How many people walked the Near South Neighborhood Tour of Homes? Not many. D and I would pick up the flow of people as they parked a block or two away from the Tour house. We had a bag of water bottles, light, summery clothes, and good shoes. We started late and still finished in plenty of time. Running your car for, oh, four minutes is terrible for mileage. But they did tend to have three or four people in them at a time.
The houses themselves ran the gamut from very fussy to comfortable to wtf? We did see a lot of compact flourescents and recycling stations. Lots of mission-style furniture, which we like. Lots of antique furnishings. The first house we hit, about a block from our own, was one of the fanciest. Lifelong Navy family, so very well ordered. They collect pewter tableware. She collects cat figurines and pillows. He collects triathlon, marathon and other fill-in-the-blank-athon trophies. Gorgeous. I have no idea how you'd live there. The second house we went to was quite the opposite. Huge, of course, filled with slightly shabby, very used antiques. Pool and foosball tables. Nothing quite matched. Stained and frayed velvet throws. The chaos of a large family was clear and barely contained. Very much fun.
Two other houses stand out. The worst house belonged to a photographer and his family. The living room was all propped out for portraits. Multiple copies of particular images, each with very available business cards. No, really, take as many as you like. Oh, look. Families. Weddings. Sports. Will this obvious ploy for business work? I hope not. The other house was the other fabulous--and fabulously fussy--property. The Maple Lodge (it has a sign out front: Beware of Dragons. So D and I call it the Dragon House) is an extensive bungalow verging on Storybook Style. Two rotundas. Almost none of the ceilings have right angles. An actual Renaissance painting on display--which has nothing to do with the architecture, but did add a certain "oh, damn" factor. The mantel had depth. There was a first surface of rounded opening about eight inches in front of the back of the wood (I think it was all one, hollowed piece) which was carved in a sunburst/palmetto pattern. Lights were hidden up under the front surface and brightened the design. The whole house had little details like that throughout. Bonus: they didn't want people walking with shoes through the place, so you had a choice: booties or barefeet. We went with the feet. I'll say this: Nice carpet.
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