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You'll get more for your money than advertised on the home builders' Luxury Lifestyle Home Tour, which continues today and Sunday and again next weekend.
Officially, the tour offers nine homes. Unofficially, some stops offer multiple houses. At Stephens Square in Myers Park, for instance, Simonini Builders has four homes opened to tour visitors, not just one. The same is true at Heydon Hall off Park Road.
What's more, Andrew Roby has an eye-catching tour entry that's an easy walk from Stephens Square. Park near Selwyn Avenue and Queens Road and visit them all.
Here's another tour tweak worth passing along: Tickets are available at the door.
The Home Builders Association of Charlotte originally said tickets wouldn't be available at featured houses, just at participating Harris Teeter stores. You'll save money if you buy $10 discount tickets at Harris Teeter, but tickets also are available at the homes for $15, cash or check.
The builders are hosting the Luxury Lifestyle tour in the absence of HomeArama, the annual showcase of new homes that was a victim of the uncertain economy. All the featured homes are priced at more than $1 million.
The homes are clustered in southeast Charlotte and Union County. The fourth Charlotte home is on Forest Drive, just a few blocks from Queens and Selwyn.
Homes in Union are in Highgate and Bromley, near Providence and Hemby roads just south of I-485, and in Skyecroft. To reach the Skyecroft house by New Tradition Homes, take Providence Road south, turn left on N.C. 84 and right on 12 Mile Creek Road.
The tour is self-guided, so you can start anywhere. Hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturdays, 1-6p.m. Sundays. Information, including floor plans, visit
Smoke alarms, ceiling fans
Right before I typed these lines, I fetched the ladder from the garage and flipped the little switch on the top of the ceiling fan in our great room.
Daylight-saving time ends this weekend. That's always a handy reminder to change the batteries in your smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. And it's an opportune time to change the direction your ceiling fans blow, too - since you're hauling in the ladder, anyway.
In the summer, ceiling fans blow down to keep you cool. In the winter, they should blow up to push air across the ceiling and down the walls. The air circulation is good, but cool in November and December - not so much.
Usually, when I remind folks to change their ceiling fans, my wife points out that ours are still blowing air down the back of her neck. Not this time.
Paint for the sales season
You know about fall colors: Those would include the reds and golds of the High Country leafscape, and the orange of harvest pumpkins. Other colors conjure up mental images of winter, spring and summer.
Now comes a palette for the sales season.
The Paint Quality Institute, in its color-trend prediction for next year, offers hues that will help your home appeal to buyers. The institute calls it the "Good Bye" palette.
The colors are especially suitable for the foyer, kitchen and family room in a home you're preparing to sell, said spokeswoman Debbie Zimmer. "The Good Bye palette reflects an assortment of simplistic hues that work across a variety of spaces, creating a welcoming first impression and suitable backdrop for any living area."
The colors include khaki paired with crisp white, mid-toned blues, off white and bisque, and black.
For more about the institute's take on color trends and a dollop of color inspiration: www.paintquality.com.
