Compared with its fancier neighbors on the Mexican War Streets, this little house is just plain. And it was just plain wrong for Jana and Bruce Thompson when they were looking to buy three years ago.

For starters, it was only 14 feet wide with a first floor chopped into "a little warren of dank rooms," according to Mrs. Thompson. Then there were the low ceilings (less than 7 feet high on the second and third floors). The Thompsons are 5 foot 10 and 6 foot 6, respectively. Finally, there was light shining through a shared wall, which was so thin they could hear the conversation next door.

"We could hear our neighbors chopping vegetables," Mrs. Thompson recalled. "I said 'Forget it. We're not living here.' "

And yet, here they are, settled into their quirky 162-year-old row house after a nearly one-year renovation. Their vision and hard work made them winners of the PG's Renovation Inspiration Contest, large project category.

Despite the house's small size (about 1,100 square feet), it's a large project because they spent more than $50,000. They actually paid $105,000 for the house and put $200,000 more into it. But they would have spent at least $50,000 more if they hadn't done so much themselves and shopped wisely at salvage shops and antique stores for everything from a 1920s Tappan stove ($125) to a 1950s steel cabinet by Youngstown Kitchens ($45), both from Construction Junction. Altogether, the kitchen cost only about $3,500, Mrs. Thompson said.

Though contractor Lou Ponzo did the framing and other rough carpentry, Mrs. Thompson stripped fireplace mantels, laid tile hearths and surrounds and did much of the trim carpentry and plumbing. With advice from architect John Hegnes, she finished the one-foot-thick sound-deadening wall.

"It was an engineering challenge," Mr. Thompson said, noting that they weren't entirely sure they had succeeded until their first night's sleep.

"Oh, it works," he said, sighing at the memory.

During the renovation, the Thompsons learned exactly how quirky their house is. Built in 1847 by Irish immigrant George Haley, it is balloon-framed, which means long wall studs run from the foundation to the roof, and the floors hang from those studs. (Most houses are "stick-framed," which means that each floor acts as a platform for that story.) Even more surprising was that the framing was joined by mortise and tenon -- not nails. Even when the back roof was changed from hipped to gabled as part of an addition in the 1860s or '70s, few nails were used.

"How did it stay up for 150 years?" Mrs. Thompson wondered.

To give themselves more headroom in the master bedroom, the couple had head carpenter Tim Case remove the ceiling and tie-in the ceiling rafters with the roof rafters. Their own innovation was a hideaway for the cats' litter box in the master bath equipped with a motion-sensor light and exhaust fan. The couple also created a special cutout in the stairwell for their dog, also named Bruce. And they installed a water fountain in the antique sink in the master bath.

Some of the house's oddities resulted from moving the staircase to the back of the house. That's the reason an original (nonworking) fireplace is now perched at the top of the stairs, about where a handrail should be. It also created a guest bedroom with three walls off the landing. The room's centerpoint is an antique rope bed that Mrs. Thompson slept in as a child. Other family heirlooms include a curly maple table that Mr. Thompson's great-grandfather made for his great-grandmother and the top compartment of an old desk made of maple and mahogany.

Mr. Thompson's mother, Ann, faux-painted the old wood floor and hearth in the master bedroom, and Mrs. Thompson hand-decorated the floor of the attic. With paint markers, Mrs. Thompson copied the words and handwriting on her house's original deed in white paint. She also built the cabinets that line the walls of the attic room. When the roof needs to be replaced, the couple will add a full bath and shed dormer there to give themselves more space -- and headroom.

"Our neighbors say we are the largest people with the smallest house," Mrs. Thompson joked.

Contest judges, who were from the Post-Gazette, Community Design Center of Pittsburgh (the co-sponsor), Pittsburgh History & Landmarks Foundation and the Western Pennsylvania Craftsmen's Guild, were impressed with the Thompsons' determination and the creativity they showed in re-imagining their home. Accents include lighting fixtures from a 1950s RV, a framed photograph of the house with scraps of wallpaper found there and items dug up by privy diggers in the backyard. Among the usual bottles and fragments of dishes is a set of false teeth.

Last year, Mrs. Thompson started keeping three hives of honeybees on a second-floor roof and she grows blueberries, cranberries, cherries, peaches, apricots, pears, apples and quince in the side and backyards, which also feature a homemade outdoor kitchen and a retaining wall made from wine bottles. Her yard and house have become everything she imagined they could be.

"We wanted the smallest house with the biggest yard," she said. "We wanted one that had been junked. We didn't want to pay for someone else's vision."