November in Phoenix Arizona means Home Tours and Art Fairs. We treated ourselves to both this Veterans Day Weekend.
The Palette of Homes Tour is presented by the Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine and is a benifit for Free Arts of Arizona. Free Arts pf Arizona provides a creative environment for abused, homeless and at-risk children and their families. So…I am all in on this charity!
The tour is of four or five creative redesigned homes in the North Scottsdale and Paridise Valley area of Phoenix. These homes are usually of the 1920 farmhouse or 1950 ranch house persuasion in their original form.
Who else wouldn't want to get all the remodeling ideas they could…up close and personal? Each home provides gormet food from local eateries, bottled water and surgical booties. The self guided tour is 5 hours in length. That time frame includes driving, parking, walking, eating and potty breaks at the local police station. It's actually so much fun, you forget how tired your feet are.
My head is always full of ideas and no cameras are allowed. The tours are self guided and self paced. You can't look in cupboards or behind closed doors… but for the most part…the home is slung wide open for 400 curious voyeurs, who have plopped down the bucks to get the view.
The homes are always featured in the November Phoenix Home and Garden Magazine and often carry over to other months of publication.
Some of the Dream Tour Homes have once been the homes of well known personalities. One such home was built in the 1920's and was the home of Amada Blake, who played Miss Kitty on the Gunsmoke television series. Once a three-story brick farmhouse, the home has now been brought the home into this century. The room that once served as Miss Kitty's Poker Room, is now a library.
The basement has brick floors now and includes a huge workout room and a walk-in wine tasting vault. The kitchen has been expanded, but many of the original red brick walls have been saved. A large eat in kitchen area is surrounde with the old weathered crumbling brick as well as the family room.
This property is 2 1/2 acres and had an orchard, a huge diving pool and a "21-person" hot tub spa. The guest house has been converted to a huge billards room compleat with kitchen and bath.
The home is European in flavor and was designed by the owners of a local store called One Posh Place. They provide Interior Design Services as well as fantastic home furnishings and accessories.
