There was a time when Michael Buccheri considered purchasing the white rowhouse four doors down from the one he was renting, but he dismissed the thought after learning that it had been sold.

In the long run, he got the house anyway: He married the buyer.

Catherine Buccheri, a 35-year-old product manager for a software development company, moved into the Butchers Hill house in January 1999. She and her future husband met the following November, started dating a month later, were engaged seven months after that and married a year ago.

The three-story, 1870s rowhouse half a block from Patterson Park sits on Lombard Street, but the front door opens onto the adjacent alley, Madeira Street, as a result of a previous owner's renovations, said Michael Buccheri, 29, a computer network engineer.

The interior of the Federal-style house has white-painted rooms that contrast with exposed brick walls. The absence of ceiling panels reveals the exposed beams and planks, giving the house a bare, rustic look.

"If you can find a crack [in the floor], you can see what's going on down underneath," Catherine Buccheri said.

The home's renovation, completed before the Buccheris moved in, wasn't done in the classic historical sense.

"Whoever did this just wanted to make it a nice place to live," said Michael Buccheri, who thinks the home was once used as a store.

His wife was renting in Canton when she found the Lombard Street house during the annual October Butchers Hill home tour.

"I thought it was great," she said. "I had been looking at houses, but I kind of thought that this would be something out of my price range. ... I wasn't really seriously looking at it."

She purchased the home for $165,000, less than the seller's asking price, in January 1999.

Michael Buccheri, who graduated from Peabody Institute, first moved onto Lombard after he was hired by CharmNet LLC, a small Internet service provider.

"When I was in Peabody, I started to become a big fan of the city," he said.

He rented a third-floor apartment in the same rowhouse where CharmNet had a downstairs office. He later rented a rowhouse on Lombard that was vacated by a co-worker.

But then another house down the block caught his eye.

"I used to walk by the house on the way to work," he recalled. When the home went on the market, he considered purchasing it but thought it was out of his price range.

"I was very interested in the house. It just so happened that I met [Catherine] and she was living in it," he said.

The couple met at a neighbor's party - in the same block - on the Thanksgiving in 1999. They were dating by New Year's 2000 and engaged the following July.

When the couple married in May 2001, they had their pictures taken by the Patterson Park pagoda.

"The park is a significant reason why the neighborhood is nice," said Catherine Buccheri, who says they frequently walk and play croquet in the park.

The Buccheris haven't finished furnishing the house. They describe what they have as a mix of hand-me-downs and new furniture.

"I like to mix contemporary furniture with the antiques," she said.

"We threw my stuff out," he said jokingly. "Ninety-nine percent of the furniture is hers."

Their living room is at the front of the house, its windows facing Lombard and Madeira streets. Neighbors can see the couple's towering Christmas tree from the Lombard Street windows during the winter holidays, he said.

The dining room, which adjoins the kitchen, has dark green, white and brick walls. They speculate that it was added during a renovation.

The stairs show remnants of Victorian latticework and go to a second-floor hallway that leads to the master bedroom and Catherine's office. A master bathroom connects to both bedroom and office. In the hallway, two skylights bring in light, while black-and-white photos of Baltimore decorate the brick wall.

"We live downtown; we should have some city pride," he said.

The third floor is the smallest. He uses the landing at the top of the staircase as a work area for painting figurines. A door off the landing opens onto the roof above her office. The couple can see fireworks from their roof, they said.

A third-floor guest bedroom adjoins the staircase. The bedroom windows look across to the elaborately painted trim of the adjacent homes on Lombard Street.

A small second-floor corner balcony looks over the back yard, which Michael Buccheri is landscaping.

"The Canton craze has filtered into this area," said his wife. Two homes on their block have recently sold for $280,000 or more, she said.

"It's fun to be in a neighborhood that's up and coming," he said.

A 15-minute walk from Fells Point and Canton, the house is centrally located, making it easy for friends in the city and surrounding counties to visit.

"This is a place where friends come together to drink wine and enjoy each other," she said.