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Showcase House of Design’s first spring fundraiser offers grand tours
Take a peek at 2 of 7 homes
| Monday, May 12 2008 9:00 AM
Last Updated: Friday, May 9 2008 1:27 PM
The seven homes on the tour are not for sale: They are for generating dreams and ideas — accented, of course, with custom furniture and drapes, state-of-the-art appliances, hand-painted finishes, commissioned murals, even interior “outdoor” spaces with ceilings that rain to simulate the tropics.
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What: Bakersfield Showcase House of Design’s Spring Parade of Homes Tour — Visit seven lavishly built and accented dream homes whose owners have opened them up for self-guided tours to benefit Club Zion Youth Ministries.
When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday
How/Where:
• $20 tickets are available at all Vallitix outlets, online at vallitix.com or by phone at 322-5200.
• Show up at the primary house on the tour (where tickets may also be purchased) at 15014 Thunder Valley Road. Ticketholders will be given a program and map so they can view all the homes on the tour at their leisure.
Information: www.bakersfieldshowcase.org
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Photos:
The exterior of Edward and Christina Gruber's home, which will be one of the homes featured in the Bakersfield Showcase House of Design Spring Parade of homes.
Water sprays from the second level ceiling to a pond in the entry of the Gruber home.
The backyard of the Gruber home has a tropical feel.
The master bath has an etched window that looks into the shower in the Gruber home.
Joe and May Michaud's home is one of the homes that will be featured in the Bakersfield Showcase House of Design Spring Parade of homes.
The wine cellar of the Michaud home.
Artist Kristina Rochelle-Steinke painted a mural in the dining room of Joe and May Michaud's home as well as other artwork in the house.
A view of the ceiling on the wine tasting nook in the Michaud's home which was hand painted by artist Kristina Rochelle-Steinke.
A butler greets guests at the entry of the Michaud home.
“No expense has been spared on some of these houses,” said Lisa Bonin, chairwoman of the Bakersfield Showcase House of Design, which is having its first-ever Spring Parade of Homes Tour this year to raise money for its charity, Club Zion Youth Ministries.
The event is an offshoot of the Showcase House of Design, which is open to the public for viewing in the fall — a tradition that will continue, according to Bonin.
In troubled economic times, Bonin said, these tours through dream homes can be inspirational.
“This is entertainment. People need that no matter how tight things are,” she said. “I love to dream about something. Obviously I don’t live in a house like that, but I can dream and enjoy it.”
The homes on the tour are all owner-occupied, Bonin said. “These are individuals opening their houses up to help the charity.”
LAS VEGAS FLAIR
Dentist Edward Gruber, his wife Christina and their three kids live in a 4,200 square-foot, two-story, Mediterranean-style home. Water plays a key role in both the interior and exterior design.
Just through the front door, there is an interior tide pool past the foyer; beyond it, you can see the lagoon-shaped pool with swim-up bar area outside; and beyond it, the lake, 18th green and clubhouse of Riverlakes Golf Course.
“Rain” comes down onto the tidal pool from a jet in the soaring ceiling; the sink in the guest bathroom is a stone fountain with a lion’s head spout; the texture of the kitchen wall tiles is meant to simulate coral; the base of the glass dining room table is an enormous sculpture of a mermaid who appears to be just about ready to break through the ocean surface.
Christina Gruber said the family used to go to Las Vegas frequently when the house was being built — between mid-2004 and the end of 2006 — so her husband could take pictures of the interior of different hotels that served as inspiration for the design.
“When we were building it, everybody said this is a party house,” her husband said, “but we’re not real party people.”
They do like entertainment, however, as is evident from the theater room with a plasma television and leather recliners, and other flat-screen sets throughout the house, including one above the bed in the master bedroom.
EAST MEETS WEST
Next door to the Grubers is the home of Joe Michaud and his wife May. It is also a two-story dwelling and, although Michaud, a Minnesota native, didn’t know exactly how many square feet his house measures, it appears to be larger than the Grubers’.
There are Mediterranean — his family name is French — and Chinese influences — she is from Beijing — throughout.
Some memorable exterior features of the home are Chinese Fhu Dog guardian statues at the entrance off the sidewalk; a swimming pool with cabańa-style pool house; a quaint rose garden with reflecting pool; and, as is the case for the Grubers’ house, spectacular views of the lake and golf course.
Inside, some of the most stunning accents include four major chandeliers; a cozy wine cellar with curved walls, a wine-tasting nook, and light fixtures made out of wine bottles and wrought-iron holders by a local artist; a laundry room with slate backsplash and artistically decorated cupboards that give the room the warm feel of a kitchen (it’s big enough for a kitchen); and a full-room mural in the dining room inspired by views from the Tuscany region of Italy.
It took local artist Kristina Steinke 21⁄2 months to paint the walls and ceiling.
“They’re pictures we took out of a book from Italy and she made them exactly,” said Michaud, a real estate and insurance entrepreneur. Steinke has also painted a full-room mural of pirates and mermaids in another one of the residences in the seven-home tour.
Michaud said his home was actually the Bakersfield House of Design in 2001.
CLUB ZION YOUTH MINISTRIES Lisa Bonin and her husband, Dan, who have been full-time youth pastors for 12 years, founded Club Zion Youth Ministries in 2000 as an outreach to help high school and college students spiritually and academically.
Showcase House of Design tours have taken place for as long as the ministry has existed.
“Design House is the one fundraiser for the year for Club Zion Youth Ministries,” Bonin said.
To date, the organization has given away more than $200,000 in scholarships to local youths who “are completely not at all what people would consider successful,” Bonin said.
According to her husband, many Club Zion kids come from troubled homes, financially challenged families or homes with non-English-speaking parents.
Club Zion holds youth services on Sundays and Wednesdays.
“We bought a 12-passenger van last year and we actually drive out to Arvin two to four times a week to pick up kids,” Dan Bonin said.
The organization helps the kids with college selection and registration, job placement, character-building activities such as serving food at the Bakersfield Rescue Mission for homeless men and picking up trash through the Keep Bakersfield Beautiful program, and even during personal crises, he said.
Recently, he said, a girl who became depressed as a result of bottling up a traumatic experience from her past became suicidal, swallowed some pills and had to be taken to the hospital. Her family asked the Bonins to help. They visited the girl together with other youths in the program who had gone through similar experiences and were able to provide comfort, he said.
“We’re on call 24/7 for the kids,” he said.
The Bonins will be celebrating their 20th wedding anniversary next month.
“We thought we were going to have a big family,” she said.
Her husband said, “We couldn’t have kids, so God sort of blessed us with a whole mess of these. They basically turned out to be family.”
And as ordained ministers, Dan Bonin said, he and his wife sometimes even get to perform the weddings of some of them.