Philadelphia Weekly

John Morris and Gina Giambri
Occupations: Self-employed and a bartender, respectively.
Neighborhood: Rittenhouse Square.
Style: 4,200-square-foot house with a separate apartment.

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John Morris and his fiancee Gina Giambri have spent the last four years renovating their space, a massive converted barn on South Van Pelt Street, all the while knowing very little about the building's past.

"It was built in 1849, and was a barn when the trolley was horse-driven," says Morris about what they do know, adding that they aren't sure when it was converted into a residence.

"We've heard a lot of things about what this place used to be, but we haven't confirmed the building's history with the city," says Giambri.

Four years ago Giambri was living in a small apartment off South Street and Morris was crashing on the couch. She decided she wanted a bigger living space and began the hunt for a new home.

Real estate agent Barbara Greenfield took them to a place in Society Hill where Giambri, who'd moved to Philadelphia from Texas, thought she might like to live. From there they decided to check out another property in Rittenhouse Square that included a rental unit.

"When Barbara opened the double doors, and we saw the main room," Giambri pauses with a look of shock. "John wasn't looking--I was--but he bought it. I didn't know we were going to live together, and I didn't know Rittenhouse was the place to live."

Greenfield knew that only younger people would be up to doing all the remodeling the place needed. And Giambri and Morris were up to the task.

The upstairs apartment has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and the house, all on the ground floor, has five bedrooms and three and a half baths. The couple has put much effort into remodeling the apartment, which they are renting out, and have only the kitchen renovations remaining.

Leaking skylights led them to install a new roof. And renovations of two rooms and two bathrooms are now complete.

With a 20-foot ceiling, the main room, which encompasses the living and dining areas and a built-in bar, is the home's main feature and will likely be the last completed. Their biggest project is the plan they have to expand the small kitchen into the sunroom and install a spiral staircase leading to a sleeping porch they'll build onto part of the roof.

The building is situated on a quiet side street with no on-street parking. "This house is all about the street," says Morris.

"You definitely feel like you could be in the suburbs. It's that quiet. All we hear is the fish tank," adds Giambri.

From the outside the property looks like a Spanish villa. It's impossible to tell how large it is without going inside.

Beyond the first set of double doors that lead into the sunroom, an office and a bedroom, the home feels warm and inviting, but the view is still far from stunning. Yet the vista that opens up through the next set of double doors is jaw-dropping. The massive main room, with a dining area and a sitting area, features a triple fireplace and wooden ceiling beams that hint at the structure's storied past.

The room is now a mix of styles, but the couple continues to add new pieces in the hope of moving the interior design toward a country farmhouse theme.

When they first moved in they painted the walls to get the place feeling fresh. "We went with white. When you pick a color you stick with it. It's not institutional because there's enough stuff in here," says Giambri, who would like to eventually repaint the room in warm tones, like neutrals, browns and reds. "I like living with color. My taste isn't drab, so I would lean toward the reds."

The couple has faced some simple challenges--furnishing a space this large while incorporating aspects of feng shui, all the while trying not to sacrifice design for space. "Once you fill it with stuff, you can't go back to a small apartment," says Giambri. "We want fun, inviting stuff. We go to people's houses and they have nice stuff, but it looks like you can't sit on it."