As a runner and veteran of 23 marathons, Jackie Horvath is on a first-name basis with persistence and stamina. Those qualities, and her can-do husband, Andy, helped the couple transform the old Ligonier Hardware store into a distinctive antique shop with a 2,000-square-foot loft above it.

Mr. Horvath admits he tried to avoid the daunting project. Instead, his wife's girlhood dream to start her own business melded with his lifelong love of antiques. The result, Jackie's House, opened in August 2007, six months after the couple moved into the loft above it.

On the first floor, antiquers browse among hand-painted Chinese lamps, a marble-topped Eastlake cabinet, a garden bench, a sea captain's chest and an elegant 1950s chaise longue covered in a camel print.

Many of the 100-year-old hardware store's features remain, including the tin ceiling and white plastic letters that spell Ligonier Hardware, which sit atop some of the original wooden display cases. Ligonier townspeople love old buildings, Mrs. Horvath said, and she wanted to respect that sensibility.

"Most men like hardware stores just the way they are. We spit-shined it a little bit," she said.

A far greater challenge was injecting light into the dark, second-floor storage space. When the Horvaths bought the building in 2006, the wooden floor was oiled and pegboard covered the walls, Mr. Horvath said.

Opening up that space demanded vision and perspiration, plus architect P. Scott Moore of Latrobe and two ace carpenters -- Pete Hamer and Troy Pritts. The carpenters started work in May 2006 and finished in March 2007.

When she met with Mr. Moore, Mrs. Horvath told him to "Make it fun. I want it to flow. I want it to be open."

At 100 feet long and 20 feet wide, the second floor is shaped rather like a bowling alley, said Mr. Moore. So, he slanted the new walls that were built at the entry to the kitchen and living room. Unlike a flush wall, the banked walls intensify the effect of arriving in a specific room, a technique often used by Frank Lloyd Wright, he said.

The loft, which has about 2,000 square feet of space, accommodated the creation of two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The building's eastern brick wall was opened so that light could pour through a large bank of windows into a 15-by-20-foot sun room and a spacious kitchen lined with glowing cherry wood cabinets. Off the sun room is the roof over a garage. The couple plan to install a deck on the 50-by-20-foot roof.

Mr. Horvath, 51, took on the glamorous task of sanding the hardwood floors and laying tile in the sun room while his wife scrubbed and painted the interiors on the building's first and second floors, including the five skylights that make their loft sun-washed and inviting.

For the kitchen, Mr. Horvath broke out endless boxes of blue and ocher majolica tiles that he had acquired over the years and created the backsplash above the kitchen counters. The kitchen island is a slab of light, colorful Corian. Six aluminum stools around the island are topped with red leather and came from a 1930s drugstore in West Virginia. Above them hang two miners' lamps that remind Mrs. Horvath of her coal-mining grandfathers.

Through a large kitchen window that faces south, the couple can see the bell tower of Ligonier's Town Hall. With a shiny gold ball, the tower originally sat atop the Dickinson School that was just across the street from Ligonier Hardware. When the school was torn down, the tower was placed atop the new town hall.

After the building's elevator and shaft were removed, the couple installed a three-story wrought iron spiral staircase for a private entrance to their home. Mrs. Horvath, 44, also found a wrought-iron gate to hang in a brick archway in the kitchen, in front of the spiral staircase.

Updating a 100-year-old building so that it complied with building codes required new plumbing, wiring, fire walls and a handicapped-accessible entrance at the back of the building.

The loft's walls are painted in Henderson Buff, a blend of yellow and green by Benjamin Moore. The trim is Salem Gray.

"It gives it that earthy feel," Mr. Horvath said.

In their living room, the couple made effective use of the hardware store's furniture. They turned the downstairs sales counter into a generous bar whose bottles and glasses are reflected in a large Venetian glass mirror with scalloped edges. At sunset, the mirror shoots rainbows all around the living room.

Three tall sales cases that once held nails or screws also were painted Henderson Buff, making them fade into the living room walls. As a result, what catches a visitor's eye are books, family photos, a painted Chinese porcelain vase and the various Dickens Village pieces Jackie has received at Christmas over the years from her father, John Brodak.

As Mr. Horvath applied urethane to the loft's hardwood floors late one night, he saw numbers appear in the living room's polished wood. The numbers, he learned, were used by store employees to measure pieces of wiring, fencing or cable. The highest number, 50, is now at one end of the bar.

Instead of hanging a mirror over their living room's gas fireplace, the Horvaths applied wooden trim around the top then carefully arranged hand-carved wooden appliques in the shape of acanthus leaves, starbursts and medallions.

Mrs. Horvath loves the loft because the couple enjoy the sunrise with their breakfast and can savor the sunset from the west windows of their living room while enjoying the fireplace.

The couple's taste in art is eclectic. On a hallway wall hangs a large, blue, pink and white piece of linoleum from a child's nursery. Many squares are devoted to nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner, Little Miss Muffet, Simple Simon and Jack and Jill.

Steps away, on the banked wall that leads to the kitchen, hangs a 7-foot tall, 5 1/2-foot wide painting of Christ's crucifixion. The canvas, found in a barn, was restored for the couple by Jeff Rouse of New Alexandria. Mr. Rouse told the couple he believes the work dates to the 1800 and was done by a German artist for a church. It was not signed, as per church policy.

"When we look for art up here, it's got to be gigantic," Andy Horvath said.

The couple feel blessed to have embarked on a new life together. Mr. Horvath, who practiced law in Pittsburgh for 25 years, left that profession in June.

"I knew he'd be around a lot longer if I could just get him out of that office," Mrs. Horvath said.