FOUR LOCAL HOMES FEATURED IN HOLIDAY HOME TOUR

Organizers with the Jackson Swim Team are excited about their upcoming Holiday Home Tour fund-raiser.

The tour is slated to begin at 1:30 p.m. Dec. 4.

Four Jackson area homes will be featured on this year's tour, according to Bonnie Poythress, an organizer of the tour. Proceeds from home tour ticket sales go to fund the yearly operating costs of the 50-plus member Jackson Swim Team.

"It's an annual event that's been going on for a number of years," said Poythress, "This is the swim team's major fund-raiser so funds from this go to the operation of the swim team throughout the year."

Poythress said that tickets for the home tour are priced at $4 for advance tickets and $5 on the day of the tour. She said tour participants may purchase tickets at any of the tour homes Dec. 4 or in advance at Rozier's, Horst Pharmacy or from any member of the swim team.

The homes of Harry and Rita Philip, Edward and Sandy Schilling, Bill and Lisa Curtis and Dr. Michael and Lynette Jessup will be featured during the tour. All will be decorated in Christmas finery and a hostess will give participants a guided tour of the individual homes. Those taking part in the event may begin the tour at any of the featured homes and move to any of the other three as they wish. Directions to all of the sites are printed on the back of the home tour tickets.

The home of Michael and Lynette Jessup will give tour participants a country Christmas feeling with its combination of rural surroundings and country traditional design.

Located in Touchdown Estates on County Road 616, the home sits atop a hill and affords an excellent view of the rolling hills of the surrounding area.

The home is designed to take in as much of the countryside as possible with six bay windows and a wrap-around veranda and open deck. The home's combination of vaulted ceilings and ample windows create a spacious, airy interior.

The Jessup's great room features a vaulted ceiling with a catwalk and bay windows at the upper perimeter. The common brick wall between the great room and the kitchen contains a fireplace accessible from either room.

Other rooms of the home, including Dr. Jessup's home office and the upstairs bedrooms will be featured in the hostess' tour of the home.

Located at 3803 Route W, the home of Bill and Lisa Curtis gives an example of what hard work, determination and a close-knit family can accomplish, says to Poythress.

The story of the home starts with Lisa's Dad wanting to help all of his children have their own home. This may sound like a "good deal" but what Dad had in mind was not giving Bill and Lisa a first home, it was to help them build their first home.

Bill and Lisa have plenty of "sweat equity" invested in their home. The couple poured concrete, hammered nails, installed roofing shingles, fitted ceramic tile and did the myriad other tasks required to build a house. The home was constructed in a single year while both Bill and Lisa worked full-time in a family-run business.

A few years after the initial training program was completed, the children arrived and additional space was necessary. Lisa and Bill found it more challenging to leave the home they had worked so hard to construct so they constructed an addition to the home.

In its final form, the Curtis' home features a large dining room off the entrance foyer furnished with pieces that originally belonged to Lisa's mother. The room was designed especially to accommodate these pieces of furniture.

Also in the dining room are a piano which belonged to Lisa's grandmother, a German cuckoo clock and a printer's table which Lisa received from a family member as a graduation gift.

The great room contains an oak table and chairs along with several furniture pieces made by Lisa's father, who also constructed the room's creek stone fireplace.

The Curtis family will be decorating their home using a "Children's Christmas" theme with combinations of nutcrackers, candy canes, sugar plums and musical snow globes throughout the house.

The spirit of a traditional Christmas was the inspiration for decorations found at the home of Ed and Sandy Schilling.

Located at 2219 Whitney Jean, the Schilling's home has been decorated using the theme "Angels We Have Heard On High."

At the decorated front door, those on the tour will be greeted by a foursome of elf-sized wooden angels.

The home's great room features a 16-foot white pine tree decorated with baby's breath, poinsettias and peach and teal bows. A choir of ivory angels float above the branches lit in white lights. Windows to the cathedral ceiling provide a view of the tree from the home's exterior.

Over the mantel is Mrs. Schilling's collection of Dickens houses while three wise men guard the opening of the stone fireplace.

Several different Nativity scenes will be featured throughout the house, as will a number of fruit baskets and a wide range of Christmas greenery.

Other arrangements, including one in the master bedroom suite and teddy bear-centered Christmas scenes, appear elsewhere in the home.

The final tour home is that of Harry and Rita Philip, located at 2419 Lakeshore Dr. in the Bent Creek subdivision.

The decorating theme of the main floor is fruit with wallpaper, garlands and wreathes accented with fruit and complemented by a burgundy and gold color scheme.

The house has an open floor plan with the dining room, kitchen and great room areas flowing together.

Some special features are a Battenburg lace tablecloth covered by a runner made by Mrs. Philip's mother and two prints from colonial Williamsburg, Va. The great room boasts a cathedral ceiling and one wall made completely of windows and providing a view of Bent Creek Lake.

A family room with a brick fireplace and decorative mantel are located in the basement of the home with teddy bears of various sizes used as decoration.

The home has five bedrooms and each will be decorated with wreathes and Norfolk pines.

For more information about the Jackson Swim Team's Holiday Home Tour, phone Bonnie Poythress at 243-2497.