As a Housewright, Horn says, he has built 30 homes. Most range in price from $400,000 to $600,000, but some go higher. The Colonial Revival in the North Park Manor development will go for about $920,000, he says.

Getting down to business

There are no housing plans filled with Don Horn homes.

While he has built a few homes -- like the new Colonial Revival -- on speculation, most arise because a home-hunter is looking for something colonial.

George Coulter of Oakmont, for instance, wanted a smaller colonial home so he could move out of one that was too large for the empty-nest lifestyle of him and his wife, Alice.

Coulter discovered Horn through a furniture dealer. Today, he now lives in a three-bedroom replica of the Tayloe House, a 1753 home in Williamsburg.

"He builds a great house," Coulter says. "He has a great eye for detail."

Barth and her husband, Doug, were looking for a colonial home and ran across one Horn had built. They met with him and began the process of finding a piece of land to build on.

"It is a fabulous home," Barth says of the home that resulted. "It was a great experience. He is just a very nice man."

Horn says most of his work emerges from such contacts.

Wotherspoon says the potential buyer for the new Colonial Revival made a different kind of contact with Horn. She was showing homes to the client being transferred to Pittsburgh. He kept spotting period re-creations he liked.

"It was funny, kind of scary even, that he kept picking out Don's houses," she says. "I finally said, 'You just have to talk to Don Horn.' "

They met, and she and Horn say he probably will be the buyer of the house.

"There is a look, quality, detail that make his homes stand out," she says.

Putting it all together

Horn tries to provide accurate, period detail to his homes while making them practical for the 21st century.

For instance, he supplies the number of electric outlets required by municipal code, but tries to hide them so they won't ruin the look of a room.

"I don't know whether you've heard," says Linda Barth, bringing up a subject that doesn't remain a secret long, "but he hates doorbells."

Doorbells weren't on colonial homes, and he won't put one on -- "unless you really want one," he says.

The Barths wanted one, but are pleased that he talked them into the historically accurate door knocker.

But Horn isn't unrealistic, either. His fireplaces always are wood-burnng, but are gas-equipped to easily start a fire. Kitchens, naturally, have all the equipment that colonial families lacked.

The Colonial Revival has 3{1-2} baths and two heating and air-conditioning units to make it comfortable.

Rooms tend to be more modern, too. An enclosed porch on the original house has become a 15-by-26-foot eat-in kitchen. It is much bigger than the original, which in the new home is the space more or less taken up by the library.

When Horn saw the Sewickley house, he became enamored with it and asked its owner, Greg Kaminski, if he could study it and take measurements.

He then adapted the home to fit this century.

"He has a lot of good ideas," Kaminski says, looking at plans for the new house and comparing it to his own.

Horn thinks that blend of centuries-old charm and modern elements is what makes his homes popular.

"That meeting of the ways is the way to go," he says.