House of the week: A ‘shabby chic’ four-bedroom Colonial in Wayne for $479,900

Scott McDonnell says that when he and his wife, Susan, bought their house in Wayne in 2012, they were using a common real estate approach: “We bought the worst house in the best neighborhood.”

The four-bedroom, two-bath Colonial wasn’t exactly a fixer-upper. But the signs of neglect, from creaking mechanicals to chipping paint, abounded. There was even a disturbingly large spider population, prompting Susan to say, jokingly, “You don’t ever want to be the person the exterminator remembers. "

But “we saw what other people couldn’t see past,” Scott said.

Scott, a librarian, grew up in Villanova and had always liked Wayne. Susan, who works in development for a national hospital system, was originally a journalist. She is from Southern California and had originally come east for a better job market.

So after renting in Conshohocken, they bought the house in Wayne with the idea of never leaving. They liked the neighborhood’s walkability, the nearby regional rail station with easy access to Center City, and the fact that it was in the Radnor School District for when they would raise a family. (They now have daughters ages 9 and 5.)

Rather than try to make the 1,462-square-foot house a magazine centerpiece, “we infused it with ourselves,” Susan said. They fixed up what needed attention and “filled it with things we found in our travels.”

This is why their Realtor, Samantha Giardinelli, refers to it as “shabby chic.”

“We went through COVID in this house,” Susan said. “If we could move it from Wayne to Florida, we’d do that.”

But they are, indeed, headed to Florida, where Scott’s parents live and where Susan can work remotely in her new hospital job.

The Wayne house has hardwood floors throughout. The bedrooms are on the second floor, and the lower level has a full bath and laundry room. There is an attached garage, a pull-down attic space, raised garden beds, and a private backyard.

The house is within walking distance to the Radnor Trail and Devon Square Shopping Center, and minutes from downtown Wayne.

It is listed by Samantha Giardinelli of Compass Realty for $479,900.