Cruising on the home tour

Danette Goulet

CORONA DEL MAR -- It’s like a Royal Caribbean cruise ship -- only

better.

Stylish, handcrafted furniture adorns an elegant, nearly decadent home

with its own movie theater on one floor and a gym on another. And it all

overlooks the ocean.

It is just one of the eight stops on the Corona del Mar home tour this

year.

Standing in the living room, or the master bedroom, or the dining

room, or either study for that matter, one has the feeling of being on as

cruise ship, as the house is built into the side of a cliff.

In the solarium adjacent to the dining room is the home’s indoor

barbecue.

While flipping the filet mignon, the home’s owners can either watch

the ocean waves break on rocks below or admire the hand-painted mural

they commissioned as a compilation of all the exotic places they have

traveled.

And there are the little bottles of sand that adorn one wall -- sand

from more than 100 beaches they have visited, including Barbados,

Mombasa, Tahiti and Panama.

“We used a lot of exotic veneers, and we used workmen from all over

the world,” said Anna Shay of Solanna Designs, who designed the furniture

and has spent 2 1/2 years creating the masterpiece home.

Having sold 1,750 tickets to Tuesday’s event, Corona del Mar High

School PTA organizers say they are completely sold out, but many people

are still vying for tickets.

The main PTA fund-raiser for the school, the home tour netted a profit

of $80,000 last year, said Lynn McCallister, the event’s chairwoman. It

is a sum they hope to top this year by $5,000 or so.

“The money goes to academic enrichment,” McCallister said. “This year

what we really want to do is enrich music and the arts program. These two

items have really gotten shortchanged.”

Proceeds from the home tour will also help to pay for new software for

the state-of-the-art technology the school’s foundation bought, as well

as campus enhancements.

“We know we have the bond money coming, but we also know that may be a

couple years down the road,” McCallister said.

In the meantime, the PTA members hope to make some small improvements

of their own, such as baseball bleachers, she said.