Sept 18-Oct 17. Witching Hour Farm Ellicott City (MD) Annual Decorator Show House. A farm estate with a meticulously restored seven bedroom house on eight verdant acres in prestigious Western Howard County.  Check back for details.  http://www.historicec.com/events.htm

Sept 25 (Sat.) 10:00-3:00. Alexandria Homes Tour sponsored by The Twig. Will feature six exceptional Federal and mid-nineteenth century homes with lovely walled gardens located on Duke, Prince, South Lee, and South Royal Streets. The circa 1775 four-story brick Dr. James Craik House, occupied from 1795 to 1809 by George Washington’s close friend and physician, received the 2010 Historic Alexandria Foundation Preservation Award. http://www.thetwig.org/files/TOUR/homestourmain.html

Sept 25-26 (Sat-Sun). 10:00-5:00.  Rappahannock Farm Tour. Farms, orchards, wineries open. More information to come. http://farmtour.visitrappahannockva.com/pdf/09FarmTour_Program_Web.pdf

Oct 1, 2, 3 (Fri-Sun). 10:00-5:00. Waterford Home Tour & Crafts Exhibit. Families in Waterford, Virginia, live modern lives in old houses. Many Waterford residents live with hand-dug wells, low ceilings, and no air-conditioning or cable TV. Each day during the Homes Tour, some villagers open their homes to visitors. Docents welcome you and speak about the history, architecture, and furnishings of these dwellings. Village houses date from the late eighteenth century through the federal and Victorian periods and into the twentieth century  http://www.waterfordfoundation.org/fair/tour-houses.html

Oct 2 (Sat). 1:00-5:00. Chestertown (MD) Historic House Tour. This year’s homes have not been finalized. Please check back. http://www.kentcountyhistory.org/tea_time

Oct 2-3 (Sat-Sun). Tour of Solar Homes & Buildings. The tour will cover two days, with a remarkable variety of solar design, technology, and sustainable living concepts illustrated in over 70 homes. http://www.solartour.org/about_us.html

Oct 3 (Sat). 11:00-5:00. Takoma Area Green Homes and Gardens Tour (MD).  Approximately 10 homes, gardens, and about 10 points of interest in or near Takoma Park with a focus on energy efficiency as a theme.  http://truthful-living.com/GreenHomesTour09.aspx

Oct 16 (Sat). Reston (VA) Home Tour. Featuring five private homes of unique interior design and architecture. http://www.restonmuseum.org

Oct 16-17 (Sat-Sun). 10:00-5:00. Great Falls (VA) Annual Studio Tour. Individual artists’ studios open to the public. http://www.greatfallsstudios.com/calendar.php

Oct 17 (Sun). 12:00-5:00.  Dupont Circle House Tour. More information when it is available. http://www.dupont-circle.org/

Nov 6-7 (Sat-Sun). Mid-City Artists Open Studios. DC artists open their studios to the public. http://www.midcityartists.com/default.asp

Dec 4 (Sat). St. Albans Annual Christmas House Tour. More information when it is available about this tour in DC. http://www.stalbansschool.org/calendarItem.aspx?pageId=75076&eventDate=634270176000000000

LOCAL DC LECTURES AND OTHER PROGRAMS 

July 13 (Thurs) 7:00. Francis Elkins’ Avant-Garde Interiors, Corcoran Gallery of Art. For the first half of the 20th century, Frances Elkins (1888-1953) pushed the boundaries of interior design by combining elements from disparate periods and styles—from French country to Art Deco, turn-of-the-century California, and chinoiserie—and gracefully unifying them into a cohesive whole. The resulting interiors were decidedly avant-garde, solidifying Elkins’ great influence on the future of design.  Author and design expert Stephen Salny traces Elkins’ path through a 30-year career as an arbiter of taste and a revolutionary designer, including her travels in Paris with her brother, noted Chicago architect David Adler. Following the illustrated talk, Salny signs copies of his book Frances Elkins: Interior Design (Norton, 2005). http://programs.corcoran.org/products/frances-elkins-avant-garde-interiors

