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flection, “hopefully, it will be me.”
He replaced the old ceiling with a steeper-pitched one with dark wood and beams that replicate the wood floor, which he purposely didn’t stain or sand so it’s every bit the original. Modern 21st century spot lighting is plugged into the 19th century-feeling ceiling.
In fact, he says, “I can see this as the place where I do much of my living. I love the simplicity of this house. I designed it, so it’s everything I’d want in a cabin somewhere, a mountain cabin. I don’t have time to have a mountain cabin, so I kind of built the mountain cabin on my own.
he room in the cottage that seems the most personal is the bedroom he built upstairs when he replaced the attic. He retained the original stairs, so old that you can practically see every indentation from every footstep over 160 years.
“I had the dream of lying here, watching TV, which will probably never happen,” he says. “But somebody will.” And then, on re-
He says he shuts the big house down right after Christmas and retreats to the cabin for the winter. It’s easier and cheaper to heat, and less work.
“I have six fireplaces in the main house, but they’re not big stone ones like in here.”
TOPS LOUISVILLE | april 2017 43