They’re taming the beast of Waldorf Street
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tim Denham and Rick Astle didn’t move into their nearly 139year-old house for almost a year after buying it. But someone was always home.
“I put the mannequin in the window because I was concerned about the house being empty,” Mr. Denham said. “The painters were spooked!”
Their North Side neighbors hardly noticed the mannequin. They were just pleased to see someone rehabbing the Victorian beast at the end of Waldorf Street.
“They said, ‘The whole neighborhood is talking about how the haunted house is not being torn down,’” Mr. Denham said, laughing.
The couple’s circa 1890 work in progress is one of 10 stops on the Observatory Hill House Tour from noon-5 p.m. June 4. In keeping with the tour’s theme, “Neighborhood with Spirit,” tour-goers will get to sample craft beer and small-batch whiskey inside the houses. This one will serve Wigle Whiskey, but it may not be the only in-house spirit. Mr. Denham’s been told that over the years two people have died of natural causes in the living room.
“When she saw it, my 16-yearold niece said, ‘I’m never sleeping over!’” he said.
The fears of family and friends didn’t faze the two men. In September 2016, they were living in Lawrenceville with their five dogs and looking for “as much house as I could get for my money,” Mr. Denham said. He found this house on Zillow and drove by with his partner. That night, an agent showed them inside.
“We fell in love with the house when we walked through it,” Mr. Astle said.
They saw beyond the piles of furniture and the black exterior ; even the mortar between the bricks was covered with soot. Original stained-glass windows appeared to be many shades of amber until Mr. Denham began cleaning one. “I said, ‘Oh my God! It’s blue!’” Although nearly every bit of plaster had to be stripped, the faux-grained woodwork — oak in the dining room and cherry in the living room — was in excellent condition. And all four slate fireplace
mantels had their original faux marble finish.
Their first task was to replace the original slate roof with metal shingles. Then contractors got to work on the kitchen. Two of its most distinctive elements are finds from antiques stores and Construction Junction — brass hood over the stove and a stepback cabinet that was cut down to fit on one wall. Mr. Denham also uses architectural antiques in his Downtown salon, Denham & Co. Mr. Astle is the salon’s manager.
The kitchen’s pine floors were replaced with 24- by 12inch ceramic tiles from Home Depot. Since there was no powder room on the first floor, the couple tucked one under the stairs.
On the second floor, they turned one bedroom into a luxurious bath with a modern tub and an open shower tiled in marble. The old bathroom became a laundry room.
Five bedrooms on the third floor — the old servants’ quarters — became one large open room with exercise equipment and a pair of antique beds. It helped change the mind of Mr. Denham’s now 17-year-old niece.
“She says, ‘I’m going to live on the third floor while I’m in college,’” he said.
Mr. Denham created a Facebook page to document the house’s progress: The Waldorf A Story Of. The project can be overwhelming at times. The men shake their heads as they remember their real estate agent saying the house didn’t need to be gutted. They have spent $50,000 so far proving her wrong.
“A hard lesson, a learning experience,” Mr. Astle calls it. “To bring something from 1890 to the modern age is tricky but it can be done.”
Before buying this house, they used to take short vacations every few months to Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Phoenix and Sedona. They found two of their dogs on the streets of Puerto Rico. A third was destined for a butcher’s shop in Korea before he was rescued and brought to Pittsburgh.
“This house is not a showcase,” Mr. Denham said. “It’s a house for us and our dogs. I just want to live in it.”