The facinating, facinating world of display homes.

The weather keeps changing and the annoying thing is that when you go out, its horrible weather, but when you're at home stuck indoors, it decides to be nice :P

A good example of this was when I went "display home" exploring on Saturday. This involves going to a place with lots of display homes (Caroline Springs) and exploring them one by one. It has been a while since I've last done this (at least 10 years) so it was good to have another chance and do some more exploring. However, the weather was pretty lousy, (lots of threatening grey clouds and a very cold wind that would penetrate your clothes and make you shiver) but at least the display homes were heated!

Hmmm, its surprising how interesting it is - because all you're doing is basically looking at different houses. In a way, they lack personality because no one lives in these homes yet - there are no personal knick knacks and have an "unlived" look (Basically, they are "cookie cutter" homes). The interest for me, I guess, is being able to see immaculately designed homes and make faces at how they were designed. Although they look good, they are not very practical! (but I guess you can get used to anything!)

A good example of this is how the master bedroom of a house is designed. A common trend was how there was no door for the wardrobe, or ensuite. I guess they were aiming for a more "open space" feel, but in some cases, it felt like a maze trying to find the wardrobe and the ensuite or you would have the wardrobe and ensuite on opposite sides of the room. But sometimes, you'd want to have a door - especially for the bathroom if you want to be quiet and let the other person sleep. My favourite one though was where the shower and toilet were hidden away in separate glass cubicles, with a bathtub in the centre of the bathroom, decorated with red and white tiles. It was a creative way to put everything in one room.

There were a lot of other similarities between all the display homes, but the good ones were the addition of a complete "home theatre" room, where you can use a projector to watch movies, and the the landscaping of the backyard and living area to entertain guests. But I guess those things are catered for families, rather than single people.

So that was display home exploring. Of course, the weather decided to improve when I got home, but when I went to see "Cooped" by the Spymonkeys (who are a melbourne comedy festival act) later that night the weather decided to be horrible again, but it was still a fun night :)