On the market: A five-bedroom multifamily Victorian in East Oak Lane for $540,000

Over a period of about six years, HVAC technician Gilbert Alvarez frequently worked on an East Oak Lane rental house owned by his employer.

He fixed up the basement, installed new plumbing and heating, did repairs. Then, in 1992, his employer said he was going to put the house on the market.

I’ve got a better idea, Alvarez said. Sell it to me.

And so he and his wife, Rosie, moved from Nicetown and have lived in East Oak Lane ever since, raising their two sons and enjoying the neighborhood.

“It looked like a haunted house,” said Rosie, who worked in the admissions and business offices of a local university. “He could envision fixing it up. I couldn’t. Every year we did something,” including a pool and a two-car garage.

Now, though, they are headed for Florida and retirement.

The house has been configured for multifamily use, Gilbert said, either a rental or an in-law suite, with three kitchens and zoned HVAC.

The couple’s living quarters have always been in the basement.

There are a covered, elevated back dining deck and a fire pit by the pool, but the 3,000-square-foot house, built in 1900, still has a turn-of-the-century feel.

The original old-growth oak floors, framed with mahogany and birch, are newly restored.

The property is fully landscaped, with a private flower garden, veggie plot, and tool shed.

It is only a short walk to the Melrose Park Regional Rail station, and shopping and dining are nearby in the Montgomery County suburbs.

Neighbors are taking the couple’s departure — and the loss of Gilbert’s HVAC wizardry — hard. “They tell me, ‘You can’t leave,’” he says, jokingly. “I say, ‘I got to go.’”

The house is listed by Kelly McShain Tyree of Elfant Wissahickon Chestnut Hill for $540,000.