Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Diana Bendo's third-floor family room will be featured in next weekend's Lawrenceville Hospitality House Tour.

Diana and Joe Bendo were looking to live in Shadyside or Squirrel Hill when she discovered a house in Lawrenceville last year.

"I loved the square footage, the high ceilings and the five fireplaces [with original mantels]. Then I went up on the third floor and saw the view," she said.

"We can see PPG, the Steelworkers building, five bridges, two stadiums, eight cathedral steeples and Mount Washington."

Tomorrow, you can see them, too, from the Bendos' third-floor family room, when the house is featured on the Lawrenceville Hospitality House Tour. Their 44th Street home is one of nine that will be open from noon to 5 p.m. The self-guided tour starts at Allegheny Cemetery, 4734 Butler St., where tour tickets and booklets will be available for $12 on tour day.

The Bendos, both Uniontown natives, moved back in July 2005 and immediately began work on a gutted shell of a brick row house. At Construction Junction in Point Breeze, they found an old front door and several interior doors.

The living room and dining room, which include heirloom furniture and other antiques from Mrs. Bendo's family homestead in Uniontown, were decorated in traditional style. But the third floor, which became the family room and Mrs. Bendo's art studio, has a contemporary look.

"It's so wide open, the space led me in that direction. I wanted a different, more relaxed feel," she said.

In addition to 1960s-vintage furniture and Mrs. Bendo's Staffordshire pottery, the room features her acrylic paintings and ones by her brother, David Goodwin, an art professor at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"That's the good artwork in the house," she said, laughing.

Tour information: 412-956-2612 or www.lawrencevillehousetour.org.

-- Kevin Kirkland, Post-Gazette Home editor