Historic Home Tour

On Saturday, my Shug and I went on an Historic home tour in Noblesville, IN.

For $12.00 you were allowed to tour several historic homes.

And here are some of the things I liked about them.

Lot's of porches, nooks, and crannies in old homes...inside and out.

Little sitting rooms. White picket fences.

Carriage houses converted into garages and apartments.

Old cars and trucks. I've wanted a truck like these for years.
Arches into gardens. I remember one of the things my Master Gardener teacher, Dick Crum, taught us is if you want people in your yard, put up an archway. He said, "people just HAVE to walk through these." He's right!

Wide steps with plenty of room to walk,

that lead to wide porches.

Fireplaces

and built-in cabinets or shelves. Hardwood floors.

Interesting ceilings and architectural details.

This was a small kitchen but I thought it was interesting how they found a way to 'eat-in' the kitchen and

I am on the hunt for one of these sinks. If you know where I can find one, please let me know.

Cute gardens with nooks, crannies, sitting areas, and hand made yard art.

Windows with casings, trim...details.

Balconies...

From the picture, this looks like it is street level, but it isn't,

it's up there! (on the left) and this house was not actually part of the tour. Two Realtors had open houses that day. Smart! So this was one of the 'bonus' houses, and was one of my favorites. It actually reminded me of a beach house with the colors inside, the windows, the balconies...I loved it.

They also had booths on the square downtown and people were selling their wares.

I loved this afghan. I did not buy it. It was $100.00 Probably not a bad price for all of the work, but I didn't want to spend that much money.

And I think this was my favorite booth. I enjoyed the day a lot. However...I would like to say a few things about home tours.

Do's and dont's if you will.

If you are a hostess, when someone walks in the door, DO greet them and tell them where to start the tour. DO NOT stand there talking to someone you know for so long that the tourer (is that a word? Oh, maybe tourist?) starts the tour on their own, wandering somewhat aimlessly through the house.

If it is a ticketed event, ask to see tickets. We probably could have gotten by without purchasing them.

If you are a tourist, DO NOT monopolize the time of the volunteers who are watching the rooms on the tour. He/She has a job to do. Especially DO NOT stand in the middle of the entry ways to all of the bedrooms/bathrooms so people have to keep saying excuse me....excuse me......excuse me....good grief. (you know, some homes have a little room with doors that lead to all of the other rooms, rather than a hall way.) I noticed she finally asked him to stand against the wall. And btw-Mr. talker man - she wasn't all that into you, I could tell. Miss Hostess Lady, next time you might say, "you know, this really isn't the time/place for me to talk" If he thinks it's a come on to talk later and asks for your number, give him the wrong one. He'll get the hint. Or ask for his instead, then just don't call him. He talks too much anyway. He thinks life is all about him.

If you are a tourist, and the greeter/hostess is speaking to you, STOP AND LISTEN. She is there spending her precious time as a volunteer, at least give her the two minutes she needs to make her little speech. Do you think she enjoys saying the same exact thing 89 times in one day?

If you are on the committee planning a tour such as this one, especially a walking tour, have restrooms available to the public. This tour was from 10-5. There were boy scouts selling snacks and drinks. There was an ice cream social. We eat...we drink....we pee. We need a place to do so.

Parents, if you have to bring your kids...this is a perfect opportunity to teach them respect for other peoples property. For crying out loud DO NOT let them touch/play with stuff that does not belong to them and DO NOT let them climb on antique cars...any cars for that matter...don't even let them lean on them. Did you ever think about the zippers, studs, buttons, etc. on your clothes and how it could scratch a paint job on a car. Well think about it now!

And this goes to everyone, everywhere. The perfume/cologne industry will hate me for this one. But people, just stop wearing it. You know...seriously....my head was about to explode by about the third house from all the scents. Between the houses having those smelly plug-in things, the perfumes worn by tourists, the bathrooms with the cologne smells still lingering, and the cigarette smoke-filled carpeting (sorry, but true)....I was sneezing my head off on the entire tour. I finally just went into one of the bathrooms and started peeling off tissues and blowing my nose! Attractive I know.

So those are my do's and dont's for tours, and really....basic politeness. Seems like, as a society, we have forgotten such things.

Even though the night before sucked, we had a nice date. The tour was well planned, and the homes were within walking distance from each other and downtown. The map was easy to read, there was plenty of time to see the homes and shop in the booths. The weather was perfect and it was a beautiful day to be out on a date with my Shug!!!

Cindy Bee

PS - Thank you for all of your kind comments, I am feeling better. I looked up how to make a hot toddy (see comment section from this post) on the Internet, made one, drank it, and threw up! Tons of phlegm - eeewwwww. But I do feel better!