Most people would struggle with buying a home without a walk-through, but one couple took a leap of faith when their son found what he hoped would be the perfect house in Lexington for their retirement.
For 30 years, Jeff and Liz Oldham lived in the Owensboro home where they raised their three sons. As these empty nesters neared retirement, they knew they were ready for a big change. Having met in Lexington during college, the couple already had a network of friends here, plus they would be closer to their son, Dr. Jeffrey Oldham, a Lexington anesthesiologist.
“We’d been looking for six months. At our age, we wanted an attached garage, and we wanted everything on one level, but we weren’t finding anything that met our requirements,” said Liz. “Everything we were finding was two stories or had no garage and just wasn’t what we needed.
“She was getting concerned and was starting to say we could accept a detached garage or a two-story — all the things we said we didn’t want when we started,” he continued.
The Oldhams had also wanted a brand new home and weren’t interested in taking on a renovation — criteria that found them looking at homes far from the center of the city, despite the hope they would find a property close to their son’s home in the Lansdowne neighborhood.
“Dad’s mother, when she was older, moved next door. When I would go home I could just hop right over, with generations of family all right there,” Jeffrey explained. “There wasn’t any point in them moving to Lexington if we weren’t close enough to have a similar setup.”
In December 2021, Jeffrey and his realtor, John Scott, found a home on Nantucket Drive in Lansdowne that fit most of their criteria. Needing to make a quick decision, the Oldhams put their trust in Jeffrey and his experience renovating midcentury properties and purchased the home sight unseen.
“We knew we couldn’t move in for about six months, so we weren’t going to sell our house in Owensboro until closer to that time, but interest rates started creeping up, and I got a little concerned. We put ours on the market in mid-January and sold it in two and a half days. Then we had to figure out where to go in between,” Jeff said.
He continued, “The buyers gave us a little extra time, but we had to be out around the end of March. We moved in with Liz’s 95-year-old father in Barbourville – this little town of 3,500 people – and he came down with COVID right before we moved in.”
“We stayed there for four months,” Liz added. “It was perfect. He needed us and we needed a place to stay.”
Jeffrey had already renovated a midcentury home designed by famed Lexington architect Richard Isenhour and knew just who to turn to handle the renovation of his parents’ new home.
“I had already worked with contractors that I trust at Isenhour Inc., when I renovated my own home, and I knew they would do great work on this house” he said.
The 2,400-square-foot home was built in 1964 and had remained relatively untouched throughout the years.
“For the most part, it was ‘as is’ from the ’60s. There were some 1980s updates to the bathrooms and a few other areas, but nothing had been touched in quite a while,” said Jeffrey.
The renovations kept the house very similar structurally, though walls between the dining room, kitchen and family room were opened up to make the home feel more connected. The original laundry room was turned into a small powder room that is easily accessible from the kitchen and family room as well as from the back porch. Beyond that small amount of tear-down and rebuilding, the majority of the changes were cosmetic.
“Most of the house was carpeted, but we were fortunate to find the original hardwood floors underneath in good shape and only needed a few spots pieced in,” said Jeffrey.
Jeffrey hired Kitchen Concepts and Counter Culture Plus to help redesign the kitchen. Layers of linoleum and vinyl floors were pulled up, and hardwood was installed to match the rest of the first-floor living space.
“The only thing in the kitchen that [Liz] was pretty adamant about was wanting an island, but the big island was going to make it too closed in,” said Jeffrey.
Instead, a tall table with a narrower footprint was custom built for the center of the kitchen, with the same wood used on a mantle in the family room and for a built-in shelving and bar area.
Another fun feature bridging the kitchen and family room is a vintage banquette that Jeffrey found and installed, providing a cozy nook to sit and have coffee or a meal for two.
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When it came to furnishing and decorating, Jeffrey chose a neutral color palette for the home, furnishing the space with vintage pieces from local shops Scout, The Domestic, and Subject Matter, as well as the Louisville store No Direction Home.
He also made sure to mix in some family treasures.
“They were packing to get rid of stuff. I said I’d just take some things and found advertisements from 1988 from a family liquor store in Owensboro that we were able to frame and put up,” said Jeff.
A coaster from his parents’ wedding was framed and hung in the bathroom, and a picture of a sheltie collie that his grandmother had painted was hung in the living room – things Liz said she would never have thought to use again but that add special personal touches to the home’s decor.
“When it’s your parents and they’ve done a lot for you and siblings, you try to be really thoughtful with all the big and little things,” said Jeffrey.
Though Jeffrey was the most involved in the project, the Oldhams’ other sons and their partners came in from Louisville and Chicago to help.
“They surprised us,” Liz said. “They were all here and had been working for days, decorating and getting it all ready. When they opened the door, everyone was here, and it was all done. It was pretty cool.”
The Oldhams love their new home. With a yard that is perfect for their dog, Roscoe, to enjoy, convenient access to groceries and other shopping, and neighbors they are getting to know, they are thrilled with how everything turned out.
“I feel like I’m on vacation. I really do,” Liz said. “It’s like, ‘Is this really our home?’ It’s just so nice. It’s so perfect for us, every part of it.”