It was 35 years ago when Ann and Tom Atkinson first laid eyes on the old farmhouse Victorian in Los Gatos. Almost a century old at the time, it had been home to numerous families over the decades and for a time was a boarding house. It needed a lot of work.

But this couple had vision and when they walked in, they said to each other quite simply, "Yep, this is it."

Their parents, on the other hand, "thought we were crazy," Ann said.

The house was built in 1886 on two-and-a-half acres by Grace and Levi Kimball and is considered bracketed farmhouse style. The entryhall is what first captivated the Atkinsons. The staircase is a 180-degree turned balustrade.

Over the past four decades, which included the devastating 1989 earthquake, the couple has lovingly restored and updated the gracious home. They remodeled the kitchen and family room and, when a new foundation was added after the earthquake, built a master suite above the family room.

"We call it 'Suck-A-Buck Manor,'" Ann said. "But I love this place."

The couple opened their house to more than a dozen decorators to transform the house into Christmas splendor for the Summit League Home for the Holidays tour in early December. (Here are the two other houses from the home tour, a turn-of-the-last century Craftsman and a contemporary French Chateau.)

Holiday Designers

Front Porch — Kelly Loughran, The Garden's Consultant, Los Altos

Entry, Downstairs office and Staircase — Nancy Keil, Fleur Fine Gifts & Interiors, Aptos

Dining Room — Brian Neel, Tiffany and Co., Santa Clara, and Anne Patrick, Flowers Ltd.

Master Bath — Gigi Hardy, Tapis Rouge Design, Boulder Creek

Master Bedroom — Dianne Van Voorhis, Design & Interiors, Los Gatos

Upstairs Bath — Lynne Johnson, Petale, Los Gatos

Children's Bedroom — Coleen Hickey, Saffron and Genevieve, Santa Cruz

Upstairs Office — Jan Corrie and Lorri Kagan, Collaborative Design, San Jose

Intimate Weekend Retreat — Stacey Costello Design, Scotts Valley

Living Room/Sitting Room — Patricia McDonald, Marcia Moore & Monica McAllister, McDonald & Moore Ltd, San Jose

Kitchen — Ann Timm Interior Design, Pescadero

Family Room — Judy Carollo, Presentation Designs, Los Gatos

Back Porch — Flowers by Jose Ibarra, San Jose

Laundry Room — Linda Arietta, Country Essences Flowers, Watsonville

Here's the complete slideshow:

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 1:40 am and is filed under House Tours, Julia, Peek of the Week, Victorian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.