The Much Awaited Virtual Tour

The time has come for my oft made promises to be kept. Before we get started, here is the story of how we got this massive beast of a flat: 

We wanted to live downtown, close to the University of Louisville for college ministry for our church and so that we would be closer to Beth’s job downtown. We drove around looking for a place in Old Louisville for about a month and a half, trying to find an apartment that had a living area large enough for Bible study and Monday night dinners, but to no avail.

Finally, I saw a “For Rent” sign and called, only to hear about a 2400 sq. foot penthouse that was completely out of our price range. Well, the guy was nice and said we could come check it out – even if we new we couldn’t afford it- and when we did we absolutely fell in love with it.

We retreated to our old apartment and tried to crunch the numbers and make it work.

Unfortunately, there was just no way. But when I called our landlord to give him the sad news, he told me that he had to rent the flat either to Beth and I or to five college dudes. Since he new we would take better care of it he offered to cut the rent by a couple hundred dollars if we would commit to a 24 month contract.

Easiest decision of my life (well, other than asking Beth to marry me).

Check out the new pad…

Take a sec to orient yourself with the layout of our place. The tour starts at the spiral staircase and then goes to the great room before crossing the hall to the guest bedroom before following the rest of the tour by walking down the hall door by door.

Enjoy!

Virtual Tour: First Stop

This is the spiral staircase.

There are two ways into our place, this staircase in the front and the back staircase. When we moved in we brought all the small stuff up the back stairs, but they are too narrow for the bug furniture.

Translation: All of the big stuff had to come up the front stairs to the third floor and then be lifted manually from the third floor up to the fourth floor. Fortunately we have some incredible friends with massive muscles that helped us out with this huge project.

Virtual Tour: Second Stop

The Great Hall

 

When you come to the top of the stars, this huge hall welcomes you to our home with a warm, art gallery, kinda vibe. The red hardwood floors and the golden walls are amazing.

 

 

We have been kicking around some ideas for how to further the decoration scheme in the hall…we have considered finding some long church pews for the wall or maybe purchasing a plastic bowling kit and starting a bowling league…leave a comment if you have an idea for us.

Virtual Tour: Third Stop

The Great Room!!!

The Living Area

This is where Bible studies go down on Wednesday nights and we gather with joy and trepidation to see Jack Bauer’s great adventures on 24 every Monday night.

 

The reading nook

 

 

This is where Monday Night Dinners happen.

On any given Monday there could be as many as 21 people gathered around this table and a couple of card tables to scarf down Beth’s amazing cooking.

 

Virtual Tour: Fourth Stop

The Reading Room/ Guest Bedroom

Once known as the “purple room” we have now painted over the lilac walls and made this into a place to read or, when visitors show up on the doorstep, to set up the queen sized super comfortable airbed and make it the guest room.

Virtual Tour: Fifth Stop

Guest Bathroom

This room is a special room. For some reason the previous owner decided to paint it a glossy fecal brown which lead to the perfectly appropriate name of the “crap cave.” The toilet is around the corner on the left in a little nook and the tub is behind the wall next to the sink.

Virtual Tour: Sixth Stop

The Master Bedroom

 

View from the Hallway

 

Notice, if you will, the super incredible chandelier light fixture that, true to its name, is a light fixture though it is a bit towards the “wimpy” side of the chandelier spectrum. We love it.

Who would ever imagine that a king sized bed would look anything other than flippin’ huge in a bedroom?You might notice the gold stencil on the walls…that was a little surprise left by the previous owner…a man form the Philippines. At first, we were not so excited but it has grown on us and we really dig it now.

Virtual Tour: Seventh Stop

To the Kitchen!!!

Through the doorway off the great hall

The entry way into the kitchen through a little hall that I call the breakfast room – for no particular reason.

The Breakfast Room

The view of the kitchen as you pass by the back stairs and into the kitchen

…one of these days there will be a little table for two under the photos on the wall.

This is the place where Beth practices her incredible cooking skills.

One of our favorite things about the kitchen, beside the fact that it is awesomely huge with plenty of room for fellowship, festivities, and food preparation, is that the counter tops are actually a dark stained butchers block.

Notice also the pantry on the right, also known as our second overflow guest bedroom. Don’t worry, there is plenty of room if you come and visit us and end up in the pantry.

Virtual Tour: Final Stop

This is Lee’s study. His sactuary of books.

To the right of the photo is the fireplace, which has been blocked off, the color was a bit distorted by the program I used to stitch the panoramic pictures.

On the right corner of my desk is my Christmas present from Beth. It is a book embosser (it puts my “official stamp” into the page) that Beth got from a company who reconditions embossers from the mid 1800s. Beth rocks!

This is the other view of my study

If you look through the door out of the study you will see boxes filled with books from the 1800s and early 1900s. I guy I know is remodeling a church in West Louisville and the church decided to disperse their library…and I got first dibs.

Most of the goodies are old children’s books (Treasure Island, Little Women, Prince and the Pauper, etc.) and classic literature (Ivanhoe, Shakespeare, etc).

Virtual Tour: Adios!!!

Thanks for taking the time to take our virtual tour.

Feel free to drop by for a visit any time!!!