Norma Nieto is a classic example of how heartstrings aren't the only things that can pull you home after years of living in another state. Sometimes, your hometown is also where you find the best bargains.

For more than a decade, the Butler native lived and worked in the Washington, D.C., area. But while she loved being in such an exciting city, she also recognized its challenges when it came to buying real estate.

There's plenty of available housing in our nation's capital, says Ms. Nieto, who graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 1993, but the prices are "ridiculous." So most home buyers either have to squeeze into something that's incredibly tiny or, if they want something with real space, settle for a home in the suburbs -- hardly the best environment for a young, single woman with an active social life.

Luckily, her job as a consultant with IBM Business Consulting Services wasn't tied to an office, so she could pretty much live anywhere. When the time came to buy her first house after years of careful saving, she happily traded an apartment in a Crystal City high-rise for the town she grew up in. As she explains, "I wanted a change, but not a whole new city. Pittsburgh was the best of both worlds."

But where? An urban girl at heart, Ms. Nieto spent several weekends in the fall of 2007 looking at condo developments and conversion projects in Shadyside and Mount Washington. She and Realtor Kris Callen of Prudential Preferred Realty's Butler office, her best friend from high school, also toured several new buildings in the South Side, including the upscale townhome development Riverside Mews, which Ms. Nieto liked enough to put down a deposit. Then in October she stumbled upon Angel's Arms on Pius Street in the South Side Slopes. It was love at first sight.

Built upon the structure of the former St. Michael the Archangel church and rectory (1861-1993), the luxury condo development had everything Ms. Nieto could have asked for: gorgeous Romanesque architecture, a great location within walking distance of Carson Street, and sweeping views of the city. The space was so different from the cookie-cutter new homes Northern Virginia developers spit out that she believed she would never be able to afford it.

Then she remembered -- this was Pittsburgh, not D.C. The two-bedroom, 1,325-square-foot condo she ended up choosing cost $399,000, secured with a 30-year mortgage at 5.875 percent from Federated Mortgage Corp. There's also a $188 monthly condo fee.

"I knew in Pittsburgh I'd find something interesting," Ms. Nieto says of the space, which includes soaring domed ceilings, large arched windows, massive columns and a rounded balcony overlooking the city.

There was a catch: Her condo, like all the others in the building, was sold completely unfinished, which meant she'd have to work with a designer to customize the blank space -- no small task when you're living out of town and unable to oversee construction. Ms. Nieto, though, possessed a fairly strong idea of what she wanted (cool and loft-like) as well as a talented designer to bring that contemporary vision to life (Carol Barbarino of Pittsburgh).

"A lot of people have no vision and can't see beyond the color of paint," says Mrs. Callen. "But Norma's always been artsy and funky and comfortable out of the mainstream."

One of the pair's biggest design challenges was figuring out how to fill an incredibly dark, cavernous space with light. They also had find a way to marry Ms. Nieto's love for modern design with Old World architecture, because to cover up the medieval arches and dome, noted Ms. Barbarino, would destroy what attracted her client to Angel's Arms in the first place.

To that end, they hung two large pendant lights from the ceiling and hid uplighting on the columns aimed at the center of the 20-foot dome. Then, to assure the light would bounce back in the room, they had artist Tim Pisano paint a metallic geometric design on the plaster. They also closed two half-moon arches in the loft bedroom with Plexiglas instead of a traditional rail, put sliding doors on the guest bedroom/office so the space would be open when not in use, and insisted on half-walls on the staircase. Natural bamboo flooring throughout the first level adds to the clean, contemporary feel.

"We had to think of the space as a whole, because everything is visible from one end to the other," says Ms. Barbarino.

That said, they shook things up a bit in the kitchen, installing vibrant, heavily veined soapstone countertops and an iridescent glass-tile backsplash that provide a colorful contrast to the chocolate-brown cabinetry. The first-floor bath is even more intensely hued. Here, a mosaic of orange, brown and gray glass tiles frame a glass vessel sink Ms. Nieto found on eBay and had set on a glass vanity.

Because of her work schedule, Ms. Nieto didn't actually see the finished product until the day she closed on the loft in February 2008. But when she did, well, she was like one of the people on "Extreme Makeover," she says, laughing. "I started crying because I couldn't believe how amazing it looked."

"This is so far above what I ever imagined," she says. "It's not just my first house but my first dream house because I did everything I wanted."