Ahu and I went on the 2nd Annual Chicago Luxury Home Tour on September 17th. It's sort of like a mass open house for new luxury homes. A bunch of builders in the Chicago area open up various homes to the general public. The homes are typically over 5,000 square feet and priced over $1 million. For many people, this is the only way to see first-hand inside the homes of the very wealthy. For those who are very wealthy, it's a chance to see the craftsmanship of these builders and figure out which one would be right for their new dream home.
The builders who participated in this year's Tour include Case Homes, KLM Builders, Chic Martin Signature Homes, Michael J. Graft Builder, Chestnut Hill Development, Southampton Homes, Reese Custom Residences, Lane Custom Homes, Silvestri Custom Homes, Sebern Homes, Avondale Custom Homes, Airhart Construction, Environs Development, Landrosh Development, Coda, Orren Pickell Designers & Builders, and Wellington Homes.
The homes are completely finished in most cases, basement included, and fully furnished for the Tour by furniture stores in the area. Walter E. Smithe, as one of the Tour sponsors, provided quite a few pieces. Nice touch, because houses this large would look very, very empty unfurnished. There are also pamphlets and brochures from all the contractors who provided services for each home, sitting on tables near the exit (usually the garage). So if you particularly liked the trim in a home, there's info on the way out about the contractor who did it. You can contact them directly.
Getting in requires a "Passport Ticket" which lists each house, with local directions, plus the rules of the Tour. A ticket costs $15 and gets one person into each home once. That's right; when you walk into a home, they stamp your ticket marking that you've visited. Can't revisit without another ticket. Bummer if you want to see a particular home twice. This is one rule I think they could ditch. Most people are only going to want to see a home once anyway. If they want to see it again, that's probably because there's something they like about it. I can only imagine that's good for the builders, contractors, and suppliers.
Most of the houses on the Tour are still on the market. A few have already been sold. Either way, there are rules you've got to follow when viewing the homes. Obviously these help keep visitors from accidentally damaging or dirtying anything. From the last page of the Passport Ticket:
No bare feet, shoes, strollers, or cameras allowed in the homes. Please bring stockings; a limited number of shoe covers will be available upon request.
All true: no cameras allowed, which is why this article doesn't have any pictures of the houses we saw. I can support this rule to some extent because I respect the privacy of the people who own or will own these homes. On the other hand, these are the types of homes that end up in magazines like Better Homes & Gardens and there'll be pictures there anyway. As for shoes, you've gotta take them off. Wear socks or stockings. Sandals are a particularly bad choice. If you don't have socks, they've got boxes of little plastic foot coverings you can use. They seemed well-supplied when I was there, but if they run out and you're barefoot? Tough luck. No house tour for you.
In another article I'll write about some of the features of these homes and the little touches that really set them apart from the average (or even above-average) home.