-
courtesy of the Renovator’s House Tour
Do you marvel at the proliferation of signs for architects and builders outside many homes on Capitol Hill like I do? I note the scope of the work, if visible from the exterior, and jealously pout about the volume of total gut-jobs transforming local row houses. Want to see what people are doing to creatively transform their turn-of-the-century homes into modern-day livable “solutions”? The Thirteenth Annual Renovator’s House Tour, this Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., is just that opportunity.
The walking tour showcases twelve homes with a wide variety of layouts and styles, with an emphasis on clever solutions to everyday problems and how to create the house of your dreams on a real-life budget. You’ll tour multi-level gardens, compare powder rooms tucked under the stairs, and see what ‘lots of light” really means. Take a guess which home was almost inhabitable when the house was purchased; which home went through three renovations; and which one had a chimney prior to renovation. Keep an eye out for the loft beds fabricated with steel beams and ‘found’ (like, on the curb) bathroom fixtures.
The house tour is a labor of love by the parents of children in the Capitol Hill Cluster Schools (CHCS), comprised of Peabody Early Childhood Center, Watkins Elementary School and Stuart Hobson Middle School. One hundred percent of the ticket sales provide funds for CHCS. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 on day of tour. Tickets are for sale online and are also on sale at Frager’s Paint Store, Hill’s Kitchen and Schneider’s of Capitol Hill.
If you’re hard pressed to make it to all of the houses on the tour, don’t skip the visit to Peabody. The school, built in 1879 and named for financier and philanthropist George Peabody (remember these great posts about the history of schools on Capitol Hill?), was transformed over the summer with major renovations and improvements.