Aug 23, 2008

Funk Times 2: In a pair of old homes, antique shop owners’ quirky dreams come trueBy Gretchen McKayPost-Gazette.com

Choosing a business location ought to involve lots of market research. But don’t tell Lynne Holland and Linda Nath that.

“Linda kept driving past it, and we’d always talked about having a shop,” says Ms. Holland. “So we never looked at anything else. It was The One.”

Last year, the pair opened Treasures in Thyme, a funky antiques/consignment/gift shop in a 1946 Sears kit house on Regis Avenue in Pleasant Hills.

Leo Love also gave an odd answer when asked why he and Bill Cox chose an old house-turned-car-repair-shop on Ohio River Boulevard in Bellevue as the site for their new antique store, The Antique Mall on Ohio River.

“I just wanted to see my dining room floor again,” he quips.

Many old houses have been rehabbed into modern businesses, and antiques and collectibles, in particular, seem to lend themselves to being displayed in rooms with homey architectural details such as carved wooden mantels, beamed ceilings, pocket doors and hardwood floors. What customers don’t always realize is how much work it takes, often more than if the building is restored as a home.

For instance, it took Mr. Love and Mr. Cox almost a month to clear the 21/2-story gabled house, which dates to 1883, of more than 400 tires and assorted car parts. Over the next six months, they pulled down plasterboard that covered most of the original windows and fireplaces, refinished its floors, installed heat and electricity on the upper floors, and pulled off the aluminum siding to expose the original red brick.

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