From Black Friday to Cyber Monday, Holiday Shopping Calls For a Special Kind of House

Thanksgiving, with its turkey, mashed potatoes, and pie is followed very quickly by other big events. The day after Thanksgiving, as we all know, is otherwise known as Black Friday. Now that busy day is followed by Small Business Saturday. So Sunday can be a day to regroup and prepare for the next day — Cyber Monday.

Excited or overwhelmed? Broke or carefully budgeted? Perplexed or list upon list? No matter their state of mind during the gauntlet of holiday buying sprees, shoppers are going to need houses with loads of spots to stash the presents, hidden from prying, nosy relatives. With building trends pointing toward customized and large closets, increasingly, houses come with built-in spots for concealing unwrapped gifts.

So let’s look at some of those sites to keep the presents undercover. In this week’s CandysDirt.com featured open houses, we’ll focus on houses with storage. Cabinets and closets have many purposes but this time of year, they can be the perfect place to hide purchases found at those pre-holiday sales.

1604 Cottonwood Valley Circle North, Irving

Driving up to this newly-painted two-story sitting on a corner lot in the Cottonwood Valley neighborhood, notice the lush landscaping. By paying particular attention to the rain forecast and the house’s sprinkler schedule, shoppers could hide something behind the shrubbery.

Inside, though, there are other hiding places in this 3,166-square-foot house, which is listed for $1.1 million. Sweeping in from a shopping spree, head straight to the office where a bank of vibrantly colored built-ins could be a great spot to hide gifts. If a desk was positioned right in front of the cabinets, it could act as an added obstacle to anyone snooping around.

The home’s four bedrooms all come with walk-in closets — think of the possibilities there. The two-car garage could be another site for hiding outdoorsy presents such as bikes and wagons.

Besides the numerous package-hiding spots, this house has other features worth exploring. A fabulous foyer with an eye-catching staircase, hand-painted wallpaper, and an outdoor cabana with a saltwater pool are other reasons to like this house.

Patty Sheets with Coldwell Banker will hold this house open from 1 to 3 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday.

804 Lexington Terrace, Southlake

Closet bonanza in this Southlake house! Recently installed in the first-floor owners’ suite are two custom closet systems — jackpot! Shelves and drawers could hide lots of holiday surprises.

Elsewhere in this manse are custom cabinets in the living room, office, and kitchen that could conceal lots of goodies.  Both front and back staircases would make it easy to run upstairs either way when returning from the stores loaded with gifts.

Then there’s the garage, which is a four-car gated space. Bikes, trikes, balls, and bats could be camouflaged there. The terrace’s luxurious curtains could hide some smaller items within its folds, and the spot could also serve as a great place for gift-giving list-making. After checking it twice, doncha know.

With 6,612 square feet, the estate includes five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. Its listing price of $2.7 million is below the appraised value, and anyone who wants to move in has the option of purchasing the furnishings, which, of course, could be presents without the gift wrap.

The home, listed by Clarke Landry with Allie Beth Allman & Associates, will be held open from noon to 2 p.m. Sunday.

9505 Inwood Road, Dallas

Preston Hollow is the site of this grand colonial home, listed at $5.5 million, and it comes with so many places to hide presents.

The primary closets are a great place to start because the expansive space includes both shelves and cabinets. The cabinetry in the large ensuite bathroom also could provide secret storage. Also found among its 7,817 square feet is a craft room. If kept messy enough, gifts could be hidden almost in plain sight, camouflaged under wrapping paper, tissue paper, and big bows.

With five bedrooms, maybe there’s a guest room where an under-the-bed hiding place would never be found. The house also features seven bathrooms, gazebos, and a guest house — another great place to hide the presents.

The house has other perks frazzled shoppers could enjoy. If all the shopping, wrapping, and secret-keeping gets to be too much, the steam shower could offer a place to relax. Or maybe sitting in front of one of the six fireplaces could de-stress the busy shopper at the end of a marathon day.

Open from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, this house is listed by Claudia Habibi and Dawn Lawrence with EXP Realty.