking online, thank you. Are you ready to make an offer?