Versailles

We rented a small horse farm on Martha’s Vineyard. The house had three bedrooms, two baths, four fireplaces and a secret room (used as an office) behind a bookcase. I loved everything about that house.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tell me more about this stone farmhouse on a mountain top... sounds like a Hallmark movie.

But seriously, what makes something cozy? Throws? Fireplace? A great room?

1. A dog
2. A fireplace
3. Books people actually want to read and comfy places to read them

I realized the house I was thinking of as the nicest house I’ve ever been in fits these parameters, too. It was a friend’s house in Wintergreen. I would love to buy that house. Multiple fireplaces, cozy rooms, exposed wood, and — when we were all together — four dogs!

My house. About an hour outside of DC but in MoCo. Colonial built in the 1990s. A cozy family room with a wood stove overlooking a horse barn and three acres. Paid much less than the prices floating around DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I love my home and consider it the nicest I've ever been in. It's been a labor or love for the last year.

Is it the biggest? No. Is it the most expensive? No. Is it decked out to the nines? No. But it's my home, and I LOVE it.

Please describe. Size, style, year built, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Tell me more about this stone farmhouse on a mountain top... sounds like a Hallmark movie.

But seriously, what makes something cozy? Throws? Fireplace? A great room?

1. A dog
2. A fireplace
3. Books people actually want to read and comfy places to read them

My sisters 9000sq ft custom home. High quality construction, quality finishes, perfect floor plan, each room feels warm and cozy and you forget how large the home is.

I feel the same. My house is a rambler that was custom built in the 1960s and we renovated it. As a kid I never thought I would live in such a nice house. To me, this is it

Honestly, I love my home and consider it the nicest I've ever been in. It's been a labor or love for the last year.

Is it the biggest? No. Is it the most expensive? No. Is it decked out to the nines? No. But it's my home, and I LOVE it.

Tell me more about this stone farmhouse on a mountain top... sounds like a Hallmark movie.

But seriously, what makes something cozy? Throws? Fireplace? A great room?

A stone farmhouse on a mountaintop near middleburg. So incredibly cozy.

This is a good question! I’m going to have to think about it.

My kid had a friend who had a beautiful, modern house that felt like a boutique hotel. They had a full-sized detached gymnasium with a basketball court that the boys loved playing in, an amazing pool, pool house and outdoor entertaining area. The family moved to CA and listed the house for $25M. Not sure what the final sales price was.

I’ve been in many $3-5M homes that are very nice, but this was something else.

I was friends with a girl from Brookville, NY (Long Island - it's the town Howard Stern and his first wife raised their daughters) whose house was basically a mansion. Like, my parents' home and property could have fit on her driveway.

It was huge, but warm. I came from juuuuuuust above blue collar, and was comfortable there.

Two stand out for me:

- The house of a friend who is an antiques dealer. It was perfect, every vignette like a store display, perfectly curated, the whole atmosphere felt like entering another world.

- The new build of a family friend. The house was nice but wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It was evening, the house had that perfect level of evening dim lighting, it was perfectly clean and tidy, and everything was well-stocked. The house had a feeling of abundance and coziness.

Even though one of these houses was a lot "fancier" in terms of material things, what they both had in common was: no clutter, everything was intentionally placed where it was. I've been thinking about this a lot as I organized/decorated for Christmas this year.