Most people, when they upsize to a bigger house, also end up changing neighborhoods. So the fact that Jon Anderson moved a mere four blocks when he'd outgrown the two-story row house he'd renovated on Sheffield Street in Manchester speaks volumes about his love for this historic city neighborhood.

Desirous of a house with "normal" amenities like a garage and a yard, Mr. Anderson initially thought he might head for the suburbs. Yet when it came time to actually consider his options outside the North Side in the spring of 2002, his city heartstrings pulled a little tighter than he'd expected.

"I just couldn't leave," he says.

Turns out, he didn't have to. The Urban Redevelopment Authority had just finished restoring the facades on a row of five Richardsonian Romanesque townhouses around the corner on Liverpool Street and was offering the unfinished "shells" for $80,000. And talk about bang for the buck: Although definitely a fixer-upper, the townhouse Mr. Anderson ended up buying at 1305 Liverpool St. came with some 4,500 square feet of living space over three levels, providing more than enough room for all the upgrades he'd been dreaming about, including a studio for his abstract and figurative paintings and photography.

Mr. Anderson, a salesman for a technology firm, also liked the fact that the 1895 house -- one of nine properties featured on this weekend's self-guided Manchester House and Garden Tour -- was not quite as High Victorian as so many other homes in the neighborhood.

"I wanted an open floor plan, and the fact that it was relatively plain meant I could come in and do that," he explains.

That's not to say that the three-story townhouse isn't elegant; with its wide, rounded arches and sunburst relief carvings on the stone facade, it's definitely one of the neighborhood's loveliest residences. Especially if you can recall, like Mr. Anderson, a time not so long ago when all the porch columns had been knocked out and replaced with cinderblock, and the porches themselves were junked up with old car seats.

"I can remember thinking, what a shame," he says. "But with the new facade, I could see the potential."

With six bedrooms, eight fireplaces and 9- to 12-foot ceilings throughout, there was also plenty of possibility inside. OK, so only two of those fireplaces still had mantels, and the woodwork was riddled with so many nail holes that it looked like cheese, and it also lacked plumbing and electricity ... . But generally, it wasn't too bad, recalls Mr. Anderson with a laugh.

In fact, it took contractor John Hancock of the North Side just a little more than six months to get the house to a point where Mr. Anderson, who would do all of the finish carpentry himself, including rebuilding the missing mantels, could move in. That work included demolishing the wall that separated the hall from the living room to make it feel more open, removing a pantry in the kitchen to make way for the fridge and painting the heavily varnished woodwork white.

"I know -- it's sacrilege!" Mr. Anderson says with a laugh, referring to the working pocket doors that were removed in the process. "But I'm more of a pragmatist than a preservationist." Which is to say, he wanted a home in which the rooms made sense and felt comfortable.

He did, however, keep the original caramel-colored pine floors, along with the built-in china closet in the dining room (his father, Andy, rebuilt the glass doors) and the 100-year-old ceramic tile in the fireplaces. Ditto with the brick alleyway between his house and the one next door, which his sister accidentally discovered when she was shoveling in the dirt.

Other changes that give this century-old residence its decidedly contemporary feel are the gourmet kitchen, which includes side-by-side Jenn-Air gas ranges, and the second-floor master bath, which has an engineered walnut floor, open-topped walk-in shower and working fireplace. There's also bold choices in paint, with mineral-red walls in the dining room and deep gold in the living room.

"It's really just use of color and use of room," Mr. Anderson says of the ongoing renovation, which took the house from six bedrooms and two baths to three bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths. (Although he recently added a garage, he has yet to tackle the attic.)

As for the little house on Sheffield in which he began this long love affair with Manchester? His sister, Lisa, loved it so much, she ended up buying it. Which suits Mr. Anderson just fine.

"It's really the classic definition of neighborhood," he says. "You know who your neighbors are and interact with them."