June 1, 2006

Home tour dazzles, delights

By Carol Rosen
Editor

As usual, the 2006 annual Willow Glen Home Tour dazzled and delighted all those attending. The parade of people looking at the six homes, all of which could easily have been in a layout for Architectural Digest, found plenty of things to ooh and ahh about throughout.

Willow Glen residents Mary Schorr, Tricia Deeter and Kathleen Erdman decide what they like about the master bedroom in at the Sani residence on Willow Glen Way.

This year between 1,300 and 1,500 people attended the two-day event, which is a benefit for the San Jose Day Nursery. The tour raised more than $40,000, all of which goes directly to the nursery after minimal expenses.

This was the second year for the two-day format. Previously, the tour was held on Sundays.

"The two-day format is a big help," said Yvonne Head, co-chair of the tour planning committee. "It allows people who couldn't come before because of prior commitments on Sundays to attend. It also increases the number of people who attend and eases traffic throughout the tour. There's no longer any waiting and people don't get bottled up inside the homes."

Box lunches were offered this year by A Catered Affair. The lunches were quite popular. Co-chair Head noted that the lunches did well and received many compliments. These were found at the Maartz home where patrons could stop for a drink and snacks provided by Costentino's Markets; visit the boutique from the San Jose History Museum Gift Store as well as purchase gifts from A Cottage Garden; see, buy or commission oil paintings local artist Irma Longley; or purchase decorative items from Paint Misbehavin'

The large back yard featured a number of tables as well as cool shade to relax after the tour. It was also the place for the tourists to enter the drawing for the door prizes featuring goods and services for local businesses or to enter the raffle for prize packages also donated by local businesses.

Although all of the homes featured fantastic touches, two homes stood out. The Maggetti home on Patio Drive contains a number of special touches. Built by contractor Dave Maggetti for his family, the boys' rooms have separate entrances and a family game room at the same level. It features a great room with a wall of leather-padded panels, arched wooden beams and a retractable plasma television that rises from the corner cabinet.

Another outstanding feature is the translucent onyx countertops in the master bath that surround the glass sinks and the small onyx tiles covering the walls. In the back yard, a pool has multiple level waterfalls and a sliding gate connecting to the back yard of a friend's home.

The Biagini home on Mulberry Lane was difficult to find but homey and comfortable once you got there. The original home, built in the 1950s burnt down in 1991 and was being rebuilt when the Biaginis decided to move back to the neighborhood. Filled with books and ceramic and religious art, the home has a patio garden off its elegant dining room and pocket gardens in the back yard.

It's a home that is classically beautiful, but filled with wonderful touches that make it feel comfortable and very lived in. The furniture is both striking and cozy as is the use of color. The dining room, with its long wooden table, brought up memories of large, happy family dinners.

This year marks the 90th anniversary of the San Jose Day Nursery, which has a mission to contribute to the development of children and their families by providing high quality childcare, preschool education and support and training for parents. There are 175 children in the school, ranging from 6 weeks to school age.

Mary Schorr relaxes in this remodeled bathroom.

The nursery is open to families of all income levels and provides subsidized care to those needing assistance. Seventy-seven percent of participating families in infant and preschool programs are subsidized by the nursery's multiple source funding. The funding base includes parent fees, individual gifts, special fund-raising events like the home tour and United Way, foundation and corporate grants.

All of the teaching staff is specifically trained in child development, eight of them are multi-lingual and fluent in Mandarin, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog and/or Spanish. The staff is stable helping to provide consistent quality, effective communication and trusting relationships.

Last June, the nursery broke ground to renovate its building on Eighth Street in San Jose. It will reopen on Friday, Sept. 22 with tours. For more information about the reopening, or to volunteer to help the San Jose Day Nursery, contact John Carson at (408) 288-9667 or e-mail the nursery at info@sjdn.org or volunteer@sjdn.org.

There are too many sponsors, advertisers and friends of the nursery to list individually. Coldwell Banker, Hunt & Henriques, Re/Max Valley Properties, Strangis Properties, Summerhill Homes and TBI Construction are Gold level event sponsors or those donating $1,000. Those donating $500 or silver level sponsors are Allied Drapery Services, Barbara and Mark Cali, J.S. and P.S., Maggetti Construction, the Rolla Family, Sousa's Garage Doors and University Electric.

Donating at the Bronze level, or $300, were Casa Casa, Tim Casey Construction, De Mattei Construction, Monica and Pat Farnsworth, Ingela's Interiors, John and RC Kost and 3E's Designs. Flowers were furnished by Bloomster's, Bunny Hutch, Flower Flour, Jose Ibarra, Navlet's and Posey Garden. Tickets were sold by Able Printing, Casa Casa, Eclectic Touch, Fleurish, B Civilized, Bunny Hutch and Washington Mutual.

Next year's tour is scheduled for Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6. See you there.