What do you love most about where you live?
We love the Passyunk Square/East Passyunk neighborhood. It’s such a vibrant place to live. It’s convenient to everything in the city. You can be in Rittenhouse, at Spruce Street Harbor Park or at the Bok building in a 20 minute walk, depending on your mood. Street parking isn’t bad here We have great neighbors. There are so many fun restaurants and shops. When we’re giving directions to our house to people who have never been here, we say we’re right around the corner from cheesesteak Vegas (i.e. Pat’s and Geno’s).
Where is your favorite neighborhood place for a bite to eat?
We love Benna’s for coffee. We take out from Slice or Santucci’s for our pizza fix and Tamalex for our taco nights. Pre-Corona virus, we were always at Sabrina’s for breakfast with the kids, and Bing Bing and Cantina on Passyunk for outdoor dinners. We love every restaurant on the Ave - Laurel, River Twice, Fond and more. ITV, Fond, Garage and Messina are favorite neighborhood bars. And we love Essen for baked sweets and John’s for water ice and ice cream.
What is your favorite room of your house?
The kitchen is really the heart of our home. No matter how we set up a gathering, everyone always ends up standing and sitting around our island hanging out. It’s where the magic happens, or where the most drinks and cheeses happen.
What milestones have you accomplished in your home?
We got married during our time here and had two kids. We’ve been busy!
How was the home buying process for you? What made you say, "this is it!"?
I rented the house for a few years before I bought it, so I was lucky enough to know that it was already a nice property. I looked at about 30 other properties before deciding I had the right one already within reach and should be thrilled that the owner and his family (who live next door), wanted me to stay.
How did you find your PHG agent and how was your experience?
My PHG agent Kate Kyle is also one of my best friends in the world, so there was no one I’d rather share this type of life changing experience with. Katie was part of every decision and I’m so grateful for all of the time she has put into this for us. She is the best!
Best memory in your home?
Bringing home each of our boys.
Anything else you'd like to share?
We have been upgrading Federal Street since day 1 to make it our own. I'm a graphic designer with an interior design obsession and I love to reimagine spaces. Like many Philly row homes, 730 Federal is a rectangular open box on the first floor that needs good furniture placement to define different spaces throughout. I started with the sofa. It took so much time and effort to find the perfect one. I wanted a mid-century modern look with comfort and lots of seating. When I couldn't find what I wanted for under 5k, I created my own. I bought the largest combination of an IKEA couch that I found attractive and I used a local place on Passyunk to button tuft all of the top pillows to get the look I wanted at half the price. I also chose one that has removable washable covers, because children. The rest of the first floor was built around the big couch, from rugs to light fixtures and beyond. The most recent additions were replacing the tired laminate flooring with hand-scraped hardwood floors throughout and a big beautiful barn door to give life to a boring coat closet and give some wow to the whole space. The kitchen was done in stages over time, from putting in an apron front sink and replacing counter tops, to building a bar and pantry area. It has been so satisfying to watch it evolve into something we find so beautiful and to make it work for our growing family.
