SNOHOMISH — Even their laundry room is lit up for the holiday season.
Loura and Chuck Vernosky have a Christmas decorating Jones, and people taking the annual Snohomish Christmas Parlor Tour will reap the benefits of this couple’s hard work and fabulous display.
The tour, a fundraiser for the Snohomish Historical Society, is Sunday afternoon in various neighborhoods of the city, primarily downtown.
Tickets include admission to seven private homes as well as the historical society’s Blackman House Museum and the historic Ferguson Cottage, the first Snohomish home of city founder E.C. Ferguson.
Back to the Vernosky laundry room. The dominant color here is Tiffany blue. The small silver Christmas tree in the room matches the color scheme.
Actually, silver, glass, white and aqua blue are the prime decorating colors throughout the house.
The entry hall, the dining room, the kitchen, the parlor and a special room that memorializes King Richard III (“we don’t believe he was the villain”) will be open to tourists.
The theme throughout is francophilia and anglophilia.
The couple’s trip to England and France a few years ago enhanced their love of all things French and English.
Some of what you will see: chandeliers, fleur de lis architectural elements, peacock feathers, Victorian furniture, animals and birds — both live and decorative. You’ll get to meet Charlie the macaw, Lucy the cockatoo and Poppett the parrotlet.
The Vernoskys’ North Ridge neighborhood overlooks the Snohomish River valley looking east to the Cascades.
They bought their early-1970s-era house a few years ago and have spent most of that time refurbishing and remodeling. In fact, some parts of the kitchen are not yet fully tiled.
Chuck, 55, fishes crab and cod out of Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and works on their house in between fisheries.
Fishing is what got him out to the Northwest 35 years ago.
“We grew up in white-trash central Florida,” Chuck said. “So you can imagine how much we love Washington state.”
He and Loura lived on San Juan Island and at Storm Lake before moving to Snohomish more than a year ago.
Their house had not been occupied for a while and needed to be gutted, and the gold, duct-taped wall-to-wall carpet yanked from the floor.
“We’ve been married nearly 27 years, and in that time we have collected a lot of Christmas decorations. We decorate around Thanksgiving every year — though a little earlier this year — and sometimes we leave it all up through January. We have a garage full of totes to protect it all.”
Loura, the eyes-peeled for deals and cool stuff, artistic part of the duo, is balanced by Chuck’s work ethic and pure love of decorating for Christmas.
“Loura has the wild ideas, but I just keep to a tradition that was started by my dad,” he said. “We just make a big deal of decorating. We have a good time doing things together. Christmas is definitely our favorite time of year.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @galefiege.
If you go
Snohomish Christmas Parlor Tour is noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 13. Start at the Blackman House Museum, 118 Ave. B, Snohomish, beginning at 11 a.m., where coffee, tea and treats will be served. Before Sunday, tickets also will be available at McDaniel’s the Do-It Center, Joyworks and Annie’s. Prices are $15 for general admission and $12 for seniors and children. More information is at www.snohomishhistoricalsociety.org.
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