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| Tim & Katy Jones in their Lawrenceville home. |
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| Dining Room |
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| Bathroom |
Tim and Katie Jones weren't afraid of an old fixer-upper in Lawrenceville. He's a structural engineer and construction manager for Massaro Corp. and she's an electrical engineer for D&D Engineering. Throw in the fact that he grew up helping his parents restore an 1860s farmhouse in Ross, and you've got the perfect couple to tackle a 1901 brick rowhouse on 42nd Street. But all that training and know-how doesn't help much in the middle of the night when you have to shuffle through a century of soot and dust to get to the bathroom.
For five months, the Joneses lived amid the debris of their three-story stairway, a project that began one weekend when they and friends stripped a Dumpster full of plaster from the walls -- and also a third-floor ceiling topped with a 2-inch layer of soot.
In 2005, he was living in Squirrel Hill, she in Shadyside. They couldn't afford a house in either of those neighborhoods, but Lawrenceville seemed like a good fit. The house on 42nd St was one that could be lived in while they renovated ... room by room.
In May of 2005 Tim started with the living room, dining room and kitchen, living alone on the second floor. Katy moved in in February 2007 just before the dirty work began on the stairway, followed by the master bath and entire second floor.
While the walls were open, the Joneses also seized the opportunity to put in new plumbing and add central air conditioning. They had Wahl Heating & Cooling do the work, adding air returns to help the system work more efficiently. Exposing the brick in some rooms was a contemporary feature the couple favored, but they were careful not to do it on an uninsulated exterior wall. The staircase wall is shared with a neighbor and was a good candidate. The couple sealed the brick and mortar with a non-gloss sealer so their clothes wouldn't pick up crumbling mortar on the way up the stairs.
One of their most beautiful projects was the master bath. Featuring an early 1920s look, it has white wainscoting, a radiant-heated, black-and-white tile floor and a clawfoot tub they found on Craigslist.
Tim is also very proud of the front staircase, which had no banister or newel post when he bought the house. After he and his wife found an appropriate newel post at Construction Junction, they had Kellner Millwork of Lawrenceville make a matching handrail and banister.
The couple said their goal was to both update the house and restore it, giving it back the look and feel of a house built at the turn of the 20th century. They think they've accomplished that goal.
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