EA Tour of Homes

Andrew and I packed up and spent the day in East Aurora yesterday.  That’s pretty much what we have to do if we’re going to be there for more than an hour or so; we take the dog, his food, the computer, my homework, and, this time, a change of clothes to go out to dinner.  Whew!  It’s certainly a trip.  I can’t image what it would be like with a kid, too.

We started off the morning with the East Aurora Tour of Homes.  It’s a yearly event showcasing some of the older, nicer homes in and around the village whose owners are willing to open up to the public.  I don’t think Andrew’s parents had ever been, but Moog provides tickets to some of their employees, so Andrew’s dad grabbed a few awhile ago and we thought we’d give it a try.  The tour is a fundraiser for the Aurora Adult Day Services, and the crowd was just as you would suspect; 90% blue-haired old ladies.

We picked up maps and bite-sized treats at the Roycroft Inn before heading out in our cars.  It was CHILLY yesterday!  Cold and wet and rainy.  Andrew said it was more “November weather” than October weather for here, which relieved a little of my fears that it would be snowing any day now.  I love the cold, but since ALL my winter clothes and shoes are packed away, I’m in no hurry for it this year!

We started at the Dewey’s house, which Andrew had actually been in before.  Their kids are our age, so Andrew ran cross country and played basketball with their two sons.

As you can see, it’s a gorgeous house.  It sits on at least an acre, which is a very large lot for the village, so that’s another thing that makes it stand out.  The Deweys have done a lot (or rather, not a lot) to maintain the historical integrity of the house.

All of the walls and wallpaper are original to the house.  They even have a 1920s oven.  The house was very large and certainly quite neat.  Awesome kitchen, but I have to admit, I would have updated with some sleek, stainless steel appliances.

We moved on to a house on Fillmore Avenue, which is one of the most desirable streets in the village due to its proximity to Main Street.  If only we could find something there!  There is one for sale down the road, but it has a hot tub in the living room.  IN THE LIVING ROOM. What do you do with that?  If it were only that, I think we could figure something out, but it just wasn’t the one for us.

As you can see, fall is in full swing here with the leaves on the ground.  Love the porch!  This house was really neat because of the barn.  It has a basketball court on the top level!  Mr. Young went up with us and Andrew shot some hoops.  We even signed our names on the drywall at the urging of Mr. Young, who was surprised Andrew had never been up there before for various events during high school, i.e. parties and homecoming-float painting.  Guess Andrew just didn’t hang with the cool kids…  (But I guess when you’re the valedictorian, your circle of friends is more smarty-pants than party-type.)

We left the village “proper” and took a side street to a neighborhood-y area and checked out this large, yet unassuming, house.

WOW.  As Andrew put it last night, it takes A LOT of stuff to make a 5,000 square-foot home look cluttered.  I don’t know that it looked “cluttered,” (all the decor was done very well), but man was there just a ton of stuff!  It was insane.  Everywhere you looked there were collections and paintings and artwork and everything you could imagine.  But again, it was all done incredibly well. Actually, it was very much my “style,” (color, unique pieces, symmetry) but, basically, on steroids.  I’m much more of a minimalist in my decorating, but basically with the same stuff.

The island in the kitchen was amazing.  She said they called it their “bowling alley.”  Gee, must be nice.  She had collections of quilts and hats and artwork all over the place.  I loved the mudroom area and the master bath was just beautiful.

The last house we visited is on Main Street and it’s one of the houses I always notice when we drive into town.  Not sure why, probably the green color catches my eye…  I love the columns in the front, although I think I would pull out the boring shrubs in favor of smaller landscaping to show off the front of the house more.

This one was beautiful and well cared-for.  I wouldn’t say it was terribly historical or large or even unique, just beautiful.  Honestly, the best thing about it was the double-chocolate cookies they had from the Elm Street Bakery!  Holy cow–they were like smooshed brownies with giant chunks of chocolate inside.  I went back for seconds.

After the tour Andrew and I checked out a rental house in Orchard Park.  I think we’ve admitted defeat and are going to have to rent over the winter in the hopes that we can find something we actually want to buy sometime next spring/summer.  The rental was in a great section of the OP village, the owner is fantastic and will let us have Hadrian AND is amenable to a short-term/month-to-month lease, both of which are important to us.  It’s a three-bedroom and will fit all our stuff with a nice, DRY basement.  The kitchen and living room carpet leave something to be desired, but really, what more can you ask for in a rental?  We’re very thankful we found this one.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with car-cleaning (Andrew), homework at Taste (me), then going out to dinner at Rick’s on Main for restaurant week.  I had the most amazing Asian-marinated and grilled chicken breast with an awesome black bean and ginger salsa.  Then we headed BACK to Taste for dessert; Andrew got a too-sweet caramel apple steamer and I had a peppermint tea and a slice of their peanut butter/brownie pie.

More homework for me today!