John Beale, Post-Gazette Below a suspended walkway on the second floor of Kristin Hughes' house in Friendship is the dining table made by fellow professor Tom Merriman. Translucent wall panels in the stairwell are illuminated from behind. Click photo for larger image.

Nearly everyone who buys an older house has a vision of what it could be. Kristin Hughes had an idea -- give a century-old row house in Friendship a wide-open, ultra-modern interior -- and the ability to make it happen.

"Being a designer, I had a lot of strong ideas of what I wanted to do," said Ms. Hughes, an assistant professor of design at Carnegie Mellon University. "I wanted to design a tactile, warm, inviting environment."

Working with architect Gerard Damiani of studio d'ARC, Ms. Hughes undertook a nine-month renovation, doing some of the work herself. The results will be featured on the HGTV show "Generation Renovation" at 6 p.m. Monday.

HGTV found Ms. Hughes through Mr. Damiani, who also redesigned his home and studio in the South Side. Ms. Hughes, 37, a Syracuse, N.Y., native who moved here in 2001, said the show emphasizes rehabs by young people.

"Pittsburgh allows young people to be homeowners. You can't say that about a lot of cities," she said.

Ms. Hughes lives on the first two floors, which account for about 1,800 of the house's 2,400 square feet, and rents out the third floor. After living in an apartment in Shadyside for several years, she bought this three-story brick row house from Friendship Development Associates for $125,000. She spent about $65,000 on the renovation, $10,000 more than she had initially budgeted.

When she began getting bids from contractors, Ms. Hughes realized that she would have to scale back her grand vision and act as her own general contractor if she wanted to stick to budget. Although she made some changes and used less costly materials in places, she did not compromise her basic plan, which created four 20-foot squares, two on each floor, linked by a central open shaft lit by sunlight and translucent wall panels. Large sliding doors and a walkway supported by two huge laminated wood beams connect the spaces.

View from the second floor shows the walkway railing Kristin Hughes and a friend made from cherry plywood and pipe and fittings from Keystone Metals. Click photo for larger image.

"It's not a very complex design. We moved very simple planes to manipulate the space," Ms. Hughes said.

One of the house's most unique elements is the flexible walkway made from fiberglass slats. It acts as a bridge between Ms. Hughes' second-floor work space and the master bedroom and bath, which features an 8-by-4-foot shower that shares a tempered glass wall with the bedroom.

The third-floor apartment adds a second and third bedroom, and a powder room is on the first floor.

Ms. Hughes believes that acting as her own designer and project manager took some of the pressure off Mr. Damiani, easing the collaboration between client and architect.

"Many clients say they want to act as their own general contractors but don't really know what that means," he said. "The process was like teaching a class on how to manage a project."

"He knew he could trust me with a set of drawings," Ms. Hughes said. "I dealt with the contractors and ordered everything."

Friends and neighbors helped her find subcontractors like Keystone Metals, which made hardware for the sliding doors and parts for the walkway railing; Rick's Handyman Service, which did the drywall; and Jeff Kramer of Kramer Kustom, who made the countertops and doors. Emerald Art Glass fashioned the tempered glass wall between the shower and the master bedroom.

Ms. Hughes and a friend hung the polycarbonate panels and fashioned the walkway railing from cherry plywood, steel rails and fittings. The kitchen cabinetry, which cost about $1,800, came from IKEA.

Fellow CMU teacher Tom Merriman crafted the dining table and benches from mahogany and cherry. Because Ms. Hughes bought them before the renovation, "I tell him the house was designed for his table," she joked.

The dining room is one of the designer's favorite spaces. Light coming through the walkway creates interesting shadows below.

"There are lots of pockets of light. The dining room is just wonderful to sit in any time of day."

Ms. Hughes' house, which will be part of the Friendship House Tour this fall, is not quite done. She plans to install sisal carpet on the stairs and continue to work on the exterior. She sees a few small things she might have done differently.

"Aesthetically, it's great. But is it functional? I have an electric toothbrush -- where do I plug it in?" she said, laughing.