Sylvan Lake

Sylvan home tour returns after hiatus

By Eric Czarnik
C & G Staff Writer

» Click on image to view full size « Photo by Donna Agusti Ann and Bob Roth stand in their new kitchen at their home in Sylvan Lake, which will be on display at the Sylvan Lake Home and Garden Tour June 11. Photo by Donna Agusti Ann and Bob Roth stand in their new kitchen at their home in Sylvan Lake, which will be on display at the Sylvan Lake Home and Garden Tour June 11.

SYLVAN LAKE — Sylvan Lake’s traditional open house extravaganza is back.

After a year’s hiatus, the Sylvan Lake Home and Garden Tour is returning to the city June 11. Tour publicity chair Marlene Toby said the event took a break last year due to the economy, but she said it was brought back by popular demand from the community and beyond.

“Each year, we have guests attend our event from throughout Michigan,” she said.

Toby said the tour was formed several years ago as a way to show off the uniqueness of the homes in the neighborhood. Event organizers are following a “potpourri” theme this year by promising something for everyone, with seven different homes on display as well as three gardens. Sightseers may travel from house to house by driving, biking, walking or taking a special courtesy shuttle.

Sylvan Lake resident Ann Roth is one of the people who will be opening up her home for viewing. She said she was recruited to join the event when she ran into one of her neighbors at the grocery store.

“We had been doing some remodeling to our home for the last year,” she said.

She called the home a mix of architectural styles such as the style popularized by Charles and Henry Greene, two brothers who worked in architecture around the turn of the 20th century.

“They have a style that’s sort of a mix of Craftsman or Arts and Crafts architecture mixed with a sort of a Japanese influence,” she said. “That is an architectural style that has a lot of fans. You generally do not find homes of that style here in Michigan.”

Besides the architecture, the home’s wood motif, stained-glass and new kitchen will also be crowd pleasers, she said.

Toby said some of the other Sylvan Lake homes on the tour include a beach home with a designer kitchen overlooking the lake and a renovated home that used to be in foreclosure.

She also pointed out that the gardens on display are beautiful and carefully designed, such as one owned by a senior horticulturist for the University of Michigan Hospital and Medical School Campus in Ann Arbor.

The Sylvan Lake Home and Garden Tour 2011 will last from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. June 11. The tour starts at Sylvan Lake City Hall, 1820 Inverness.

Tickets will be sold at the door for $15 or in advance for $12, or at a discounted rate of $10 each for groups of 10 or more. Tickets can be secured in advance at Sylvan Lake City Hall, La Rosa Market, Detroit Garden Works or online at www.brownpaperticket.com. To learn more, call (248) 615-6296.
 

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Eric Czarnik at eczarnik@candgnews.com or at (586)498-1058.