Remodeling

From Firehouse to Family House

An unexpected transformation turns this neighborhood firehouse into a fabulous family home.

Photo: Southern Accents, Erik Kvalsvik

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Parisian Apartment in Kentucky

Standing on the second floor of the 1873 firehouse -- a For Sale sign hung out front -- Catherine Willett peered through a trio of French windows at an ornate Catholic church across the street, and exclaimed, "This is my Paris apartment!"

No matter that the brick building once housed firemen and their horses, or that it mingles with homes and warehouses in an edgy downtown Louisville neighborhood called Butchertown. Or that the muddy brown Ohio River and not the Seine burbles past the city. Catherine and her longtime friend, designer Susan Moloney, shared a vision and turned an unlikely urban building into a cozy home for Catherine, her husband, and their college-aged sons.