Key West Vacay Recap – The Hemingway House

Ok this is my final batch of pictures from the Key West vacation! I promise! I was going to post these earlier in the week, but my computer restarted itself when I was working on a draft. (Boo!)  Sorry for the delay.  

The one thing everyone told me we had to see when we went to Key West was the Hemingway House. I was sold – history and cats, where do I sign up! So let’s start shall we.

Hemingway’s house was actually the original house of a Shipwrecker. See way back in the day, many ships would end up wrecking somewhere along the keys. Now those ships were carrying lots of expensive stuff so Shipwreckers would go out (in storms and hurricanes) and retrieve this merchandise. It was a very lucrative career, which allowed the original owner to build one heck of a house.

I had to get a pic of the fantastic moulding that was in the living room.  That and I am loving this paint color.  It is so fresh and clean. 

Here is another shot of the living room.

Now, Hemingway was married to his second wife when they bought this house with her uncle’s money because he wasn’t a famous author yet. The first thing she did when she moved in? Tore out all the ceiling fans and put up chandeliers in all the rooms. (I am not sure if she was a one of the ancestors of the designers on Trading Spaces. Do you remember how many fans they ripped out?) The tour guides think of her often in the summer months! I did get lots of shots of the chandi’s she put up, which almost all of them have fantastic details in both the lights and the ceiling medallions.

Below is the dining room chandi. All blown glass from Italy.

Master Bedroom Chandi

Here is a shot of the master bedroom. You can’t forget the cats here. Hemingway’s first cat was a polydactyl cat or mittens kitten. They are the cats with one extra toe on their front claws so it looks like they are wearing mittens. All the cats on the property today are descendants of that original cat. About 50 cats live on the property and about half are polydactyl.

Here is a picture of the en suite master bath. Quite a luxury.

Of course, it also has a chandi!

I love the detail in this fireplace.

Here are some pics of the upstairs balcony. I love these windows and shutters!

From up on the balcony, I got some pics of the Key West Lighthouse that is across the street. It is said that Hemingway would use the lighthouse to mark his path home from Sloppy Joe’s Bar on Duval Street!

Oh and this is where they do weddings on the property. The gardens are beautiful.

Out back behind the main house, there is a guest cottage next to the pool where Hemingway made his office on the second floor. This is where he wrote a lot of his famous works. I love this room.  While the tour guide said this was basically his man cave, you can tell the wifey was here.  (Why?  Cause there's the chandelier!)

And this is the pool. Unbelievably beautiful. His two sons talked his wife into putting it in while he was away!

Here is one shot of a true mittens kitten before we leave.

Ah! It is hard to think that I have been back from vacay for over a week now. But I am slowly getting back into the swing of things. Hope you guys enjoyed all the pics!

P.S.  I love comments - especially ones that direct me to fantastic link parties!  I am linking this up to Unknown Mami's Sundays in My City.  Thanks to Life with Kaishon for the tip!