You Can Learn A Lot By Going Through Show Houses

There are dreamers, there are buyers, there are frustrated homeowners scavenging for ideas. All of them are in luck, because of a bounty of showhouses and home tours.

So what can you learn from a showhouse? Here are some things to consider:

Define your taste

It’s frustrating, it’s tiring, it can feel never-ending, but you just can’t look at too many homes if you’re planning on building or buying.

Take a notebook and jot down what you like - otherwise, it’ll become a big blur. React to the way a room feels. Are you more comfortable in rooms with a low ceiling than in soaring spaces? Do you like a lot of natural light in the kitchen?

Appreciate color trends - such as today’s yellow/gold/earth-tone palette - but don’t be wedded to using them. Study how designers use color to make small spaces appear bigger or to create a soothing effect.

And ideas abound for the never-ending dilemma of window treatments. For showhouses, designers cheat a little, cutting corners on fabric with draperies that don’t close all the way, for example. That’s a trick you can mimic at home.

Above all, be aggressive. Ask questions. Flip up the couch cushion to learn the manufacturer or sneak a peek at the tag on the carpet. Just be sure to put it back in the same place.

Assess the builder

For starters, evaluate how the house sits on its site and whether its architecture seems appropriate to the neighborhood. Inside, observe the traffic flow and use of space (little things, like a bay-window reading niche or a hallway lighted to showcase art). The architectural style is less relevant, as builders work in various styles.

Inspect closely.

Cincinnati builder Tim Carter, who writes the “Ask the Builder” column, suggests studying the grading. Six inches of the house’s foundation should be visible above the soil line, and the soil level should drop another 6 inches 10 feet away from the house.

Brick should be cut neatly at windowsills, doorsills and inside corners, not hacked roughly with a trowel. Look, too, for weep holes, which let water drain out, every 24 inches in the first row of brick above the foundation.

Carter recommends a close-up look at interior details, particularly where two different materials meet. Door jambs and backsplashes should fit tightly; excessive caulk conceals mistakes. Moldings should be precisely mitered; doors should hang straight in their frames. Joints in banisters should be smooth and the holes underneath, where the spindles go in, should be neatly drilled.

Upstairs floors should be firm enough not to bounce when you jump up and down in the center of the room. (You’d have to be pretty self-confident to try this in a roomful of people.) And a wall shouldn’t look wavy when you put your head against it and peer down the length of the room.

Look in closets to see how neatly the carpentry, paint and drywall was done. Shelving, too, indicates the level of craftsmanship.

Other things to look for: insulated windows, an electrical panel with empty slots to allow for adding wiring.

And to look out for: shoddy foundation work (crumbly or patched concrete or foundation plantings that conceal them), heavily textured walls that disguise poor taping and bedding jobs, cheap materials such as hollowcore doors, a roof with too many intersections where water can collect.

Consider the newest trends

The great room, whirlpool bath, home office and home theater - over the years, those concepts debuted in showhouses. The latest trend - the coffee bar in the master suite.

“People also seem to be quite interested in innovations in the kitchen,” says Bill McDougald, Southern Living’s director of Southern Living Homes Group, which oversees the building of showhouses for Southern Living magazine. At that magazine’s showhouses people look for such original elements as a slightly elevated dishwasher to hasten loading or unloading, counter tops at different heights for different tasks and baseboard drawers where you can hide the dog’s dish.