Holiday Home Tour
Byrds’
home to be featured
on Crestwood Civic Club tour
Blend
of old, new construction
featured on holiday tour
By
Helen E. McKinney
Contributing Writer
(November 2008) – After their third attempt
at building a home, Kim and Brent Byrd have found one they want to keep
for a long time. They’ve put their own unique twist on an old plantation-style
home that perfectly fits their lifestyle and is one of four on this
year’s Crestwood Civic Club Holiday Home Tour and Luncheon.
“Our home looks best at Christmas,” said Brent Byrd of his
approximately 5,000-square-foot home. His wife does most of the holiday
adorning, which consists of six to eight fully decorated Christmas trees,
plus numerous ornamentations and heirloom touches for the holidays.
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Photo
by Helen E. McKinney Brent
and Kim Byrd say they are eager |
“We have a classic, traditional home,” said
Kim Byrd. “It was made for Christmas.”
The couple’s home was built in 2001. They purchased house plans
from North Carolina designer William Poole, making modifications to
“make it fit our family,” said Kim.
Poole designs a lot of large homes, many of them reminiscent of the
antebellum era. The Byrds’ home is modeled after Melrose Plantation
in Natchez, Miss. It is a circa 1849 plantation home that sits on the
Mississippi River.
“We’ve been married 22 years and this is our dream home,”
said Brent, a United Parcel Service pilot. The Greek Revival style home
is very detailed, with special recessed built-ins in the walls to house
collections, and many arches and columns giving it a grand appearance.
The front porch is flanked by four white columns, an architectural element
Poole uses frequently.
The Byrds were asked to be a part of this year’s Crestwood Civic
Club’s annual Holiday Home Tour and Luncheon from 10 a.m. to 2
p.m. Friday, Nov. 21. Seating times for the luncheon are 11 a.m. or
12:30 p.m. The tour will consist of three homes and a community estate.
Other homes on the tour belong to Claudia and Clayton Stoess, Gina Brunetti
and Bill Johnson, and the Apple Patch Experience facility. This latter
tour site is leased by Apple Patch and is the former Wetlands Health
Spa at Foxhollow Farm.
“The old house they are in is an example of an Oldham County home
and farm developed in the early 20th century,” said tour organizer
and Crestwood Civic Club member Carla Jones.
The Stoess home is a Cape Cod, built around 1922 by John E. Abbott.
The Stoesses expanded the home when they purchased the nine-acre property
in 1987. The property contains tennis courts, a swimming pool and is
the perfect venue for outdoor gatherings of any type.
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Photo
by Helen E. McKinney The
Byrd family built their 5,000 |
The Brunetti-Johnson home is across the street from the
Byrd home. The interior can be described as “elegant metropolitan”
and is a combination of collections from traveling and living in five
different houses. Nashville, Tenn., interior designer Cara Hagerty-Brock
is responsible for pulling it together into a cohesive, livable format.
Jones said she thinks patrons enjoy historic homes more, but “there
are so many beautiful new homes in Oldham County, it is a shame not
to use them.” She said people take the tours “to enjoy lunch,
get Christmas decorating ideas, see homes of other people and hear the
history of the houses if it is available.”
The Byrds have attended many home tours over the years such as Homearama
and home tours in Madison, Indiana, garnering ideas for when they would
some day participate in one. Being part of a tour is a way to pay back
what they had experienced from other tours, said Kim.
“Homes reflect your personality,” she said. Their present
home has evolved through the process of building two previous homes,
and many family heirloom pieces were passed down from generation to
generation to give it that extra special touch. Such items “give
homes character,” said Kim.
The Byrds moved to Oldham County in 2001 from Columbus, Ohio. Kim is
originally from Ohio, while Brent is from an area south of Dallas. Kim
was reared in the city and always envisioned buying an old house and
redoing it. Brent, who grew up in the country, likes old decor but wanted
their home to have a new look.
Their compromise is a new version of an old plantation home that disguises
21st century amenities. The home has four bedrooms and bathrooms, a
library, parlor, great room, dining room, kitchen, a play room for their
twin daughters, a piano room and the family favorite, a nostalgic movie
theatre room on the lower level.
• For more information on the Crestwood Civic Club Annual Holiday Home Tour, contact Carla Jones at (502)-241-8784 or (502)-500-5221.