HGTV Dream House in Sonoma nearing date of unveiling

The Home and Garden Channel house located on Fifth Street East. Photo by Ryan Lely.

Come January, Sonoma will be ground zero for a different kind of tourist crowd – HGTV fans who have come to check out the cable TV station’s 2009 Dream House, which will be given in February to one lucky viewer.
Contractors and landscapers are in the final stages of building that house in Armstrong Estates, a custom Victorian farmhouse that was conceived and designed just four months ago by Sonoma developer/vintner Steve Ledson and HGTV’s Jack Thomasson.
Located on Fifth Street East near Patten Street, the 3,600-square-foot home keeps the living and entertaining areas on the first floor, with three bedroom areas on the second floor. A wrap-around front porch leads around the formal living and dining rooms to the study, which has a private entry. The rest of the ground floor space is designed for casual entertaining, with a flow-through family room, kitchen and eating area that feeds out to the covered rear porch and an outdoor kitchen.
Interior views of the property will not be posted on HGTV’s Web site until Dec. 15, although looky-loos have already begun to stream past the site. While crews are working inside, visitors are allowed to steal peeks at the floor plan, as long as they stand on a doormat that has been placed just inside the front door.
Neighbors in the exclusive eastside development have also expressed interest in the home, including one group that Ledson overheard as they walked past. “They said, ‘Actually, it’s quite nice. It fits right into the neighborhood.’ ”
Ledson also feels sure Sonoma residents will benefit from the national publicity during the slow, off-season months.  “Thousands of people will come to see it in January and February, and they’ll shop, eat and stay here,” he said.
Ledson has also gotten permission to raise money for his family’s Harmony Foundation by leading tours through the house.
The collaboration began last spring when Thomasson came to town seeking a location for the show’s annual Dream House promotion. He found a suitable half-acre lot in Armstrong Estates, a Ledson development five blocks east of the Plaza, then requested a design “that looked like it had been here awhile even though it was new.”
After touring Sonoma together for inspiration, Ledson drew up a sketch that Thomasson liked, and asked an associate to expedite plans. “Within 48 hours we had a plan, and within a week we had a signed contract,” Ledson said. “HGTV paid me to build a home that will be worth well over $2 million.”
Watch for more details at www.hgtv.com/hgtv/dream_home, and mark your calendars for Jan. 1, when HGTV will air an hour-long special about the home. Meanwhile, floor plans, photographs and videos of the construction site are available on the Web site.