Behind The SML Home Tour
How Homeowners Prepare for 3,000 Invited Guests
By Jerry and Ferne Hale

                Ever wonder what it’s like to open your home to 3,000 or so curious strangers? We did. So after last year’s Smith Mountain Lake Charity Home Tour was history, we sat down with three couples who had volunteered their homes. Here’s what they told us:
                Universally, the motivation to offer up a Home Tour site was a desire to give something back to the community. Homeowners see the Tour as a worthwhile cause and the charities it benefits as organizations of great value to the Lake area. Each expressed respect for what the Charity Home Tour does and viewed opening their home as a contribution to the well being of the SML area. 
                Jim King and Mary Miller had been in their new home less than a year when they were approached by the Selection Committee.
                “It took us a week to decide,” Mary admitted. “There were unfinished rooms, we needed furniture, and the driveway was still unpaved. But we thought, ‘We have 10 months; we can do it.’ So we made lists—and never finished quite everything that was on them.”
                In addition to “giving back to the community,” Jim and Mary felt an obligation to the Home Tour — to help make guests want to go again the following year. They had been attending the Tour since 1995 and had gotten great ideas for their own home from what they saw.  So they were eager to be a source of ideas and decided to share everything about their home – from paint colors to the brands of the instant hot water system and garage floor coating.
                “People who are contemplating building want to know the details, and we were so glad we could be in our home to share them,” Mary said.
                What was the biggest surprise?
                “How fun it was meeting people and answering their questions,” said Mary. Jim added, “I enjoyed it the whole time and never felt like retreating to the quiet of the apartment above the garage (where the couple camped for the weekend) to get away.”
                Were there any negatives?
                “It would have been much easier if the lake hadn’t flooded on Thursday,” Jim said. “I spent hours Friday cleaning and drying the dock so boats could tie up the next two days.”
                He said he also wished they could have shown the workshop to visitors; men especially would be interested, but the Tour needed that area for staging the volunteers, and he could understand that. Mary said, “We worried that people would be disappointed with our house, but instead we found them most appreciative of everything.”
                Mary summed up the experience: “It’s similar to a big dinner party.  Attending is great fun, but when you give the party, its fun in a different way. Now we understand what the homeowners in years past experienced, and we’re even more thankful for their generosity.”
                Gil and Karen Smith invited Tour goers to their home in Point-a-Vista. They had purchased the house seven years earlier.  “I said, ’This is it!’ before I even went inside,” recalled Karen. With Gil acting as architect, the couple completely remodeled it in several stages. “We didn’t move here full-time until 2002, and we’d never gotten down for the Tour from our previous home in New Jersey. But we had heard good things about it, and we really didn’t hesitate. It just seemed like the right thing to do.”
                Gil gives Karen much credit for getting the house ready while at the same time managing the details of opening Fallon’s, the family’s restaurant on Rt. 122, just north of Hales Ford Bridge.
                “I was away most of the time, and Karen had to do whatever was done,” Gil said. “But we wanted to show our home pretty much as we live in it, so besides some last-minute landscaping and a top-to-bottom cleaning, we didn’t do anything special.”
                The home, however, was indeed special, sporting its remodeled kitchen and new porches, master suite and “tower” rooms – projects they had completed before the Home Selection Committee came calling.
                What surprises were there?
                “Only pleasant ones,” said Karen. “The Moneta Rescue Squad people (the Charity assigned to help staff their home — a great fit since Karen’s late brother had been a firefighter in New Jersey) treated it like it was their own home. Micki Singer and her crew of volunteers really took care of us. It was an honor to be exposed to their integrity, their commitment to their charity, and their degree of caring. We had heard some misinformation from people who had never been Tour homeowners. The truth was, our home was treated with extreme care, and the organizers were incredibly helpful and accommodating. Whatever we did, whatever we wanted, was fine with them. They made no demands whatsoever.”
                The Smiths spoke highly of the visitors, as well.
                “People truly appreciate the opportunity to visit Tour homes,” Karen said. “The best thing was when a group lingered in our porch rockers to savor the view of the Lake. You could tell they felt this was a ‘homey’ place, just as we do.”
                Jack and Connie Higginbotham volunteered the Blackwater Shores home they had built three years before. Connie had worked as a volunteer in previous Tour homes and her business (Security Services, Inc.) had been a sponsor, so she was very familiar with the Tour and its contribution to the community.
                “I had promised the Home Selection Committee we’d do it if they got desperate, and when one of the original homes went up for sale (properties that are on the market are not permitted on the tour), they asked us to fill in,” said Connie. “In addition to the charity aspect, there’s a lot of interest in building at the Lake. We felt our house design might be interesting to others.”
                While some homeowners elect to go away or stay with friends for the Tour weekend, the Higginbothams stayed put. And they enjoyed greeting the visitors.
                “I wouldn’t have missed that for anything,” Connie said. She enjoyed talking design ideas with the visitors, and she tried to be helpful to those who had questions. She said she and Jack really didn’t do much special to get ready for the tour. “I did vacuum each night and wipe down the shower in the morning.”
                Connie also spoke highly of the Tour organization. “All the volunteers were great – so careful with our property. I can’t say enough good things about them.”
                Pressed hard for “negatives” about the experience, she recalled feeling uncomfortable giving information for the note cards volunteers use to talk about each room.
                ”It was a bit like bragging about possessions, and that’s not how we are,” she said.

                There is a continuing need to identify attractive or unusual lakefront homes for future Tours. If you or someone you know would like to volunteer such a property as a Tour location, send the name, address and phone number of the home’s owners to: SML Charity Home Tour, Inc., PO Box 416, Moneta, VA 24121 or call (540) 297-TOUR and leave a message.