Join us Friday and Saturday at Chatham Towne

If you're like me, you really enjoy Christmas and holiday season. This year, we have a couple of surprises for Boise.

For starters, we'll be holding a holiday boutique featuring holiday and everyday home decor, gourmet foods, ornaments, spa products and jewelry, all produced by local artists. The boutique will be held from noon to 6 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday at Chatham Towne. The Pie House will be offering free homemade pie and warm holiday drinks.

More importantly, Chatham Towne is a bold stylistic statement in the Boise market. We have modeled Chatham Towne on classic New England design principles, much like the kinds of homes seen in a Pottery Barn catalog. In fact, we didn't stop there - the Pottery Barn has accepted our inviation to furnish the model homes. If you've ever looked at a Pottery Barn catalog and wondered if you could live in a home like that, well, now you can.

Creating the Pottery Barn vibe is a matter of re-arranging details, not necessarily doing anything more expensively, and townhomes are priced competitively at $179,000 and $159,000 for three- and two-bedroom units. It consists of 15, two- and three-bedroom townhomes at the northeast corner of Meadowlark Drive and Five Mile in Boise.

Builders in this area tend to be pretty conservative and I'll admit the black doors took a little getting used to. Stylistic touches include built-in dining areas with upholstered bench seating and table; wallpapered areas; built-in entertainment center with LCD HDTV; shelving along the tops of the walls; trim; and beadboard paneling. There will be two model homes staged with Pottery Barn furniture. One model will have mint colored walls with white trim and black doors and white cabinets; the other model will have black cabinets and chrome hardware.

Designers, artists or related companies sometimes partner with or even design housing developments. More recently, Thomas Kincaid, the famous "Painter of Light," lent his name to a Northern California development. Chatham Towne homes carry the standard three-year warranty on his homes, longer than any other builder in the area.

I invite you to visit Chatham Towne this Friday and Saturday. At the very least, you'll get a jump on Christmas shopping and you might find a great place to live.