My husband and I, had the delightful opportunity to go to the Carmel Heritage Society Carmel-by-the-Sea House & Garden Tour this past Saturday.
There were six very different houses on the tour - everything from an Arts and Crafts cottage to a very English, Cotswold-style cottage, a couple of renovated houses and a Frank Lloyd Wright house.
The great grandson of the lady who had Frank Lloyd Wright design her home, was at the house to talk about its history and show visitors the renovations the family has done - which was fascinating! From my perspective, the most captivating thing about the house - aside from the obvious architecture - was the view from the living and dining room - 270 degrees - north towards Pebble Beach and south towards Big Sur, taking in the long stretch of beach, the ocean, the hills and the golf course - STUNNING!!! Of course, Frank Lloyd Wright no doubt, had everything to do with the fact that this 270 degree view was unobstructed and therefore all-the-more breathtaking.
In some of the houses we were able to tour the entire house, and in others, just portions of the house - like the living spaces. Our favorite house is known as 'Serenity' and gosh was it beautiful - and serene! It was more modern, with great indoor-outdoor flow, beautiful attention to detail and a dramatic kitchen of black, glass and stainless steel - great WOW factor. The owner was there at the house which was an added bonus and she shared with us how her daughter had chosen and designed, the custom colors for the house. She had a striking water feature outside the living area designed by Robert Stowe Shuler. Everything from the bed linen to the vases of flowers were of the highest quality and it was a pleasure to be in the house.
The tour was only open for 4-hours (1pm- 5pm) so we parked near downtown Carmel and walked to three of the houses. We then drove to the fourth house and walked from there to the fifth house and then drove to the final house. Initially I was slightly concerned that we wouldn't have enough time to see all six houses, however they were close enough that it wasn't really a problem.
A couple of things to note about the tour...
1. We had to pick up the tickets from the First Murphy House (which is where the Carmel Heritage Society is based). They were hosting an event with light refreshments, from 3pm - 6pm but we didn't have time to go back for that.
2. Parking can be tricky in, or near, downtown Carmel and some of the streets are quite narrow so had there been more people on the tour I would imagine parking around the houses could have been harder.
3. Eat lunch before starting the tour, given the short window of time the tour is open, it will allow you to focus solely on the houses once they open.
Other than that, I will add this tour as a 'must see' event for future years. I give this tour 4 out of 5 House Hearts - LOVED IT!
Warmly,
Catherine
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