KAREN WIGHT -- No Place Like Home

I love a home tour. I’ve been a tour-a-phile as long as I can remember.

When I was growing up, my mother always volunteered for the Riverside

Panhellenic Home Tour (and still does), so attendance was not only

mandatory, but helping out was mandatory as well.

It was really the best of both worlds. Raising money for a good cause and

appreciating great architecture, art, and Riverside history.

Over the years, I have seen some fabulous houses. Growing up in Riverside

gave me the opportunity to see styles of homes we only dream of here: old

homes with orange groves for their front and backyards; historic homes

set at the base of Mount Rubidoux; rooms that served as residences in the

Mission Inn; Victorian estates with carriage houses larger than the home

I live in now. Historic, charming, unique and unlike anything we

experience on the coast.

My fascination for homes has followed me everywhere I’ve gone. While I

was at UCLA, I had a chance to see gorgeous homes in Beverly Hills,

Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Malibu and Holmby Hills.

Families of friends that I met and visited had great houses in

Hillsborough, Saratoga and one house in San Francisco that I still think

about every once in a while.

It was an old Victorian on Green Street, three stories high, four if you

count the basement. The architecture was magnificent and quirky all at

the same time. The moldings, the scale, the attention to detail was

something out of a romance novel. It conjured up great visions and left

me desirous of a similar fate for myself.

So here I sit in my California ranch home, circa 1965, a house with

possibilities. Symmetry was obviously not in the vocabulary of the

architect who designed this house. The flow is good but the details are

lacking.

I try not to be covetous of some of the spectacular homes I’ve seen in

the past, but sometimes it’s hard. I’ve tasted something sweeter, but I

wouldn’t trade in the beach, the schools and the friends -- even for

Riverside’s Raeburn Carriage House built in the middle of an orange

grove.

I still get the opportunity to see some incredible homes. And this year,

on May 2, I will have the pleasure of watching hundreds of friends and

acquaintances go through the Harbor High Home Tour and see an eclectic

mix of what this unusual area has to offer.

There is a Craftsman built to authentic specifications, which has

museum-quality collections; a beach cottage done to the nines; a

Masculine Retreat with a 270-degree view of the Back Bay; a Castaways

feel-good cottage; a relaxed but polished California Dream in Newport

Heights; and a garden with a natural stream that runs through it.

Top that off with an oceanfront lunch venue and you have a home tour that

promises something for everyone.

Chairman Leonie Lumpkin is “thrilled with the diversity of this year’s

tour. The mix of homes, gardens and styles are very different from one

another and each has a unique character all it’s own. There is something

for everyone, including a few surprises. No one will be left feeling that

some style was not well represented.”

I’ve been lucky enough to take a sneak peak at a few of this year’s tour

homes. Diversity is the buzzword. I enjoy any style done well and though

these homes are all very different, I enjoyed each one because of the

integrity of design.

The owners have passion for their preferences and I applaud their

efforts. Here is a mixed-up list of a few of “my favorite things”: a

large, round dining room table set next to a cozy fireplace; a custom

mosaic on the bottom of a pool; a billiard table done in perfectly

coordinating colors; a room where you can really write on the walls;

80-year-old bonsai that has never been touched with an instrument other

than a human hand; and a natural stream that runs to Cherry Lake.

By the end of tour day, more than 200 volunteers will have shared their

time and effort; eight families will have graciously turned their lives

upside down for at least a day (though we know the preparation takes

weeks); 1,000 ticket-holders will have enjoyed a day of diverse design,

good food and the opportunity to help a local high school become a better

springboard for the many talented children that attend.

Tickets are $40 and can be purchased through The Butera Collection in

Westcliff Court, Ann Dennis Design in Stonemill Design Center and through

the Home and Garden Tour ticket hotline at (949) 262-5290.

All in all, I’d say it’s an event you just can’t miss. And for me, it’s

also a family tradition.

* KAREN WIGHT is a Newport Beach resident. Her column runs Saturdays.