EASTPORT, Maine — When John and Christina Smith bought their house at 28 Washington St., it was quite the fixer-upper.
“This house was a real challenge. The front wall was falling into the street,” said John Smith, adding that the water pipes had burst and the house suffered from a number of other maladies.
Now, just a little more than a year after they bought it, the house will be one of eight featured in the Eastport Area Chamber of Commerce’s Christmas House Tour 1-5 p.m. Dec. 5 and 6.
“It’s a self-guided tour,” said chamber Executive Director Meg Keay. “We have program booklets complete with a map.”
All of the homes in the tour are part of Eastport’s downtown and are located on Washington and Water streets, she said.
The idea for the tour, now in its sixth year, came from Keay, who lives in a renovated 1830s house.
“I love to decorate and I thought, ‘Wow, why don’t we get a bunch of homes decorated and sell tickets to see them?’” she said.
At first the chamber recruited only older homes for the tour. However, the chamber is now including a variety.
“Not everybody goes for the historic aspect,” Keay said. “A lot of people go to see the decorations.
“This year we have a beautiful new home that people are curious about,” she said.
People also are curious about John and Christina Smith’s house, referred to in the program as the “Newcomb house” after the original builder, John Newcomb, who came to Eastport in 1792.
When Keay stopped by to see how the Smiths’ renovations were going, she asked the couple if they were interested in being a part of the tour, she said.
“We talked about it and said, ‘You know what? That might be fun,’” said John Smith, adding he and his wife had gone on the tour for several years but never participated as hosts.
John and Christina Smith, who are originally from California, moved to Eastport in 2010. They started a company, Beyond Renovations, to restore old and abandoned homes, renovated several in Eastport, and sold them or rented them out. They decided to keep the one that will be in the tour because the three-story building with 17 rooms is big enough for Christina Smith’s art studio and John Smith’s library and bookstore.
Renovations took about a year to complete. Decorating was considerably easier, requiring the two of them to work only about 10 hours each, Smith said.
Decorations include four full-sized, decorated Christmas trees, several smaller table-top trees and numerous wreaths. All five fireplaces in the house have stockings hung from them, he said.
Also among the decorations is a Santa’s village displayed on an upright piano from the late 1800s.
“I made all the structures, and [Christina] came back and painted all the structures. And we purchased all the little figurines,” Smith said.
The couple hopes people will enjoy seeing their home and are looking forward to being hosts, Smith said.
Tickets to see all eight homes are $15 per person. A set of three tickets can be purchased for $40, or six or more tickets can be bought for $12 each, said Keay. They are available at Raye’s Mustard Mill, The Commons or Port O’ Call, all in Eastport, or by calling 853-0800.
Proceeds will go toward the chamber’s new welcome center.