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Stir it Upwe're cookin'blue tomato® featured in PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEWHouse tours include high teas, chocolate treatsBy Pam Starr, FOR THE TRIBUNE-REVIEW Queen Victoria would be proud of what the Allegheny West Civic Council is doing to celebrate her 190th birthday next Saturday. Five renovated Victorian homes on Beech Avenue will be hosting English high teas and tours of their residences on Klee Row, which is commemorating its 125th anniversary. Chairman Carole Malakoff says guests will be afforded a rare opportunity to glimpse a bygone era. "The queen herself might make an appearance," Malakoff says. "But tickets are limited and you have to have a reservation, because Linda Iannotta will be catering the high tea. It's not a house tour per se, but we will show how the same plan of homes has been renovated differently in each house." Linda and Joe Iannotta have been living on Klee Row since 1980, after renovating the existing structure into a single-family home. Klee Row was named after Joseph Klee, a German-Jewish immigrant who built the row of homes on Beech Avenue and lived there in the last quarter of the 19th century. "This was five, two-room apartments when we bought in 1978," recalls Linda Iannotta. "At the turn of the century, they were single-family homes, but in the 1920s, many of these homes were made into apartments. In the 1970s, people starting coming back to the neighborhood." The stunning three-story brick Victorian is a testament to what can be done with an old house. The couple redid all the plumbing and electrical, put the laundry room on the second floor, replaced the original pine floors with oak hardwood floors, and converted a third-floor kitchen into a bathroom masterpiece. Blue glass tiles that came from the vestibule of a larger house line the floor, and the sink is marble. "We put in this bathroom in 2001-2002," Iannotta says. "We also put in two master suites, a library/office and a second-floor guest bedroom. The second-floor bath had been shared by two units." The couple renovated most of their house after a fire swept through some of the homes on Beech Avenue in September 2001. "Everyone redid their homes then," she says. "After the fire, we had 13 months of living with construction guys. It took longer to redo than we thought." The Iannottas have been on house tours in the past and enjoy showing off what they've done. "I don't mind -- some people hate it -- they're afraid of pilfering, but we've never had that," Linda Iannotta says. Add Malakoff, "some get stressed, others take it in stride. All money raised goes back to the Allegheny West Civic Council and into the community." Other house tours in the area this spring include the South Side on May 16, Observatory Hill on June 7 and Brighton Heights on May 17. Organizers of the events say it becomes harder each year to find people to put their homes on the tours. In Observatory Hill, for example, they have skipped years "due to an inability to get a sufficient number of homeowners to participate," says co-chair Michael Everhart. "I got at least 21 rejections last year," he says. "We do a lot of begging to get some people to participate." Jennifer Strang, marketing and communications manager for the South Side Local Development Company, says persuading homeowners is never an easy task. "Normally, we start with a list of more than 20 potential home sites, and by the end of the process we have only 10 to 12 that are willing to open their doors to 800 strangers." One of them is Kimberly Collins, a graphic designer whose company, blue tomato design, is inside her Wharton Street renovated row house on the South Side. Collins, 30, bought the dilapidated house in 2005 for just $38,000 and has since put $65,000 into the renovation. "It took 18 months to make it nice," Collins says. "I did everything myself, with some help from my dad, except for the electrical and plumbing. I designed it and worked it." The 1,100-square-foot row house is breathtaking. She put the new red oak floors in herself and did the drywall. The open, airy kitchen has earth-tone Silestone countertops, cream-colored KraftMaid cabinets and stainless steel appliances. A large glass jar on the counter holds 850 blue gumballs.
"I'm going to try to backsplash the wall before the tour," Collins confides. "The tour is a good thing -- it's a good motivator to finish all those projects." Hers is a lesson in staying true to your budget. She found travertine tiles for her bathroom at Home Depot and painted the walls a metallic taupe color. The dining room/conference table was a find at IKEA. Many of her purchases were made at a discount online or at Construction Junction, Pottery Barn and Marshall's. Collins will be featured on the HGTV program "My House Is Worth What?" "It's going to air this summer," she says. The South Side tour is featuring something new this year -- a brunch and tour package. A full brunch buffet will be held at the Gypsy Cafe, but seating is limited. Also, the tour is normally held in June, but organizers decided to move it up this year. "Since our past few tours had seen temperatures in the high 90s, we chose to move our date up a few weeks," Strang says. "In doing so, we hope to provide the most enjoyable tour experience possible." One glitch in the Brighton Heights tour is the demolition of the Davis Avenue Bridge, which is near where the tour is. But Jeff Worsinger, chairman of the house tour, is confident there will be no problems. Brighton Heights used to be called Davisville many years ago. "Since we have a large neighborhood, we move the tour to a different part of the neighborhood every year," Worsinger says. "In five years, we've had no repeats of houses. This year, there will be nine houses on the tour, including an original working farmhouse from the 1860s." He also says that finding people to put their houses on the tour gets easier every year. This year, it is the Chocolate House Tour, and there will be chocolate inside every home. "The more we do it, the less difficult it is," he says. "Now we have people asking to put their homes on the tour. It's a very respective crowd who go on the house tours." The Observatory Hill House Tour, in its 16th year, is hoping for at least 300 visitors to go through the stately homes on historic Judge's Row, which were mansions owned by judges in the 1920s, according to Michael Everhart. "In the 1970s, many of these homes were subdivided into apartments," he says. "Many have been restored to single-family homes." In the earlier years, he says, they used to get 600 visitors. The money raised goes toward the neighborhood's operating fund. "Now that there are so many house tours, the numbers have dipped," Everhart says. blue tomato® is awarded united states registered trademarkblue tomato® is very excited to annouce we are now a registered trademark!blue tomato launches new website!
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"MY HOUSE IS WORTH WHAT?!"
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