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The Problem: Where to begin with this 1870s Italianate Victorian in San Jose’s College Park neighborhood? No foundation, only redwood sills on dirt. Pigeons in the attic. Plaster crumbling off the walls. Holes in the roof. Abandoned for five years. And, on a midnight tour by the new owner, a homeless man sleeping against the wall.

Neighbors were so thrilled to hear that Gail and James Beard planned to rescue the house,  they arranged a welcome party on the front patch of dirt with a banquet table of appetizers and wine.  The year was 1997 and the Beards had a toddler son and a baby daughter on the way. Without a foundation, the couple had to pay cash for the house. James’s boss at the time, Bobby Greenberg from Prism Technologies, believed in the Beards and believed in the house and gave the young couple a loan.

The Solution: When James first saw the house, it reminded him of his grandmother’s house in Kentucky. “I swear to God it has the same banister I slid down a thousand times as a kid,” he said.

It took two years of work _ about one year building the foundation _ before the Beard family could move in in 1999. They hired George Serpa, a general contractor and “a fantastic carpenter, which is just what this house needed,” James said. The siding was made of actual two-by-fours from old growth redwoods that termites hadn’t touched. The paint was stripped, the extensive woodwork repaired, the gutters and roof replaced and the disintegrating plaster pulled out and replaced with drywall. The Beards changed little of the original floor plan, only removing a wall between the kitchen and butler’s pantry and adding an upstairs bathroom. They built a period garage on the property and, without much of a backyard, added a wrought iron fence around the front for the kids to play. To this day, neighbors still thank them. And you can see why.

When David and Marti Martz bought the 1912 “Four-square” house in San Jose’s Rose Garden neighborhood, the backyard “was a disaster,” Marti said. Concrete covered the entire area between the house and the garage and the pool was surrounded by an eight-foot tall cinder block wall. The landscape was dead.

“Our family looked at us and said, ‘Thank God you’re young.’”

And so in late 2004, they began a major project to bring back the grandeur of this estate lot. The gardens will be the setting of an elegant luncheon and tea this weekend (Oct. 18-19) as part of the Autumn in the Rose Garden Homes Tour. Three other homes will also be showcased.

Marti wanted the space to be “park-like” and simple and elegant for entertaining. She ripped out the concrete and planted grass and a flower and vegetable garden. What once had been a bank of garage doors facing the house got a new life with windows the couple salvaged from an exterior porch that once had been enclosed. Concrete walking stones were poured leading up to a graceful fountain.

To make the sprawling grounds more intimate, San Jose interior designer Paul Rokovich is taking his talents for home decor into the garden. With sustantial furnishings provided by Smith and Hawkin, he is placing sofas, lounges and ottomans around the pool and garden for the home tour. He is bringing in flowers and plants and banana trees and wrought iron trellises.

The Martzes also restored the house to nearly original condition. Their main modification was converting the rear laundry porch, with its row of windows, into an informal eating area. Now the family can enjoy their new garden over breakfast.

When: Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 18-19, 2008. 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Tour begins at 1262 University Ave, San Jose
Tickets: $30 in advance. $35 at the door. Lunch tickets, $13.
Benefiting St. Martin of Tours School, San Jose.