- One of the Painted Ladies on San Francisco's Postcard Row is for sale for $3.55 million.
- Leah Culver bought the house in 2020, but the pandemic stalled her renovation and move-in plans.
- She's now selling the house, without having lived in it, at the same price she bought it for.
When Leah Culver bought one of San Francisco's Painted Ladies in January 2020, she couldn't wait to renovate it and move into her new home.
Culver bought the home at 714 Steiner St. in January 2020 for $3.55 million, above its asking price of $2.75 million, listing records show.
Before she took over, the house had been with the previous owners for the 60 years, Culver told The Wall Street Journal. Property ownership was transferred within the previous family during that period.
"I nicknamed it the Pink Painted Lady with the intention to paint it pink when I was finished remodeling. It is currently a beige with reddish-brown trim, but it was bright pink in the 1970s," Culver said, citing historical images of the home in the "Max Kirkeberg Collection" at San Francisco State University.
But then the pandemic struck, and two years later, she's selling the house without ever having lived in it.
"My job got busier. My life just got crazier — I got married, and I moved in with my husband," Culver told Insider.
"As time went on, I decided to focus on other things," the software developer, who works for Twitter, added.
The house is one of the seven Painted Ladies on San Francisco's iconic Postcard Row, which date to the 1890s.
The Painted Ladies were built by Matthew Kavanaugh, an Irish contractor who immigrated to the US in 1869, according to the listing. Kavanaugh built the first house for himself in 1892 and completed the other six homes over three years. Culver's house was constructed in 1895.
The houses are designed in the Queen Anne Victorian style, which is characterized by steep roofs and elaborate facade ornamentations.
The bright colors of the houses came about in the 1960s, according to the official San Francisco tourism board. Most homes in the city were originally gray, but a local artist named Butch Kradum started painting them over in bright hues, starting a trend that eventually caught on with other homeowners.
The houses weren't always known as the Painted Ladies; the moniker gained popularity in 1978, according to the tourism board. The nickname doesn't specifically refer to the houses on Postcard Row but to the style of the houses.
Now an iconic San Francisco landmark, the seven homes have been featured in numerous shows.
"An entire generation who watched 'Full House' is familiar with the photographs of the seven Painted Ladies all in a row, stepping up the hill," Nina Hatvany, a listing agent at Compass, told Insider.
