The Gallery of Homes in Sugar Grove lives up to its name: It is indeed a “gallery,” a home parade with an impressive variety of architectural styles and amenities.
Arrayed here are 13 homes by 11 builders, nestled stunningly in and around a wooded area just outside Sugar Grove, which is west of Aurora in Kane County.
The custom homes, priced from $325,000 to $490,000, have made the most of their terrain. Windows in most of them look smack into a Little Red Riding Hood kind of mature forest. The houses range from 2,800 to 3,800 square feet; although a handful of the 13 will look all too familiar to house hunters (big, pale-brick boxes with two-story entries and not a lot more), the rest are out of the ordinary, a couple of them truly memorable.
Some highlights:
– Benson Development Co. of Sugar Grove has come up with a dandy way to make a home office truly separate from the rest of the this house, called the Piedmont. The room is over the garage, with a separate outside entrance. Inside, it is shut away from kids and household noise, accessible only via a separate stairway.
The space also could mean lots of privacy as living quarters for a grandparent, a nanny or anybody else who wants to be alone.
– The Wellington, by Ed Saloga Builder of Sugar Grove, has one of the more interesting floor plans to show up in a home parade in the last several years. The beamed-ceiling great room is literally the center of the house, and all rooms on the ground floor flow from it, giving the house a distinctly circular flow. The house’s media/game room functions as a kind of upstairs family room.
– The MAK Kenzie, by MAK Homes of Sugar Grove, is a house for lovers of woodwork. The unusual pairing of light and dark woods might not appeal to all tastes, but its sheer wealth is unusual in houses in this bracket.
– Koerting Enterprises of Aurora has created a ranch home, called the Atelier, that feels far roomier than its 2,871 square feet, probably because the entire foyer/family room area has 20-foot ceilings and it segregates the master suite from the secondary bedrooms.
– The Modora, by Burke Building Concepts of Sugar Grove, has a fairly traditional exterior that belies its over-the-top contemporary interior. The two styles can live in harmony.
– The walk-in closet in the master suite of the Sandburg by Dave Peterson Builder of St. Charles looks as if it could accommodate the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
Though the houses in this Gallery are more different than alike, several motifs and features tend to recur, with positive results:
– Two-person showers that lack doors. Walk in and lather up–they’re bigger than some cars.
– Screened porches. With this year’s mosquito plague, these porches get better-looking every day, especially with these homes’ wooded vistas. Several homes have the square, traditional cozy variety, but MAK’s second house in the show, the MAK Allister, has built on a screened gazebo.
– Multiple bathrooms. Several of the houses have four; one of them has six.
– Garage camouflage. Many garages in this group are angled away from their houses’ facades, and though this effort fails to make them invisible, it does improve the overall view. Three-car garages predominate here; the Modora has room for four cars.
– Major wiring. The electrical needs of phones, home computers and entertainment centers have been foreseen. The Juliette, by SeBern, claims to be introducing to the Chicago area an intercom system by NuTone that not only performs the usual functions, but also has a built-in CD-player.
The Gallery of Homes is in the Black Walnut Trails subdivision in Sugar Grove in Kane County. It can be tricky to find: Exit Interstate Highway 88 at Butterfield Road (Illinois Highway 56). Follow Butterfield as it turns south, then west. Turn north on Illinois Route 47, then turn right on Bliss Road. Turn right again on Denny Road and drive to the Black Walnut Trails entrance.
Plan to devote two to three hours to see the houses thoroughly. Tickets are $7 for adults, $6 for seniors, $3 for children age 4 through 12, free for age 3 and under. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday; closed Monday.
For information, call the show’s sponsor, the Home Builders Association of Greater Fox Valley, 708-879-8003.
