Buying Here: Edgewood gem with decorative touches priced just under $600,000

By Patricia Sheridan / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

From it’s modern monotone exterior to the cavalry blue library and unique wall adornments, this property has style inside and out.

History meets hip in this 1921 farmhouse-style home at 150 Race St., Edgewood. The house has five bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms and 3,730 square feet of living space.

Natalie and Todd Potts have listed it for $599,000 (MLS No. 1673705) with Molly Finley of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services (howardhanna.com or 412-427-9668).

It was love at first sight for Mrs. Potts, an artist and department chair for visual arts at Shady Side Academy Senior School.

“I grew up in Las Vegas where everything is the same, and from the moment I stepped on the porch, I loved it,” she recalled. 

“I really responded to how old and unique it is and how beautifully it was built and had been cared for and loved.”

Mr. Potts, originally from Georgia, works at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He has lived in Pittsburgh for 20 years and spent 10 of those in this home.

Over the decade the couple, who have one son, worked on the house. They began by tackling the floors and walls.

“We had all the floors on the first floor leveled and we tried to make the floors more uniform throughout house, because there were different colors and materials used on the floors,” he said.  

They tried to salvage the original pine wood floors wherever possible and to match them where it was not.

“In 2021, we went over them again and laid a white ash wash on the first floor,” he said.

On the second floor, they pulled up carpet and had the floors sanded. They painted the floors white in some of the bedrooms.

“We knew that was done in old homes and it helped,” said Mr. Potts.

They painted the entire interior that first year as well. One other project they took on was gutting and installing a new master bathroom.

“We also kind of did a heavy facelift on the kitchen,” he said, replacing cabinets, adding open shelving and extending the island.

The most important thing they did was put in a driveway where there had not been one.

Previous owners finished the third floor, moved the kitchen to its original location and added an HVAC system.

“The woman who had it before the last owners took it from a duplex back to a single home,” explained Mrs. Potts.

They see her at neighborhood functions and share their common love of the home. 

“Her husband was originally from England and she named the house Nutwood after a location in a British children’s book,” she said.

“We still have the sign she used to have out front saying Nutwood and we will leave it for the next owner.”

“We call it the nut house a lot,” she said, laughing.

The couple said they were able to focus on the decor.  

“We had the good fortune of getting the house in pretty good shape and we got to do a lot of the design work,” she said.

The artist recognized the house was grand enough to handle some unique touches. In the dining room, she painted a mural of the landscape she remembered from growing up in Utah and Nevada.

“I think it’s something a little special,” she said. “I haven’t lived out there in a long time and I still kind of miss it.”

She was an artist-in-residence for the National Park Service in 2019 before her son was born. She created a body of work from that experience and exhibited it out there.

“I was at the Mojave National Preserve and camped and hiked and sketched for two weeks.”

Her artistic skills are also evident in a black and white abstract pattern she painted in an alcove. The new owners will have original art if they choose to keep it.

“Everybody gets to love this house in their own way and the next owner can do what they want to it because it is a very inspiring house,” she said.

The Allegheny County property assessment is $227,100 and annual taxes are $8,837. Seven single-family homes have sold in the 100 block of Race Street over the last four years for prices ranging from $170,000 in April 2024 to $340,000 in March 2022 (www2.alleghenycounty.us/RealEstate/).

While the couple will miss the deck off the master suite, their young son is looking forward to a bigger yard. 

“We used the back patio and yard a lot. It’s a small yard but it is pretty with lots of beautiful flowers,” he said.  “There isn’t a day that goes by that we don’t appreciate this house. It is fantastic.

“I think to live in this house is to love it,” he said.

Patricia Sheridan: [email protected]