ON THE BLOCK

Beach Baby


People complain about the things we DON'T have in Lexington all the time, but I love this city and I am proud and grateful for what we do have: Keeneland, tree-lined streets, winding country roads, good music, good people, fine dining and coffee shops, manageable traffic, colorful boutiques, Woodland Park, and my friends, who are among the best in the world.

The only thing I wish we had (which we never will) is a beach. We can work on urban in-fill and getting a Neiman Marcus but barring some sort of natural disaster or high-speed global warming, I just don't imagine we can create a coast in Kentucky.

We did have that beach-like area known as Boonesboro Beach until the late 80s but the high amounts of human and animal fecal matter in the water forced its closure. They re-check it periodically. The most recent check found that indeed the levels were still too high and that our only "beach" will remain closed.

On the days when I am feeling a little down, I think that if I could just walk on the (real, complete with ocean but lacking fecal matter) beach for about an hour, everything would be fine. There is something about staring at the water that calms me down and makes me feel good.

None are on the scale of say, the ocean, but I spent Sunday stumbling on bodies of water that I never knew existed right here in Fayette County. My husband and I were driving around trying to get our one-year-old to fall asleep (I know not being able to get my kid to take a nap without a vehicle makes me a bad parent but everyone I know does it and anyone who says she doesn't lies like a dog).

We were aimlessly touring Lakewood Drive, post-Mexican brunch (the kid screamed on, but I was getting drowsy), when we saw the glimmer of water behind a house on Lakewood. We drove around the block and as we came back onto Fielden, we had a fabulous view of a three or four-acre pond surrounded by about eight houses.

The next day I said to my friend Jill, "Did you know there is a lake back behind Lakewood?" Evidently she did.

Still trying to impress someone, I told Cara and Aimee. They both knew. "Uh, I think that's why it's called Lakewood," said Aimee.

Seeing the lake on Lakewood reminded me that I had seen an advertisement for an open house that featured an acre lot and a house on a lake in town. I called the realtor who arranged for me to see 965 Warrenton Circle, which is just off of Chinoe Road past Alumni, certainly what I would call in town.

The twelve-year-old two-story house sits on a quiet court at the end of a long driveway and does indeed look out over an acre-pond that it shares with two other houses. (Each owns one third of the pond.)

The simple, straightforward house has but one flourish - Mediterranean-style tile floors in the entry hall. Perhaps the tile is to remind visitors that they are in the presence of a body of water, or perhaps it is merely to bring a splash of personality to what is a functional, but not terribly exciting, house.

The house fronts to the water but its rooms open to the back so there would be little opportunity to gaze at the water from inside. The present owners overcame this poor siting that allowed them little chance to glimpse a view of the water by building a deck that goes across the back of the house and provides a seating area with a private yet unobstructed view from the side of the house.

I can't say for sure but I imagine that staring at that little pond might just calm a person down long enough to stop worrying about what we don't have in order to begin to see what we do have - such as tiny bodies of water littering the landscape.

Stats

965 Warrenton Circle

$389,000

4 bedrooms, 2.5 baths

5000 square feet

Contact Skipper Folk 913-3410

If you have a unique or interesting house for sale contact Lissa Sims at lsims@aceweekly.com.


 
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