Chicago Luxury Home Tour reveals best that builders offer
This month, 17 of the area's most sought-after custom builders invite you to visit their multimillion-dollar dream homes during the Chicago Luxury Home Tour.
The homes showcase the newest trends in interior design, architectural treatments, landscape design and home technology, with luxury features such as relaxing outdoor retreats and a two-story sports court. Some boast locations within walking distance of charming downtowns, while others offer a resort-style lifestyle with scenic golf course views.
If you dream of living in a neighborhood within steps of the train, pool, shopping and restaurants, you'll want to visit Lane Custom Homes' classic English estate located in the heart of Geneva's "Gold Coast" at 940 Meadows Road.
"What differentiates this home is its location. It is five blocks to downtown and the train station, three blocks to the pool and right next to bike trails. All this in a 7,000-square-foot new home on a wooded, one-acre site," builder Steve Lane said.
The $3.5 million home has a three-season room off the second-floor hallway, a two-story library with its own entrance and a first-floor master bedroom suite with a three-season screened porch and fireplace.
Details such as leaded and stained glass and hand-scraped hickory, marble, slate and travertine flooring make the home unique, Lane said.
If your dream home is an English Tudor reminiscent of historic American estates, you'll want to visit a Highland Park home built by Glenn Gutnayer Construction. The $3.7 million house, located at 1590 Hawthorne Lane, is just steps from Lake Michigan. It has 9,800 square feet of living space with six bedrooms, four fireplaces, a screened porch and a sunken garden.
The design was inspired by Harry T. Lindberg, master architect of numerous great American estates, Gutnayer said.
"The home's design is not your typical English Tudor. It also combines elements of Arts and Crafts and 1930s Industrial Design styles," Gutnayer said. "The overall principal guiding the design was to make the house look like it was built in the 1930s, but have all the features desired by today's homebuyers."
The home's study features a coffered ceiling with antique lighting, leatherette wall panels, and white oak cabinetry.
The lower level has an exquisite fireplace, a wet bar, pool table area and a fully-equipped exercise room. A media room, suitable for Blu-ray movie viewing and video games, is complete with theater-style leather seating and acoustically treated walls for superior sound.
Siena Custom Builders Inc. showcases a 6,200-square-foot home in a golf, swim and tennis community at 1049 Summit Hills Lane in Naperville. With bluestone front and back porches on a site overlooking the Cress Creek golf club, the home is reminiscent of a Hampton-styled estate.
"We cater to more family-friendly homes with a casual elegance. Our homes are livable, with lots of details," said Darin Grubisic, president of Siena.
Families will enjoy the second floor sports-court designed with an adjustable basketball system and sport court flooring, a place where kids of all ages will want to hang out.
The floor plan features functional details including a back staircase for better traffic flow.
The home is priced at $1.65 million, in addition to the lot priced at $650,000 and including landscaping.
Mihovilovich Construction is showcasing a three-story brick and stone French country home with Mediterranean influences built into a ski hill on nine wooded acres in Spring Grove. The home features four bedrooms, seven fireplaces, a kitchen with a walk-in pantry and a home theater on the lower level.
The 2,500-square-foot master suite has two fireplaces, a waterfall, a sitting room, workout room, a bath with heated floors, a warming drawer for towels and a custom shower with steam, music, heated seats, body sprays, rain head and iPod dock.
Set up with outdoor kitchen and television, the outside space is both functional and picturesque, with two waterfalls. Providing 12,000 square feet of living space, the home is priced at $5.5 million and has its own elevator.
Second-generation builder Jim Mihovilovich likes the first-floor office with its custom cherry woodwork, fireplace and bar.
"The built-in desk of African bubinga wood has hidden speakers and the sound vibrates through the wood," he said.
The tour includes homes in Geneva, Highland Park, Lake Forest, Naperville, Northfield, Oswego, Spring Grove, St. Charles, Winnetka and Delavan, Wis. It takes place from noon to 7 p.m. Fridays and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays for each of the next three weekends: Sept 11-13, 18-20 and 25-27. In addition to tours, on Fridays you can sample wine and gourmet cheese at participating homes from 3 to 7 p.m.
Passport tickets are available for $15 online at chicagohometour.com and at Caribou Coffee locations. You also can purchase passports for $20 at the homes. Each passport allows one-time admittance to all homes anytime during the three weekends. Tickets for single homes are available at the door for $5 per home.