Lexington, KY - Paul and Denise Nierzwicki are the type of couple who can find comfort in any setting, whether it's a tight apartment teetering on the 24th floor of a Singaporean residential and commercial complex or a hulking behemoth out in Lexington's Beaumont neighborhood. They can list the pros and cons for any living condition - suburban or urban, ample or sparse -
but why not go ahead and linger on the positive?
In the fall of 2007, the Nierzwickis sold their local franchise restaurant holdings, sold their voluminous, nearly 6,000 square-foot home in Lexington's south side and sold most of the other things they had accumulated over the years - at least, most of the things their daughters didn't want.
"There were only a couple of things we told them they couldn't have -
I didn't let them take the pool table -
and they divvied up everything," Paul said. "The rest of the stuff that was in the house we just auctioned off."
The couple wanted to make the move downtown. After exhausting the numerous available options in the city's core, they became enwrapped with the customized, top-floor condo located in the 500s on Main in which they now live.
Along with an impressive patio space perched on the west side of downtown across from Rupp Arena, the 1,800 square foot unit came equipped with some impressive bells and whistles that the former owner, Robin Schneider (one of the development's building partners) had installed while living there, most prominently the retractable ceiling in the bedroom -
just in case the owners felt like sleeping under the stars with the push of a button.
For the most part, the Nierzwickis liked the unit as it was being sold, including the appliances (and the two-sided fireplace which works in the living room and patio). A redesigned closet space in the bedroom, a project completed by Tapestries, is the only major change they have enacted.
"We probably wouldn't have bought a place right away, but when we walked in here, we said, 'Yeah, this is what we've been looking for,'" Paul said.
Purged of their previous possessions, apart from a few sentimental keepsakes the couple acquired during their extensive travels, the Nierzwickis had a clean palette in which to work and meld into their own.
For all of the furnishings and decorations, they tapped their friends, owners of Olde World Interiors, Jamie Montgomery and Steven Monnig, who were able o track down some impressive pieces - including an ornate 200 lbs. iron chandelier - for the home. "Jamie and Steven acted as our interior designers as well," Paul said. "They had as much fun with it as we did. They helped us tremendously. What you see is what we bought."
The result is a dynamic juxtaposition between the contemporary and modern design often associated with urban living and the grandiose ornamentation akin to lavish yesteryear dÈcor - it's an interesting marriage of contrasting sentiments that works as harmoniously as the Nierzwickis' amenable attitude toward the space in which they need to live.