The House On Allegheny

"Something about" their historic home in downtown Hollidaysburg continues to draw Matt and Annie Davis back. The couple, who are junior-high sweethearts and Hollidaysburg natives, purchased the home in 2018 and have been working on renovations ever since. "The House on Allegheny," as they've coined it on social media, was built in 1877 and sits in the heart of historic Hollidaysburg.

The couple was first introduced to the house as junior-high schoolers when they babysat for its previous owners. The returned to visit the house many years later in 2018, when the house was listed on the market by their family friends, also coincidentally named "Davis." Originally, they toured the house as a potential business venture for Matt's home flipping and renovation business, Naturally Beautiful Homes. As soon as they were on the property, however, Annie felt an inexplicable "draw" to the house.

Not too long after, Matt told her that the home was taken off the market.

"No, it wasn't," Annie said, "I just got off the phone with [the owner]."

She couldn't stop thinking about the house, and she wanted to consider buying it for their family.

After some deliberation, the couple decided to pull the trigger and take out a loan to begin renovations on the home. They were excited, but it wasn't long until their first major hurdle arose, and their first general contractor left the job after only 21 days. This began an almost three-year period of the couple doing renovations slowly and steadily while they looked for the right contractor to complete the job.

Matt completely gutted the interior of the home, mostly working alone. The house needed a lot of "blood sweat and tears," they said.

These years were long and difficult, as they lived in small spaces and raised their small kids. While they loved the home, there were times when it seemed like they may not stay forever. At one point, someone offered to buy the home and they felt as though they had to "consider if it would be advantageous" to accept it. Ultimately, however, they felt as though the offer didn't match the "love, time and care" that they had put into the house.

When they received this offer, Annie says she became a sort of "mama bear," even more dedicated to the home than before.

"I don't care what they offer. It's ours," she said.

"Annie was not giving up no matter what," Matt said.

"It doesn't make sense why we're so drawn to this house," Annie said, adding that it seems there is something that keeps pulling them back.

So the couple resolved to complete the project. Eventually, they joined forces with Aaron Crilly, a Fredricksburg native and owner of Square One Contracting LLC. Crilly is Annie's cousin and was the "perfect person to finish the job."

Once Crilly came on board, the project really took off. He has done the work for the home's kitchen restoration, 2.5 bathrooms, replication of the original wood trim work, stair railings, and much more.

The Davis family made some major changes to the interior of the home, including the rerouting of the stairs leading from the second floor to the attic, raising most all of the ceilings, and the relocation of the home's bathrooms and laundry room. With each change, big and small, Annie and Matt were careful to stay faithful to the home's history and original craftsmanship. They sourced pieces of their home, such as doors, posts and railings, from all over the east coast as they meticulously searched for styles that nearly perfectly matched the originals.

Matt and Annie have designed everything in the home themselves, sometimes redesigning repeatedly to be sure a room was going to look exactly as they wanted. They sketched out their master bathroom, for example, on graph paper several times together, thinking through the functionality each time before redesigning.

"There's not an inch [of the home] we haven't thought about," Annie said.

They've reworked every room to ensure that it perfectly fits their family while maintaining its character.

"There were a lot of shortcuts we could have taken but we didn't," Matt said, "People kept saying, 'just finish it.'"

But he insisted on meticulously completing the home one step at a time, preserving the integrity of the home's original style through the entire process. And while the house maintains its historical architecture, they also took care to make it "function like new" by giving it completely "new bones," like plumbing and wiring.

They've also kept up a complete account of the renovations on Instagram @thehouseonallegheny. This way, they, along with their friends and family, can look back on the progress since 2018.

"We wanted a collection of memories in one place," Annie said, adding that over the course of such a massive undertaking "you almost lose sight of how far you've come."

The renovations are finally wrapping up, and the family is slated to move into the home in mid-April. While Crilly continues to work on the few remaining projects inside of the house ahead of moving day, Matt will continue to work on the exterior.

"We are looking forward to enjoying our home," Annie said, adding that for so long, their headspace has been so consumed with always planning the next step in the project.

While everyone is of course thrilled to move in, Annie is most excited to be able to share the home with other people. For much of their kids' young lives, they've been living in tight quarters, going from living with family to a townhouse while working to complete renovations. Matt is excited to finally see and show others the finished product after more than 4 years of planning, designing, and hard work.

"We always knew we'd be here," Annie said. "We just didn't know how many hurdles we'd have to overcome."

The kids can't wait for their first night "home."