Costa Mesa home tour gets festive

Six Costa Mesa families will open their Homes for the Holidays to welcome the public and benefit the Costa Mesa High School Foundation.

The group’s second annual home tour on Dec. 3 will showcase homes with their festive decor and raise funds for Costa Mesa High School’s arts and science academies. Proceeds from the tour will go toward equipment, supplies, student trips and performance opportunities for the departments.

The six families from throughout the city’s neighborhoods, who volunteered to include their homes on the tour, were each paired with an interior design team to lightly spruce up their residences before the event.

“The goal is to showcase the great Costa Mesa homes, their interesting designs, architectural features and maybe something interesting about the homeowners,” foundation President Katrina Foley said. “You get to see what a great community this is to live in while also fundraising for Costa Mesa High School’s arts and science academies.”

Andy and Leslie Rothman decided to open up their home after a friend of Leslie’s, who works for the city, told her about the tour and suggested she participate.

From an old-fashioned game table to antique mirrors, the Rothman home is filled with an eclectic collection of furniture from Leslie’s mother, grandmother and aunt.

“When it comes to making a home look nice, I think mixing the old with the new is what gives it personality,” she said. The mother of two decorates and does home design for a living.

Andy Rothman, an alum of Estancia High School, and his wife purchased the Costa Mesa house in 2005.

Since then, they replaced the carpet with hardwood floors, purchased new appliances, installed new dry wall and added more windows in the kitchen.

For the tour, the foundation paired the family with Portobello Junction in Costa Mesa to have different succulent arrangements set up in their house.

Another participating homeowner, a good friend of Costa Mesa High School’s cheer coach, learned of the tour after attending the foundation’s Beat the Drum for the Arts gala in September.

Her residence is home to sculptures and artwork from her family’s travels and an upstairs music studio.

In another home, one owner had the black iron banister of his house custom-made by a friend who welds metals.

After buying the house around 2002, he also had a loft built so that his wife, a dance teacher, could have a studio.

His residence is home to him, his wife, three children — one of whom is a senior at Costa Mesa High School — and also the family’s dog.

Foundations dedicated to supporting Corona del Mar and Newport Harbor high schools have hosted annual home tour events for the past several years.

The inaugural Home for the Holidays tour last year in Costa Mesa included four houses.

The Costa Mesa High School Foundation hopes to continue the Home for the Holidays tour as an annual fundraising event.

Attendees will also have the chance to browse the Costa Mesa High School’s Home Tour Holiday Boutique at the SoCo Farmers Market and visit a reception at Surfas Kitchen catered by Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop Dec. 3. The reception will be held from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

The home tour will take place from 3 to 8 p.m. on Dec. 3. Tickets are $50.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit costamesahometour.com.