By Annette Gallagher Weisman
The Cincinnati Enquirer – Sunday, April 22, 2007
As any West Sider knows, to move to the East Side is a big deal. Michael Schuerman made his move for love.
Sitting in her home at Indian Hill Place, Schuerman’s wife Sandi Anderson, recalls his promise that, after his youngest son (they have three between them) graduated from Elder High School, he would move to the East Side, where most of Anderson’s family and friends live.
Married for 15 years, the couple thought it was time to downsize from their four-bedroom house on an acre in Western Hills. They looked at many places, but they decided that the town homes on Indian Hill Road in Columbia Township had everything they wanted. They were the second residents at Indian Hill Place, 15 town homes built by Camden Homes of Rossmoyne.
“What we loved,” Anderson says, “was the convenience of the location, close to several shopping and dining areas: Mariemont, Oakley/Hyde Park, Madeira and Kenwood. We’re also close to I-71 and can get downtown in 20 minutes.
“The biggest selling point for us, though, was the fact we could customize our interior.”
The couple found the challenge of selecting everything from kitchen cabinets to doorknobs fun and rewarding.
Schuerman’s input, he admits, mostly involved the design of the lower-level media/family room, an area he calls his “man cave.” A security specialist for Cisco, he works from home, so in addition to media/family room and an exercise room, Schuerman made the third bedroom his office.
A favorite feature of the lower level is a state-of-the-art “Fireball” entertainment system, installed by Masterpice Audio/Video, that has a 96-inch high-definition projection television.
A cigar aficionado and wine lover, Schuerman has a humidor next to the bar as well as a large-capacity wine cooling system. A neighbor-hood favorite is the couple’s “Big Stogie Super Bowl” parties.
Anderson reigns on the main floor. The retired teacher did not use interior design help, other than to get input from a seamstress friend, Debbie Mendenhall, who helped select fabrics fro several rooms, including the elaborately trimmed draperies in the dining room and master bedroom.
“To me, the most important thing is comfort. A room doesn’t have to be perfect looking, but it does have to be comfortable and inviting” says Anderson. “I like to mix my old things with my new things.”
The main floor has an airy, open look. Anderson wanted a separate dining room which on the original floor plan was another bedroom or a study. Where some Indian Hill Place owners have an open dining area visible beyond the kitchen, the couple has a bay window highlighting their baby grand piano.
The living room and master bedroom open onto a deck. the main floor also has a morning room, two-car garage and laundry room. Anderson’s calligraphy decorates the morning room with such aphorisms as “Life’s too short to drink bad wine.”
Though mostly empty nesters, the interesting thing about Indian Hill Place residents, Anderson says, is the mix of ages. About a third of the homeowners moved there from Indian Hill.
Comparing the home to their Western Hills house, Anderson says, “this one may be a bit smaller, but we use all the spaces, so it feels larger.
“And, we don’t have to maintain the yard or shovel snow; it’s all taken care of.”