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Steamboat Springs — Visitors to the Colorado Group Realty Parade of Homes on Aug. 6 are assured of getting a close look at singular examples of handcrafted design details that set the six homes apart from other Yampa Valley residences.

■ The exclusive family neighborhood of Elkins Meadow on the eastern edge of the city of Steamboat Springs off Fish Creek Falls Road has just a few homes and 60 acres of open space centered around an old-fashioned swimming hole and fish pond.

The first thing Parade of Home-goers will notice upon arriving at 2555 Wildflower Court is the covered bridge spanning a creek.

Before stepping inside, they’ll want to take note of the exterior siding that was hand-scraped and rubbed with steel wool and vinegar to bring out the grain of the wood in tones of gray, red and brown.

The Y-shaped home balances rustic touches with modern, including a sliding barn-style door to the home office and a floating steel stairway mounted with open planks of Douglas fir.

■ The home on Wildflower Court is in the midst of the sunniest location in the meadow, but its neighbor at 3005 Little Fish Trail is tucked into 2.5 acres of mature aspens. The ranch-style home is strategically placed to take advantage of pocket views of the ski slopes on Mount Werner, and the floor-to-ceiling windows wrap uninterrupted around the southeast corner of the living room. Everyone appreciates a window with a view over the kitchen sink, and the Little Fish Trail home has a window measuring 8 feet wide by 18 feet tall in its kitchen of classic Carerra marble and white cabinets.

However, the outstanding custom touch in the home announces that this is a place to raise one’s own basketball team.

At the top of the only stairway in the house is a hardwood basketball court with adjustable hoops at either end, and a wall of tempered glass. Add a rare (for Steamboat) outdoor pool, and this is heaven for growing families.

■ The penthouse condominium at The Olympian in its own way is just as family oriented. Imagine youngsters launching an inner tube in the Yampa River from the park right outside their front door, or walking across the

Fifth Street Bridge to go night snowboarding at Howelsen Hill.

Speaking of the front door, this three-bedroom home offers two different nontraditional entryways. One can choose to take the elevator from the parking garage, which opens directly into the home. But when guests arrive, the owners direct them to the glass-enclosed bridge way that will deliver them to the front door.

■ The remarkable Fox Oaks home at 2189 Golf View Way in The Sanctuary has built a theme around the native Gambel oak and the family of foxes that pass through. Expect to see Gambel oak accents in the stair railings and custom-designed beds. But the real stunner is a mural of copper and 22-karat gold in the entryway that depicts native foxes curled up in a stand of the small oak trees that flourish on south-facing hillsides in the Sanctuary.

■ The custom touches on the new home at 31655 Aspen Ridge Road go to the uncommon length of creating a changing tableau of natural light in panels of one-way glass that dominant side-by-side garage doors. The glass doors act as mirrors that capture the changing moods of a small aspen forest that lines the driveway.

Inside, the use of dark walnut defines the tone of the home, but a pair of rusted steel mantels and the disc brakes of a mountain bike embedded in the kitchen island make a statement not found elsewhere.

■ Once you step onto the curvilinear deck on the west side of the new home at 33530 Bald Eagle Drive in Alpine Mountain Ranch, you may be reluctant to go back inside — the views stretch from the Flat Tops to Sand Mountain to the top of the ski gondola. But inevitably, you will step back into the house where a sculptural kitchen island stands on steel legs and is capped with a slab of walnut recycled from an orchard in California’s Sacramento Valley.

To reach Tom Ross, call 970-871-4205 or email tross@SteamboatToday.com