The landlady of a unique but unconventional penthouse built atop an apartment in Nairobi’s Zimmerman Estate told the media on Sunday that living near her childhood home had always been her dream.
So, when it came to setting it all up, she enlisted the help of a long-time family friend, Stephen Wangechi, who set about breaking the process of setting up the penthouse down to a tee.
“I grew up in Zimmerman and always dreamt of living where I grew up, I just wanted to be near my childhood home,” the landlady said in a now viral video.
“Sometimes I’m located in the US, so I normally go and come back,”
Annie Lumbasi, a mother of three, told Citizen.Digital that the ‘BradiJon Mansion’ took four years and dozens of emails and phone calls between her and the contractor to complete.
“I originally came up with the idea, and then the builder, Stephen Wangechi he told me it is possible,” she added
“He is very good and has experience of over 20 years he used to build for my dad and it is how I met him,”
She admitted that it also took a lot of patience and faith, especially since four years is a long time.
She wanted a house and apartments for her family, but there was not enough land for both. As a result, she came up with a novel idea: a “penthouse-apartment marriage.”
“I had an idea of building an apartment and a penthouse on top, especially given that I wanted to build both apartments and house but the land was not that big,” she told Citizen.Digital .
“So I told him, lets build the house on top and down apartments,”
The ‘penthouse’ has four bedrooms, an open-plan kitchen, a laundry room, and a pantry, and has a panoramic view of the Githurai, Roysambu, and Kahawawest neighborhoods.
Inside the opulent home, you can tell the landlady was not on a shoestring budget because the furnishings appear to be the best money can buy.
Areca palms in pots sit outside, as do a variety of other house plants.
On top of that, haha–at least according to the video–there are glimpses of a hefty TV, intricate wall gypsum, a kitchen with gleaming new electronics, and a dining table where the landlady and her family are likely to dine against the din of the busy Thika Road.
The landlady believes the reactions on social media are due in part to the fact that there is no other such project in the neighborhood–or any that comes close to the magnitude of the penthouse.
“I know its funny, it’s trending and I have seen all sorts of comments, people wanashangaa,” She added. “I know there are buildings like this but they are not many,”
Although she did not provide an exact figure for the project’s cost, she did imply that it was well into the millions, enough to properly head butt and break the legs of a wealthy person’s bank account.
She also discussed the safety of the ‘penthouse-apartment marriage,’ telling the YouTuber that before she even considered starting it,’she had done her own research’ to determine the viability of the hybrid arrangement.
“I involved whoever is supposed to be involved…and for me to live here, on top of my tenants, that tells you we stand by what we built,” she added.
