Lippy Lodge Villa - Review Page 2

Accommodation

Lippy Lodge Villa offers gross accommodation of around 2,800 square feet, split over two levels. Excluding balconies and terraces, this comprises a 990 sq.ft. two-bedroom apartment with large living room and kitchen on the first floor, and a 520sq.ft. two-bedroom apartment with kitchen on the ground floor. As the two units effectively constitute two separate apartments, I shall describe them as such:

Upper Floor

Having climbed the wide external staircase, with its brightly-painted green balustrade and pink handrail, and entered through the main door we were immediately impressed by the spacious and bright 24-foot square living room of Lippy Lodge. It wasn’t simply the high open roof and wide doors leading onto the covered balconies, but more the bright Caribbean colours of the kitchen units and upholstery continuing the pink and green theme of the stairs. The walls throughout the villa are painted a simple silver-grey , but look far from stark having been decorated with attractive and colourful Caribbean prints, paintings and collages,supplemented by ceramic fish plus an extensive collections of sea shells and coral sea fans that were collected from Pigeon Point beach in 1999 after Hurricane Lenny hit the leeward side of the island and caused extensive reef damage.

Our second impression was the breeze. With 34-feet of open doors and windows on three aspects, every ounce of cooling breeze finds its way into the house. In fact the big mistake is to fail to secure all open doors when undertaking the morning ‘open up’. You can scare yourself witless when the wind catches an open door and slam it shut immediately behind you.

Although you are unlikely to spend much time in the formal living room, it would certainly be a nice place to do so. A comfortable three-seater settee and two armchairs grouped round a mahogany coffee table face a small colour cable television set and VCR machine. A music centre with a small handful of nice CDs completes the entertainment systems. On the other side of the room, a medium-sized mahogany dining table with six chairs caters for formal dining occasions.

The kitchen and dining/seating areas of the open-plan living area are separated by a neat breakfast bar with six tall stools. The bar is also home to the villa’s telephone, which may be used by guests for local calls. On the kitchen side, this unit is fully plumbed and includes a dishwasher, storage units and the kitchen sink. The kitchen is equipped with a huge fridge/freezer, an electric grill/mini-oven, a microwave oven, huge electric four-ring stove, coffee filter machine, blender, kettle and toaster. The kitchen units include a wide range of crockery, cutlery, glassware and cooking utensils – more than enough for the villa’s maximum capacity of ten people and all of decent quality and in clean and reasonable maintenance condition. A large cool box is available for trips to the beach.

Leading directly off the front of the living room is a 30x10ft balcony. Not only is the balcony covered, but it is also shaded by a magnificent mature apamate (Tabebuia) tree immediately in front of the villa. Without in any way restricting light, the tree provides shade throughout the day and privacy from neighbouring villas. It also provides a wonderful roost for the many hummingbirds and bananaquits that use the tree while feeding from the strategically placed hummingbird feeders.

The balcony is furnished with a collection of cushioned armchairs and settees, two day beds and a less formal dining table with six chairs. To be frank, this balcony was our main living and dining area. So cool, comfortable and attractive was it that I had very great difficulty tearing myself away from the fascinating study of quarrelsome hummingbirds and turn my attention to this review.

The two upper bedrooms are of identical size at 200sq.ft., including the en suite bathroom. The master bedroom overlooks the garden and pool and is furnished with a pair of 39-inch single beds pushed together and made up as a huge super-king-size double bed. Additional furnishings include a small cable TV set and security safe large enough for documents and some jewellery, etc. The second bedroom is furnished more simply, with two adjacent 39-inch single beds plus a day-bed. All main beds are equipped with decent bedside tables and reading lamps. Both bedrooms have 58˝ built-in wardrobes, of which two-thirds of the space is full-length hanging space with lots of hangers.

The en suite bathrooms in both bedrooms are of identical size and layout, with hot and cold water to the wash basin and the walk-in fully-tiled shower. Shaver sockets are provided in all four bathrooms of the property. There was always lots of hot water and water pressure was good. Like the bed linen, all towels, including beach towels, were of nice quality and changed regularly.

The master bedroom has both sliding glazed double doors leading onto the common side balcony, plus internal security gates that discreetly slide out of sight when not in use. If you prefer to sleep without air-conditioning, you can leave the glazed doors open and enjoy the fresh air, with the securely locked security gates providing adequate protection. Sadly, this is the only room to provide this facility.

The villa is fully air-conditioned, but herein lays my only real criticism of Lippy Lodge. The three units on the upper floor – one huge 58-inch Peake unit in the living area and smaller units in each bedroom – are old and from a local manufacturer noted for their poor efficiency and noise even when new. I am delighted to report, however, that the owners are fully aware of this and have already made plans to change these old units for modern split-units. In the meantime, it is fortunate that the villa is so breezy.

NEXT PAGE: Accommodation: Lower Floor, Common Facilities, Housekeeping, Conclusion

         

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