Photograph Collage by Brittany Dexter/photographs by Stock.Adobe.com
Stephanie Gilbreath’s daughters weren’t thrilled about losing their family home in Clifton, but at 7,500 square feet, it had simply become too much for Gilbreath and her husband Bob to manage on their own. The thought of washing all 60 windows—again—was the proverbial last straw. They craved more simplicity, with the non-negotiable amenity of a sense of community.
“We specifically wanted to be in Over-the-Rhine to be able to walk everywhere,” she explains. In 2021, they purchased a row house near TQL Stadium. “We’re down to one car between us now,” she notes. Moving from an 1843 historic house to a newly built, four-story home was a dramatic shift.
“This is sleek and contemporary,” Gilbreath says. “We had to sell all of our old furniture. It just didn’t fit.” Rather than feeling overwhelmed by downsizing, Gilbreath found it a helpful distraction from the bittersweet moment of their youngest heading off to college.
With fewer repair headaches, she and her husband now enjoy more freedom to travel. The former New Yorkers dig the vibrancy of OTR and downtown, and joined a neighborhood group for Tuesday Trivia in Washington Park. “It’s nice to be around people you wouldn’t necessarily run into otherwise,” she says. Occasionally, people will ask them about the challenges of urban living. “I don’t worry about crime,” she says. “As in any big city, you pay attention to where you are. We’ve traveled all over the world. It’s no different here.”
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