SANTA ROSA VALLEY : Tour of Homes to Benefit Charity

About 500 strangers are expected to nose around Laura Linsday’s expansive Santa Rosa Valley home on Sunday afternoon.

But the visitors are not prospective house buyers or wedding guests from the in-laws’ list.

Instead, the curious crowds who roam through Linsday’s home and those of five other Santa Rosa Valley residents will be indirect donors to charity as they participate in the Meadowlark Service League’s 14th annual home tour.

The tour, which will run from 1 to 5 p.m. and cost $15 per person, is expected to raise about $10,000 for several local charities, said Char Roberson, who is organizing the home tour for the league.

Roberson said people have a variety of reasons for paying to get inside other people’s houses.

“I think it’s curiosity,” she said.

In addition, many people are looking for architectural design ideas and decorating schemes, she said.

Sometimes the visitors don’t like what they see and criticize a color scheme, a piece of furniture or some other feature of a home, Roberson said. As a result, the league encourages homeowners to arrange to be away from their houses during the tour, Roberson said.

“It protects everybody,” she said.

Linsday said her husband and two children will spend Sunday afternoon at the mall and a movie while she will take a peek inside the other houses on the tour.

She said she’s not worried about theft or damage to her 5,200-square-foot, four-bedroom home because at least five league members will be stationed throughout the house as guards.

“I’m mainly doing it because of the charitable cause,” said the 43-year-old homemaker. But the planned tour also has the benefit of forcing her to finish her holiday decorating early, she said.

For tickets to the Meadowlark tour, call Sue Reynolds at 388-7221.