Exhibit until Aug 15. (Mon-Sat 10:00-5:00; Sun 11:00-5:00)  Drawing Toward Home : Designs for Domestic Architecture from Historic New England. at the National Building Museum. From Great Diamond Island, Maine, to Boston’s Beacon Street, and from cottages on Cape Cod to mansions in Newport, the houses featured in this exhibition remind us that the architecture of New England is a touchstone of American architecture. The illustrations, from the drawing collections of Historic New England, span two centuries and depict changing styles and design trends.  http://www.nbm.org/exhibitions-collections/exhibitions/drawing-toward-home.html

 TOURS  AND TIDBITS OF NOTE OUTSIDE THE DC AREA

Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. Featuring some of America’s finest houses built in classical Greek or Roman style in the early 19th Century – like Edgewater, built in 1824 on the Hudson River in upstate New. Distinctive homes are in Charleston and Pinewood, SC; Barrytown and Hillborough, NC; New York, NY; and St. Croix, Virgin Islands. http://www.classicalamerican.org/html/canegarden_history.html

Designer Houses for Rent in the UK: Experience great architecture first-hand in Spring 2010. These are not your quaint cottage. http://www.living-architecture.co.uk/index.asp

VIRTUAL HOUSE TOURS.  Visit the following websites for virtual tours of interesting homes:

Apartamento. Billed as an everyday life interiors magazine. Everyday, that is, if your life is a little messy, but way cool. Published out of Milan and Barcelona for indie design movement followers.  http://www.apartamentomagazine.com/current.html

Apartmenttherapy.com. Cozy casa in Norfolk, VA. You’ll also see great homes in NY, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, and Boston. http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/house-tours/house-tour-berto-marys-cozy-casa-norfolk-virginia-082280 

Atticmag.com. Virginia Farmhouse Modern.  Also check out “10 Great Historic Homes.” http://www.atticmag.com/2009/06/house-tour-virginia-farmhouse-modern

Author Alice Randall’s charming Nashville home. Randall tells us why she bought the house, what her furniture means to her, and how it influences her work. http://www.alicerandall.com/

Curbed.com. Luxury homes for sale in New York, the Hamptons, San Francisco, Los Angeles, with home photos and details, real estate gossip, and news. http://ny.curbed.com/

Dickinson, Emerson, Wharton, Twain… A guide to the real author’s homes listed (or not) in the fictional memoir An Arsonist’s Guide to Writer’s Home in New England.   http://arsonistsguide.com/homes.html

Freshome.com. Devoted to interior design and architecture.  http://freshome.com/

Home & Design. The magazine of architecture and fine interiors in the Baltimore and Washington area. http://www.homeanddesign.com

Homebodies. Blog by interior/design writer Liz Arnold covering homes she visits, showing how people really live, not all glossed up, and sometimes on the wrong side of the pergola. http://lizarnold.blogspot.com

Off the Map. Backyard Paradises of artists from around the globe. Visit the works of ten untrained, visionary artists who have transformed their part of the world in rare and startling ways. http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/offthemap

Small Living Journal. The project of nine writers actively involved in living simply share photos of their homes and their personal journeys in smaller living. http://smalllivingjournal.com/about/

The Selby Is in Your Place. Todd Selby’s project offers an insider’s view of creative individuals in their personal spaces with an artist’s eye for detail. The Selby began in June 2008 as a website where Todd posted photo shoots he did of his friends in their homes. http://www.theselby.com/

The Washington Post Home & Garden section. Local home and gardening trends, advice, and information. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artsandliving/homeandgarden/

Trendir.com. Modern house design and trends. http://www.trendir.com/house-design/

Washington Home & Garden magazine. Covering a variety of home and garden topics with a focus on the DC area. http://www.whgmag.com/

Chicken Point Cabin designed by architect Tom Kunig, who discussed this and other work at the National Building Museum in Washington.

2010 Design House in Chevy Chase, MD.

 The pool at the Design House with larger-than-life heat lamps.