On a weekend visit with friends in Lower Merion, Kaiser says, "I said to myself if I found a house I loved, I would request a job transfer and move. I knew this area pretty well because I was a competitive figure skater and trained down in Ardmore. I drew a box on a map of where I would look."
It was the height of the market - she spotted signs and called agents, but many houses were already spoken for.
One caught her attention because of its French doors. As she passed, a man just happened to be hammering up a "For Sale by Owner" sign.
Kaiser asked to come in. Past four sets of French doors, she made her way to the foyer of the 1927 stucco beauty and announced: "I want this house, and here is a check to hold it."
"It was old, and I just loved it," she says. She asked to bring in her architect brother the next day. A transfer to the Philadelphia affiliate of the New York TV station where she worked sealed the deal, and she moved in September 2002.
She quickly learned that nothing about apartment living had prepared her for all that could go wrong with a house nearing its 90th birthday. Decorating plans fell to the very bottom of her to-do list, as she first installed new windows (the old ones were painted shut and the sashes were broken) and doors (the front door was so warped by weather, she couldn't get into or out of the house).
"There were no grounded outlets for plugging in hair dryers, and no electricity of any kind in the dining room" - hence those 1920s sconces - "so updating the electricity was next," she says.
Then a tornado hit, compelling her to take out about 15 trees for safety reasons.
