Remodeling a Queen Village rowhouse from the early 1900s

At the height of the COVID pandemic, much of Queen Village, like the rest of the city, was hunkered down in isolation.

But that didn’t stop Natalie Pompilio and her husband, Jordan Barnett, from getting fresh air.

They were often on their roof deck, shouting back and forth with neighbors, sharing the news of the day, celebrating birthdays, making post-pandemic plans.

“When I was house-hunting, I looked at a lot of houses. I think it was the roof deck that sold me on this one,” said Pompilio, a freelance writer who bought the house in 2003 after returning to the Philadelphia area from New Orleans.

“And it had straight stairs, not those winding ones like a trinity. And I liked being on this little side street and I wanted to be by the Italian Market.”

Pompilio had previously worked at The Inquirer and lived in Center City, so she was familiar with the area.

The house was “very livable,” she said. Barnett, a public defender who joined her in the house in 2006, liked “the villageness of the neighborhood.”

But as the years passed, they made unfortunate discoveries about the home, including a sinking kitchen with no foundation, and no insulation behind the drywall, only mold.

In late 2020, they decided it was time for major renovations. After getting recommendations from friends and interviewing multiple firms, they hired Niemiec & Co., partly because the firm could handle both the design and construction parts of the project. Pompilio and Barnett moved to an apartment from September 2021 to August 2022, giving the Niemiecs free reign.

David Niemiec founded the firm in 2013 and heads it along with his brother Kevin, a project manager, and his wife, Jacklynn, an architect and professor of architecture at Drexel University.

“She bridges the gap between dreaming and making around here,” David said.

For Niemiec & Co., the challenge was blending the verticality of a traditional rowhouse, built around 1910, and a more wide-open feel.

The house and the property around it had been built up in haphazard fashion over the years. The original kitchen was a shed addition, for example. Past owners had added a room here, a poorly constructed bathroom there, in what David called “ad hoc fashion.”

The Niemiecs sought to retain historic features while building up and out with new rooms, although the actual square footage did not increase.

On the third floor, visitors previously had to walk through the primary bedroom and bathroom to reach the roof deck. The steps to the deck — and the low ceiling above them — were dangerous to anyone taller than 5-foot-7. Pompilio hung furry dice at the lowest point as a safety warning.

They ultimately replaced the steps to the deck and raised the ceiling above them. They also replaced the windows, making the existing ones larger and adding three more.

They added a hallway on the third floor, giving the bedroom and bathroom their own doors.

The original outhouse, now with a cement bottom, is now a garden supplies shed.

The team moved the shoddy bathroom that had been above the kitchen, turning that space into the outdoor deck. When the Niemiecs took down the old kitchen, Pompilio said, they found it was supported by a telephone pole.

The post-renovation kitchen — with a new, solid foundation — features large sliding glass doors that give a clear view of the backyard mosaic wall strongly reminiscent of Isaiah Zagar’s Magic Gardens work.

Pompilio took one of Zagar’s weekend courses, and her interpretations of his style have metastasized up the street to the facades of two neighbors’ rowhouses.

It’s not the only offbeat touch in the house.

The dining room wall has a cut to give DJ, the family cat, a private entrance to his “suite” (the basement) and the litter box. The opening is framed by a gallery wall of art about his life and adventures.

The special challenges of the project?

The backyard, facade, and terraces were the toughest, David Niemiec said, balancing privacy while maintaining connection and getting as much natural light as possible.

Kevin managed logistics for the project and also transformed himself into a “town crier” during construction, alerting neighbors about progress of the ongoing work.

“The backyards and alleys of the block fit together like a puzzle,” Kevin said. “It makes for close quarters but it’s also what makes the neighbors such a tight-knit group.”

For the future, Pompilio said that “our house is done. ... We have some backyard issues to address and repairs that need to be made, but there won’t be any more changes.”

“DJ has complaints, of course, but that’s his way.”

Have you solved a decorating, remodeling, or renovation challenge in your home? Tell us your story by email (and send a few digital photographs) to properties@inquirer.com.