An empty-nest couple trades their long-time family home for a Van Aken Boulevard condo.
By Sharon Holbrook
Photos by Kevin Reeves
It’s a word-nerd’s dream: Each day, retirees Kate and Richard Pietro tackle the New York Times online game Spelling Bee in their sitting room, aka “The Beehive.” After maxing out their individual efforts to find every word hidden in the puzzle, they join forces. Is today another day the puzzle masters can collectively reach Queen Bee status? Usually, the answer is yes.
After 35 years in a single-family home on Braemar Road, the Pietros found themselves ready to look for their next home. Their sons, John and Anthony, had grown up in the Braemar house, graduated from Shaker schools, and were living in their own homes. It felt like time to downsize – or at least downsize their home maintenance, if not square footage – and enjoy a new kind of Shaker experience.
They found it in a handsome, light-filled condominium on the fifth floor of The Diplomat on Van Aken Boulevard. Their single-floor, three-bedroom condo combines spacious open floor plan living with cozy, intimate spots to settle in for a little yoga, music-making, and, yes, puzzling.
Making it Theirs
When the Pietros bought their condo in 2021, they appreciated that the floor plan, already modified by a previous owner, offered a pleasing flow among the private and the more open areas of the home. The next step was to add their own updates.
They arranged for a whirlwind month of installing new flooring, updating electrical work, and replacing interior louvered and plain white doors with statement-making walnut doors. They freshened the kitchen with an updated backsplash, new shelving for Kate’s cookbooks, and undercabinet lighting.
At the same time, the Pietros installed track lighting in the hall and living room to add a soft warmth, to visually break up the expansive ceilings, and to highlight their art collection. Two new decorative walnut soffits on the ceiling – one in the entryway nook and one where the bedroom hallways meet the living spaces – add an inviting, lived-in texture to the mostly white space
The art collection turns a transitional hallway space into a place to linger and look. Several of the paintings are Kate’s; some date from her college days as an art major, and some date from just the last few years, when Kate resumed art classes in retirement. Two others, by artist Carol Summers, were a serendipitous discovery. While puttering around Kate’s hometown of Sylvania, Ohio, the Pietros discovered that the drugstore and soda fountain where Kate had worked as a teenager had been turned into an art gallery. There, they discovered Summers’ work and took home two paintings – and a fun anecdote about their provenance.
The Pietros have an abiding interest in Japanese architecture and aesthetics. Kate studies ikebana, the art of Japanese flower arrangement, and her elegant work is regularly on display in the entry nook and hallway table. For his part, Richard painted the interior of the condo’s entry door a deep navy to match the facing entry nook, and he added decorative narrow trim in the Japanese style.
The Japanese influence extends beyond the condo walls: a Japanese stone lantern in The Diplomat’s communal backyard was a contribution from the Pietros’ Braemar Road yard. Being avid gardeners, their Braemar yard was included in the Shaker Historical Society’s garden tour one year, and when planning their move, the Pietros considered relocating somewhere with a lot of outdoor space.
“But I realized that what I really like about living in Shaker is the sense of community,” says Kate. “I like having neighbors. I like having sidewalks. I like having places to walk to for a cup of coffee, the library.”
The Pietro’s art collection turns a transitional hallway space into a place to linger and look.
In fact, they realized they liked those things more than they wanted a huge piece of property. Now living in a fifth-floor condo they never thought they’d choose, Richard and Kate still enjoy their fill of nature. Huge plate glass windows in their bedroom and living areas offer a seamless vista of the trees and rolling grass of the Shaker Heights Country Club golf course. Downstairs, The Diplomat’s landscaped backyard offers a comfortable retreat where the Pietros take their iPads to read and relax in warm weather. Not surprisingly, they are members of their building’s landscaping committee.
A Sense of Togetherness
The governance of the building is a thoroughly democratic, collaborative process that the Pietros actively enjoy. Living in a condominium building is in fact a democratic, communal experience. After they moved in, it didn’t take the Pietros long to meet their neighbors and begin socializing over meals. During the winter holidays, Kate’s Christmas cookies make the rounds.
There’s a particular neighbor just one floor down who the Pietros are particularly close to: their son, Anthony, who bought his apartment in 2013. At that time, Anthony was in his twenties and was considering downtown Cleveland living. Richard, who has long followed Shaker Heights real estate, suggested that Anthony look at some Shaker condos before committing. There were some great deals to be had, especially among condos that hadn’t been recently updated.
Eight years later, with their son’s blessing, Kate and Richard followed Anthony to The Diplomat. Father and son regularly make and record music together in one of the Pietros’ spare bedrooms. Richard and Kate’s two extra bedrooms mean that when their older son John and his wife and two daughters visit from Chicago, there’s plenty of space for everyone. This summer, a longawaited, pandemic-postponed visit will happen, and the whole family will be together under one roof again – just like the old times on Braemar, with a twist.
Originally published in Shaker Life Magazine, Summer 2022.
