Dream House | The Pauls’ spectacular Reading penthouse
With the passage of many years, this architectural column has paraded predominantly stand-alone houses, and, on the rare occasion, fittingly featured an apartment in a complex. Allow me to introduce, once again, another residence beyond compare that meets and exceeds the desired standard of luxury living in this shelter category.
A penthouse apartment with not one, as you are accustomed to seeing, but two separate floors of commodious living space. The living and dining area has you pleasantly dwarfed by sky-high, 24 feet, double-floor height ceilings, with complete floor-to-ceiling glass windows, through which the Montego Freeport and sea come rushing right in. The kitchen, in tandem with its own Corian, solid-surface dining counter, is wall-tiled in bluish tones. A built-in bar station serves up hot and cold beverages and a powder room sits close by. The laundry follows with automated washer and dryer units.
The upper floor (partly overlooking downstairs) receives us fervidly with a lounge/games area, leading to three en suite bedrooms. The primary bedroom suite, with sitting area, will most assuredly blow your mind with its very own infinity plunge pool, hanging partly off its private balcony, four floors up in the air. An engineering marvel of no mean achievement! The primary bedroom suite also provokes delight with uncustomary padded walls, with its bathroom exposing his and her Corian solid-surface vanity sinks, with LED lit mirrored walls; a walk-in, seaview shower; soaking tub; bidet; and a walk-in closet.
The 3,200 square-foot interior design of porcelain tiled floors, all-white coloured walls, and contemporary furniture shipped in, is accordant with all the other high-end fixtures and fittings.
We also direct our gaze to separate leisure and lap pools for residents on the grounds below. The building is completely elevated off the ground, to enable car parking under.
The owners are honoured by our presence, as they share their dream place, completed in 2021, with us. Say hello to Vinroy Paul, a deputy fire chief, of Massachusetts USA, and his dear wife, Carlene Green-Paul, an administrative assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This is their home away from home, in Reading, St James.
Both originally from impoverished circumstances here in Jamaica, they are now much richer for the love they have for each other, and this valuable parcel of real estate that they share together.
Barry Rattray is a dream house designer and builder. Email feedback to barryrattray1@hotmail.com and lifestyle@gleanerjm.com.