The home of Cathy Calhoun, owner of Calhoun Jewelers in Royersford, Pa., will be featured on HGTV’s new show You Live in What? on March 10 at 8 p.m.
Calhoun’s Spring City, Pa. residence, purchased in 1989, was once a bank. At her very first job, Calhoun worked as a teller and found out about the vacant space through her former boss.
“When I bought my house, it was a working bank,” Calhoun says. “I realized the area wasn’t busy enough to open a jewelry store, but I though it could be a cool house.”
The view from the house’s second floor (photos courtesy of Cathy Calhoun)
What motivated her to buy it? “I was out of my mind,” Calhoun says with a laugh. “All the floors are made out of concrete and steel—something I didn’t think of at the time. It was difficult to remodel.”
After some trial and error, Calhoun successfully redesigned the space. “I’ve redone the master bedroom twice. I even turned the bank’s main vault into a bar,” Calhoun says.
“Last fall I received a phone call from the research department at HGTV,” Calhoun says. “Their film crew is located in Dallas and I just so happened to be going to Texas for the SMART Show.”
An HGTV cameraman surveys the scene in the bank vault–turned–bar.
When Calhoun visited Texas, she met the HGTV crew for a lunch. They liked her story enough to fly to Pennsylvania and feature her house. “I didn’t even get the chance to clean up,” Calhoun says.
This isn’t the first financial institution Calhoun has made into a good investment. Her Pennsylvania jewelry store also used to house more bills than baubles. And you can take that to the bank.
Calhoun (second from the right) and the film crew from HGTV’s You Live in What?
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