We learned this week that the high school in the East Mountains is sponsoring tours of the HGTV Dream Home before the big give-away next month. If you don't know about the Dream Home, you can find out all about it by following this link. We have been watching the Dream Home special on New Years Day for about 8-9 years - so it was a surprise to learn the 2010 house was just down the road from where we live.
Our impressions from watching the house on tv were that it wasn't really our style, and it wasn't really that interesting - especially compared to past years. We found visiting the house in person, however, that the views are really stunning and that the rooms in the house were quite small - the hallways were quite big. It really is a stunning location and an interesting house.
These are a few views of the house from the street. The driveway is a hand-laid-stone driveway (an upgrade from the fancy cement work you might find at a normal million dollar house). The Sandias are in the background.
This is the front of the house - facing south.
The front door.
Here we are standing by the casita with the Sandias in the background.
These are pictures of the kitchen and great room. On the tv show these rooms seemed really big and cold, but they weren't all that big and I liked them more than I thought I would.
This is a super tall window that we liked in the kitchen.
Living area - with a view of the Ortiz Mountains.
Other views from the living room.
This is one of the pantries. We liked the recycling bins - two levels - and 4 bins on each level. Good for NM's crazy recycling rules.
This is the dining room. The space could open so the room could flow outside into the driveway. The dining room has beautiful views of the Sandias. I thought the artwork in this area of the house was hung in an interesting way - it was all really low, so when you are sitting at the dining room table it is at eye level. Also clever.... The dining room is part of an open hallway. The desk from the study matches the dining room table and can be added to this table to make it a much longer dinner table.
The artwork below was in the "Toy Story" bedroom. I loved this... these are those woven coasters you see everywhere in NM - I love that they framed them! There are 3 on each side of this dresser.
Below is my favorite area of the house (you can see the dining room and its artwork in the background of this photo). This is a sitting area in a hallway in front of a fireplace. I really like the furniture in this area, the colors, and the fireplace. It is actually a very open space that feels small and cozy.
Tile work detail on the fireplace.
This is a cupboard in the main laundry room. I liked how it went up.
This is a detail of the way many of the doors were hung in the house. They called these "barn doors." They are not connected at the bottom, so they swing a little, but it was a really clever way to make divisions in spaces that were small - and where a door would cause problems.
There is a long hall that leads to the master bedroom, this is the hall with a sitting area at the end.
Here is Joel out in the driveway - the dining room windows are to the right of the picture.
Here is the view you see from the dining room and the driveway.
More views of the garage and driveway.
The garage. The garage has room for 3 cars and has glass doors. This detail is really only practical in a neighborhood with a guard at the gate (as this neighborhood has).
The images below are in the casita. The casita was very small, and had really small furniture and a pretty funky bathroom. The person speaking is the person who did all of the tile work in the house - Erin Adams. She said her company is known around the world - but unknown in New Mexico. She was encouraging local people to contact her because she likes to do small jobs too. The wall behind her is all tile.
Tile detail in the casita.
This was our transportation to the house. The whole tour was based out of the East Mountain charter high school. The funds they raise from ticket sales are going to buy the school a new bus.
