Heritage, heart — and a good offer — lead folks back to family homesteads

Editor’s note: This is the second in an occasional series on real estate market trends in Western Pennsylvania.

Across Western Pennsylvania, families are finding their way back to houses that once belonged to parents and grandparents, drawn by a mix of nostalgia, practicality and economics.

Whether it’s the comfort of familiar walls, the opportunity to preserve a family legacy or simply the financial advantage of inheriting property in a competitive housing market, new homeowners are renovating dwellings that carry decades of history for their families.

Suzy Long has returned repeatedly as an adult to the two-story home on Tremont Avenue in Greensburg where she spent part of her childhood.

She, her two siblings and their parents initially lived upstairs from their grandparents before moving a block down the street in the tight-knit Hilltop neighborhood.

Long made moves to West Virginia and the Mt. Pleasant Township village of Norvelt while raising her own family. After her most recent return, she’s back in the nine-room home of her late grandfather, Angelo Long, sharing it with her fiancé, two of her 15 grandchildren, two cats and a dog.

“I always end up back here,” she said, citing an emotional connection to the house.

Long, 62, said her grandfather expressed in his will a desire that the house should remain in the family.

“Mine says the same thing,” she said. “That will never change.”

She acquired the property from her father through a 2021 quit claim deed. That type of deed is commonly used to quickly transfer property between family members without the need for a title search or the use of a real estate attorney or agent.

In addition to the house, the property includes a one-story building where Long operates her notary business — one of the occupations her grandfather pursued there. The building at one time also housed her grandfather’s barber shop. Now she shares the space with her father’s karate studio.

Long has been a notary for more than four decades, starting with her grandfather before establishing her own office.

Moving her business back to where she started, Long said the convenience of living steps away from her office has made it possible to extend her hours and grow her customer base.

“Even being off the beaten path, I have a very busy office,” she said.

That has allowed her to gradually add about $75,000 worth of improvements and amenities to her grandfather’s house.

It originally had just three occupants, since her father was an only child.

She added a backyard swimming pool, as well as more cabinets and counters to expand the minimal storage area in the kitchen.

She also expanded the first-floor bathroom by 18 inches, space that was taken from the adjacent sun porch.

Renovating the upstairs bathroom is next on her list, though she’d also like to rework a closet and revisit the garage and the outdoor deck.

“With a home that’s over 100 years old, it never ends,” she said of maintenance and updates. “There’s always something to do.”

While Long’s home is not long on extra space, it has sturdiness to spare. That includes interior walls strengthened with concrete and metal grating.

“The contractor said in 30 years he’s never seen interior walls that are stronger than the exterior walls they build houses with now,” she said. “This house is made so solid.”

A great deal

Jake and Crystal Best estimate they’ve invested more than $50,000 so far to renovate the 1954 house in Lower Burrell that originally belonged to Jake’s grandparents. It has been home to the couple and their son, 4-year-old Bryson, since summer 2024.

After the death of an uncle, “My dad got the house, and we got it from him,” Jake Best said. “It took a while for us to realize we wanted this place. We started looking at the market and how expensive things were, and we decided we were not going to get a better deal than this.”

With the move, the Bests, who are in their 30s, are continuing the family’s ties to the house.

“When I was younger, I was over here a lot,” Jake Best said. “It’s very surreal being back here living now.”

From a practical standpoint, the home and the property it sits on offer more space than the Apollo condo the couple had lived in for five years.

They’ve progressed from a shared courtyard to their own yard, where they’re reestablishing the garden that had been the domain of Jake’s grandfather. There is also a long driveway where Bryson can ride his bike.

“The back porch was my biggest ‘aha’ moment,” Crystal Best recalled of her first tour of the house. “I could see us out here using it.”

“The luxury is I was able to work on it before we moved in,” Jake Best said. His father, Daniel, who is skilled in woodworking, came from his home in Upper Burrell several days each week to help.

“He was pretty much bringing the house he grew up in back to life,” Jake Best said of his father. “It was in dire need of upkeep and modernizing, getting it to where we want it to be.”

Major undertakings have included repairing a retaining wall, improving drainage and addressing water infiltration in the basement and around bay windows.

The home’s second floor can be adapted as needed if the Bests grow their family. For now, it’s split between a home office for Crystal, who works as a behavioral consultant, and a man cave for Jake, who is a shift supervisor at a manufacturing plant.

They’re keeping some of the home’s more unusual features, including large doorbell chimes that are built into the wall.

With interior renovations completed and work on the garden underway, Jake Best said, “Next year, we can actually sit back and enjoy the house.”

Television renovation

Allison Pochapin had no option but to move out of her family home while it was being renovated in 2020 since the project was completed for an episode of the HGTV network series “Home Again With the Fords.”

While work was underway at the 1920s brick row house in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood, Pochapin rented an Airbnb for 12 weeks.

“I insisted they keep the original woodwork and trim around the doorways and the fireplace mantel,” she said. “The tile on the fireplace is original; I didn’t want any of it painted over.”

The renovation crew limited its efforts to the first of the home’s three stories, preserving the original hardwood floor. In the kitchen, workers retained vintage metal cabinets and found materials to recreate the counter-top pattern.

Pochapin’s parents moved into the home in 1972, after it had previously been occupied by an aunt and uncle.

After her mother died in 2019, Pochapin bought the home from her father, who relocated to a nursing home before his death the following year.

“It was very strange, and it felt like a privilege at the same time,” she said of returning as the sole occupant of the home. “It still feels like my childhood home, but it feels like it’s my version of it. It’s a very nostalgic experience living here.”

A Realtor for more than 20 years, Pochapin understands the challenges of updating an older home, especially when the desire to maintain some features from the past is heightened by childhood memories.

“It’s expensive to get updated mechanics and also maintain the original charm,” she said.

For her home’s modernization, the original radiators were replaced with a forced-air system.

“They had to add a bulkhead through the first floor to vent the upstairs,” she said.

Though the home still needs work, Pochapin said buying it was a good investment at the price of $122,000.

“I’ve put about $250,000 into the house,” she said, “and it needs another $150,000 to do the remaining two floors and add another bathroom.

“It’s tricky renovating a house while you’re living in it.”

‘Honoring my family’s legacy’

William Burgun experienced a bit of culture shock last year when he moved from Tucson, Ariz., a city of more than half a million people, to his original hometown of Jeannette, with a population of about 8,500.

It helped that the single retiree was able to purchase the home of his late mother and that several other kin still live nearby.

“I think, making a decision like this, a lot of emotion is involved,” he said.

Burgun had lived in Tucson since 1999, where he worked as a data manager. He returned to Jeannette temporarily in 2023 to help care for his ailing mother. After her death, he decided to purchase the circa 1950 Cape Cod house from her estate.

Built by Burgun’s grandfather, the house is within walking distance of his childhood home. His parents eventually moved in and updated the kitchen.

Otherwise, Burgun said, “The bones of the house are exactly as I remember it as a child. The rooms are the same. It’s been a part of my history.”

The house was fairly well-maintained by his parents, but he has made some of his own modifications: replacing the roof, restoring the hardwood floors and adding a deck at the rear of the house. His newest project is making upgrades to the enclosed sun porch.

Burgun was able to realize a positive financial return when he sold his Tucson home, but he’s not expecting that to be the case with the roughly $25,000 he’s invested so far in improving the somewhat smaller 1,400-square-foot Jeannette home.

“What I am doing here is more about emotion and honoring my family’s legacy,” he said.

Still, he added, “Being able to cash in on the property values out west and bring that money back here has enabled me to live more comfortably.

“This is where I’m going to stay.”