Couple Eager to Show Their Historical Home

Bob and Robyn Tunstall bought their 100-year-old home in Old Towne Orange three years ago despite its crumbling chimney, leaky roof and a kitchen and bathroom literally pulling away from the house.

The restoration work they did on their Queen Anne Victorian home makes it a showcase for some 1,000 visitors expected at this weekend’s Pieces of the Past home tour, a biennial fund-raiser put on by the Old Towne Preservation Assn.

Visitors can tour eight vintage homes, a church and a Victorian bridal museum with more than 30 wedding gowns that date back to 1835. The tour runs from 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The Tunstalls said they are thrilled to show off their pride and joy on North Grand Avenue.

“It will be fun for us,” said Bob Tunstall, an executive assistant to Orange County Supervisor Cynthia Coad. “We are really into our community and we want to show it and enjoy it.”

The couple purchased the 2,200-square-foot house, painted ivory with blue trim, after it was repossessed in 1996.

“Bob and I knew we wanted to come back to Old Towne,” said Robyn Tunstall, who lived down the street from the house before they married. “We loved Old Towne and I knew the house because I had lived here.”

The renovation also included new plumbing and new heating and electrical systems. They used contractors and handled much of the smaller repairs themselves.

The kitchen and the bathroom were redone and extended by 500 square feet, the ornate 12-foot-high rooms were painted, the burnt orange carpet was pulled to reveal the original wood floors and moldings. Doors and leaded glass windows were preserved.

Bricks from the crumbling chimney were used to pave the walkways in the front and back of the house.

“It’s something we have enjoyed doing and sharing it together,” said Robyn, a seventh-grade teacher at Santiago Charter School in Orange. “I don’t think we will ever be finished.”

The home tour is an association fund-raiser aimed at preserving Old Towne Orange as a historic district. Tickets for the tour are $12 in advance at City Hall, 300 E. Chapman Avenue, and $15 on the days of the event.

“A lot of people want to come to Old Towne because of nostalgia because of the old houses and porches,” said Jacky Wenglein, the tour’s chairwoman. “It’s like looking at a piece of the past.”