A modern and vintage rebuild in South Philly

From the third-floor window, the parents and their two children watched a rainbow arching over Center City skyscrapers.

It was January 2020. Madhurika Jeremiah, Scott Pesiridis, and their children had just moved into a new house in South Philadelphia.

“We considered it a good omen,” Jeremiah said. The third-floor family room was immediately dubbed “the rainbow room.”

Three years earlier Jeremiah and Pesiridis were walking down their street in the Passyunk Square neighborhood when they spied a real estate agent hanging a For Sale sign on what would become their future home.

The couple were then living several doors away in a three-story rowhouse with a tiny backyard.

The house for sale had a 50-foot deep backyard — plenty of space for a garden and for children to play in. It only had two floors, but that was no matter, they figured. An extra floor could be added.

Only after Jeremiah and Pesiridis purchased the building, in 2017, did they discover it had serious structural problems. Undaunted, they decided to tear down the house and erect a new three-story residence.

The couple hired Osborne Construction to build a home Jeremiah designed. During the three-year project, Jeremiah, an attorney with an interest in architecture and design, amassed two thick binders filled with lists, sketches, and measurements.

There were benefits to new construction. Pesiridis praised the air circulation system, and Jeremiah said the house is so well-insulated, she can’t hear trash trucks making pickups outside.

With 10½-foot-high ceilings, an open living room and dining room, pale pine flooring, tall windows, and pink-beige tinged white walls, the 16-foot-wide rowhouse is bright and airy. The space-saving straight staircase, which they had painted black, resembles “a streak of mascara” against white walls, Jeremiah said.

Instead of the usual brick, the facade of the house is cedar siding. The turquoise entrance doors and transom are traditional. A stained-glass transom above the foyer doors was designed by an artist Jeremiah found on Etsy.

She likes the “juxtaposition” of modern and vintage. In the living area, an antique crystal chandelier hangs above a black sofa, orange swivel chairs, and a geometric-patterned black-and-white Moroccan rug. The marble mantle, salvaged from the original house, surrounds hand-painted Mexican tiles.

Leaf-patterned wallpaper in the foyer, and art nouveau patterned paper in the dining area, primary bathroom, and three of the four bedrooms, are similar to those popularized by British designer William Morris in the late 19th century.

More leaves spill from planters hung from the kitchen ceiling. Jeremiah measured the depth of the Ikea cabinet drawers below the marble countertop to make sure they would accommodate spice-filled mason jars.

“I’m from Sri Lanka,” she explained, and “we use a lot of spices.” Jeremiah chose diamond-patterned black-and-white cement tile for the floor. She also used the durable tile in the foyer and bathrooms.

Jeremiah came to the U.S. to attend college at 19. She and Pesiridis, who grew up in Audubon, N.J., met as students at the University of Texas.

The couple married in 1998 and the next year moved to Philadelphia so Pesiridis could pursue graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a research scientist for a pharmaceutical company.

Pesiridis assembled the kitchen cabinets and installed the brass pole hung with utensils, which matches the brass faucet over the farm sink. He also assembled the sleek white Ikea wardrobes in the children’s second-floor bedrooms and those in the third-floor hall outside the primary bedroom and bath.

French doors in the kitchen open onto a lush garden. What was once a concrete slab is planted with purple balloon flowers, white phlox, a lemon tree, and snowball hydrangea. The pink frangipani are called Araliya in Sri Lanka, Jeremiah said, where they are used as offerings in Buddhist temples.

During the pandemic the garden became a family project. The children, now teens, helped their parents haul wheelbarrows full of dirt and plants to the backyard.

It would seem the rainbow was a good omen. Jeremiah calls the new house “my sanctuary,” while Pesiridis calls it “my forever home.”

Is your house a Haven? Nominate your home by email (and send some digital photographs) at properties@inquirer.com.