The listing for this 1885 row house in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood consisted of little more than a dozen photos and an entreaty: “Bring this property back to life!” When Eric Ashleigh scrolled through it, he didn’t focus on the moldy carpeting in the bedroom or the kitchen’s peeling vinyl floors. He was struck by an iron ladder leaning up against the detached garage.

“It opened all these questions in my head; I had to see this space,” says Eric, a photographer and designer who grew up working in the trades in Philadelphia. He describes himself as someone that’s “always been drawn to spaces that defy the ordinary, like warehouses, abandoned homes, and turn-of-the-century architecture.” He and his partner, April Rosentreter, a vice president in human resources for a remote software company, set up a visit.

Before: Front Facade

After: Front Facade

Turns out, the house lived up to the pictures, and it came with degrading finishes, waist-high weeds in the backyard, and a squatter. “We never really knew what we were going to walk into,” says April of their early visits. Still, after living in a loft in the Kensington neighborhood for years and getting notified that their rent was increasing, they could see the potential in this investment, both financially and creatively.

“It just didn’t seem feasible anymore to be throwing money into the loft, when we could invest in something like this and have a mortgage that costs less,” says April. “And I love to travel, so being able to have any cushion possible to maintain that lifestyle was really important for me.”

For Eric, it was inspiring to discover that a previous owner had been a carpenter, and their shop in the backyard (with the attached ladder) had gone relatively untouched. “I saw that somebody in the past had done some really incredible carpentry throughout the home, and I wanted to put a new spin on that,” says Eric.

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

Before: Living Room

After: Living Room

The ensuing remodel, led by Eric, who has his own design and build practice, took up all of 2022. “I spent nearly every day here for a year before we could move in,” says Eric. “It wasn’t until we actually closed and I started doing some digging that I realized how neglected the home was. Inspections only go so far, but once I actually started moving floors around, I realized that joists were rotted and things had sagged.”

Before: Dining Room

After: Kitchen

Since Eric did much of the labor, the couple were able to make room in their $180,000 budget, for more expensive items, like 24 new windows ($27,680) and wood floors ($12,000). “I never envisioned being able to put beautiful white oak floors throughout the house, but my thought was, let’s just get it done the right way,” says Eric. “I bought slabs, and then I personally milled them down and turn them into flooring.”

$1,500 Land	$2,000 Site Work	$5,500 Structural
$10,000 Wall Finishes	$12,000 Flooring	$4,300 Roofing
$500 Hardware	$7,500 Electrical	$6,550 Plumbing
$8,000 Landscaping	$3,500 Kitchen & Bath Fixtures	$3,300 Lighting
$1,500 Cabinetry	$8,000 Countertops	$7,500 Appliances
$27,680 Windows & Glazing	$3,000 Doors	$6,000 Millwork
$2,000 Tilework	$35,000 Furnishings & Decor	$1,500 Permitting
$15,000 Labor	$1,500 Architect/Design Fee	$4,500 Demolition
$2,250 Waste/Debris Removal
Grand Total: $180,080

Before: Cedar Closet

After: Powder Room

In addition to rehabbing the structure, the couple moved the kitchen to the location of the former dining room, built a powder room into a cedar closet, added a set of glass doors to the rear facade to bring in more light and connect to the backyard, and enlarged the primary bathroom by 50 square feet. For the interior, they drew on their past travel experiences in California, Mexico, and the Southwest to guide furniture and finish selections and make the home feel like a “peaceful retreat in the city,” says Eric.

Before: Kitchen

After: Library/Dining Room

Before: Kitchen

After: Library/Dining Room

The kitchen’s marble countertops remind them of “aerial views of New Mexico and Arizona,” while the primary bathroom was inspired by a 40th birthday trip to a resort in Mexico that April gifted Eric mid-remodel. “We were in peak construction and everything was torn apart,” says Eric. “I hadn’t even thought about designing this bathroom yet, but here we were in this space that had such a memorable, tactile experience for me. We thought, ‘Let’s bring some of this home.’”

Before: Primary Bedroom

After: Primary Bedroom

Before: Primary Bedroom

After: Primary Bedroom

Before: Primary Bathroom

After: Primary Bathroom

Other corners of the home are grounded in the couple’s personal histories, like the library’s dining banquette. “Eric loves to go to diners and obviously Philly and New Jersey have a strong diner culture,” says April. “He found that old booth on Facebook Marketplace for like $150 from an actual old diner and then we took it to an upholsterer in New Jersey and put vegan leather on it.”

Having grown up on a cattle farm in Minnesota, April is partial to open spaces and cowboy culture—and she frequently buys and resells vintage for a small side hustle—so she brought in some of her favorite pieces that reflect that background. Take the guest room’s corner vignette, which has a hide-covered stool from the Brimfield Antique Flea Market and a large-scale photo taken by Eric of a cow from her family’s farm. “Eric was out there and did a little photography session with the cows,” recalls April. “For me, it’s a piece of home.”

Before: Guest Room

After: Guest Room

Aside from the extensive remodeling, something else that completes the new digs is the “army of cats” that have found the couple over time, beginning with Dutch, who walked up to Eric on the couple’s first visit to the house. “I was chosen,” says Eric. “As we progressed, more and more just kept showing up.”

These days, there’s around 20 cats in total, and the couple call themselves “community cat leaders,” which has proved meaningful to April as they sit back and enjoy the home they created. “I always took care of the cats at the farm,” she says. “So, it’s like this full-circle moment to have that same respite here and take care of animals in the city.”

Before: Rear Facade

After: Rear Facade

Before: Backyard and Garage

After: Garage

Before: Garage

After: Studio

More Before & After Stories:

First-Time Homebuyers Prioritize Fun in a $514K Brooklyn Brownstone Rehab

They Found the Plans for Their Family Farmhouse—and Made a Surprising Discovery

A Sneaker Designer Kicks Up the ’70s Vibes in His Toronto Row House

Project Credits:

Architecture: Whitney Joslin / scoutltdd

Builder: Eric Ashleigh

Structural Engineer: Glenwood Engineering

Interior Design: Eric Ashleigh

Appears In

Before & After: It Cost $180K to Fix Up This Philly Row House—But the “Army of Cats” Was Free