- Jim Stawniak
- poolside reading: Home is a former library for Randy Brazee, Jonathan Huff, dog Martha, and cat Rengae.
After the neighborhood association's successful struggle to get a new library built in Kirkwood, the old one stood vacant until Jonathan Huff and Randy Brazee purchased it in the fall of 1995. They converted it into a single-family home, ripping up the industrial blue carpet, refinishing the floors, transforming the former city building into a home for entertaining with a bar, pool table, piano, pool and hot tub. Seven years later, they continue to transform their oasis of pleasure, and they remain strong supporters of the revitalization in Kirkwood.
CL: After you moved in here, there was a bit of a struggle with a neighbor who was using her residence as a crack house. What happened with all of that?
Huff: It was a pretty open-and-shut case. After we won our civil lawsuit, we were awarded a settlement of $38,000. But I don't think people know that we never got any of the money. She filed for bankruptcy, and still lives next door with her house and car.
You mean she's still your neighbor?
Huff: Yeah. We don't invite her over for coffee.
Living in a library, I guess you had to find books to fill the shelves.
Huff: A lot of the books we have are out-of-date law books. They're pretty, but useless. We also have some [shelves] we use as china cabinets. It's amazing how fast shelf space can get filled up.
Brazee: There are 130 feet of built-in bookshelves. It's a pain in the ass to dust.
It's not often you see a library with a pool and a hot tub.
Huff: We had to remove a 12-car asphalt parking lot to put in the pool. That was a lot of work. Then we re-did fencing, landscaping -- put in a retaining wall. It didn't look anything like this when we bought it.
And the parties?
Brazee: This place is so set up for entertaining. We can easily have 100 people in here and it not feel crowded. We feel obligated to have parties. It's a shame not to entertain.
Huff: Last spring, we got together with friends and formed KGB entertainment to throw bigger parties. The first one was Swell, a pool party. Then there was High Tide. Last St. Patrick's Day, we took out all of the furniture in the front room and threw a big party called Green. It was like a club with lights, a DJ. They've now become annual parties with hundreds of people.
So what's next for the boys in the library?
Huff: Everything we do, we take it really slow. We renovate until we run out of money and do most of it ourselves.
Brazee: But we have a marble staircase that was salvaged out of an old hotel, and we're planning on putting two more bedrooms and a bath upstairs in [the attic space] and a movie-viewing area. We didn't create this space, we're simply caretakers of it as long as we're here.
SPACE@CREATIVELOAFING.COM
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