Buying Here: New Kensington

Robin Rombach/Post-Gazette

The living room features Craftsman-style fireplace and a columned room divider. It has original stained mahogany and cherry woodwork and original stained-glass windows. The five-bedroom home is on the market for $149,000.

A longtime landlord who owns buildings in and around New Kensington, Don Ryan is used to people asking him to take a look at houses for sale. Some are in such bad shape that he stops by but doesn't get out of the car. When he does buy one, he rarely asks his wife's opinion.

The house at 258 Freeport Road was different. Peering in through the beveled-glass front door, he saw a beamed living room ceiling and Craftsman-style fireplace with columned room divider. He called his wife, Kim.

"I think you better come look at this," he said.

She did and her thought was the same as his: We're buying this house.

"I guess we fell in love with the beamed ceiling and fireplace in the living room," Mr. Ryan said. "We hadn't even been inside and we decided to buy it."

After a yearlong renovation, they have put the five-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath house (MLS No. 891652) on the market for $149,000 through his mother, Janet Ryan of Century 21 American Heritage Realty (724-994-1311 or ww.century21ahr.com).

It was not a good candidate to flip, Mr. Ryan said, because it needed so much work. It was more of a hobby project for him and his wife, and he knew they would be lucky to recoup the money they put into it. Yet they couldn't resist.

NEW KENSINGTON

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Buying Here: New Kensington