6 Months later...a Pittsburgh House Tour

Last week was a huge sigh of relief because we finally got our security deposit back on our Pittsburgh rental. It was a relief because the agency made us jump through dozens of hoops just to rent the place...$35 application fee each, $30 to register our dogs on a database each year we were there + provide vet records, have every utility switched in our names with account numbers written down for the agency's records before we could move in...I could go on and on. The biggest issue was that, not only did we have to put down a full month's rent as a security deposit, but we had to put down a duplicate amount as a pet deposit...and still pay per month, per pet. 

My head aches just thinking about it and remembering the stress of it all, frankly. We always felt like we were being taken advantage of during that process. 

In the end, we did everything they asked because we needed a place to live and had no other options. 

Two weeks ago, they told us they were giving us the entire deposit plus the entire pet deposit back because we'd done such a good job taking care of the place and cleaning it before we left. They were originally supposed to charge us for carpet-cleaning and they didn't. Woo-hoo. 

We didn't ask questions. We just deposited the check and now we are done with Pittsburgh. 

Everyone has a pre-shutdown story where they just couldn't believe that it had been real life, considering the entire country started shutting down two weeks later. For me, it was when our friends from Denver came to visit us for Presidents' Day weekend and we spent a few days seeing/eating/doing everything in Pittsburgh. (The next week all three of us were sick with chills, fever, body aches, etc...just saying...)

Life was good, right?

I took these pictures with the intent of sharing them once we were long gone from Pittsburgh. I took them right before our friends arrived from the airport because I was thinking This might be the last time this place looks fully put-together because I'm going to start packing next month because we're moving in May. bahahaha, right? We ended up ending our lease July 15th, due to Covid pushing our moving date and start date in Kansas.

But I do try to take pictures of our houses once they're "done". 

The bane of my existence: the front door just opening into the living room. The fixation I have on entryways now is unreal. 

Not our curtains. 

They were pretty high quality, up on a track. I made them work. I had the fireplace baby-proofed for a bit. Then he kept pulling the foam off so I gave up. 

The dining room. 

This was my only real baby-proofing after Wells could really walk. It was the only thing I was afraid of him getting into. He almost never did, though.

The kitchen, if I had to pick, would be my favorite room. There was a decent amount of workspace. I mean, the water hookup/icemaker on the fridge didn't work, the garbage disposal was always jamming, the dishwasher was inserted crookedly, and the oven died more than once...but the gas stove was a delight. 

That countertop is not granite. It's a bumpy epoxy paint, most commonly used for garage floors. Which the neighbor helpfully told me she would never eat off of because you'd probably get sick from it.

This kitchen did have a ton of storage but since it was built 50-60 years ago, there weren't many outlets, which gets to you after some time. 

The bathroom was the only professionally remodeled room in the house and it shows. The subway tile was lovely, decent amount of storage, etc. I just wish there had been two bathrooms like this. 

Wells' room. I did a separate post on this. But that purple carpet was interesting. The neighbor told me it was originally installed in the house when there was a little girl living there and now this little girl is 48 years old...so it's an old carpet. 

The guest room/office. There was nothing that could be done to make this room look good. The walls were dingy white, the blinds were too small for the windows, etc. I tried curtains and that barely worked. The great rug from Wells' first nursery looked terrible on these floors. The point of contention was mainly the floor: they had pulled up carpet and never refinished the wood so it was a mess. 

(Also, that's our dresser mirror up against the wall. It didn't fit in our room.)

And the half bath was in the guest room? Whatever. 

And our room. Same issue with the floor. It had random scratches and paint marks and nail holes everywhere. It was original hardwood but no one had ever refinished it. You could still see the carpet staples, with the occasional carpet fiber along the wall. It reminded me of this experience in Colorado and I was surprised we didn't come across a tack strip. 

Do you remember on Father of the Bride where George describes their house as "warm in the winter and cool in the summer". This house was the opposite: even with central air, it was warm in the summer and cool in the winter. In fact, it was downright drafty. I had to put blankets in the windows of our bedrooms. Our room stayed the coldest, so I had a space heater I'd fire up on really cold nights. Scott swore that sleeping in there gave him a sore throat and he blamed more than one cold on that room. So he slept on the couch a lot. 

In the summer, the bedroom was so hot that Scott couldn't stand it either. 

The windows were either poorly installed, the insulation was non-existent, or (most likely) both. 

My dad also mentioned the A/C return vents were in the wrong spot; if you look at the picture up there of the guest room, you can see that the return is on the wall, under the window. They're not supposed to be on exterior walls. The actual heat/air vents were on the interior walls (they were wall vents, not floor registers). 

So, essentially, the air and the heat were circulating backward, meaning....no wonder if was always warm when it was supposed to be cold and cold when it was supposed to be warm. 

Clearly, I've spent A LOT of time fixated on this. 

Anyway. House #6 is done and gone. Finally. House #7 seems to be much more promising. 

(Our a/c return vents are properly positioned. I checked as soon as we moved in.)

Yellow door and things.

I think a nice spring wreath will help. I'll put it on the command hook...that they hung in the middle of the door. Ugh. Better look for a fluffy wreath to cover all that up.

I could go on and on about the disadvantages of renting. It's a waste of money, yes. It's less work than homeownership, sure. Basically it means that Scott can't rip things apart whenever he feels like it and I can't paint a room when I don't like a color. While some of this is a definite plus, some is considered a minus.

To be perfectly honest, we've never rented an "older" house.

Our first house in Alaska in 2009 was built in 1993 but it had been gutted and remodeled on the inside so it was "like new". Our second house was built in maybe 2005? It was still very 2005 on the inside but it was spotless when we moved in in 2011 so I took it, happily. To date, that was my favorite house. Our house in Missouri was probably also built in the early 2000s but was very clean and kept up-to-date. It was probably the prettiest on the outside.

And, well, our Colorado house was a mess on the inside, and we knew this when we low-balled with our offer to buy it. It was 100% intentional to buy a remodeling project because the land that went with it was worth it.  We completely redid it all because we owned it.

Our Laramie house, also one we bought, was built in 1966. So it was older, definitely, but we had the ability (but not the time) to do what we wanted to it. Scott fixed up the kitchen a bit before we left Wyoming. But since it wasn't a rental, it was at our mercy and I did do some painting.

This Pittsburgh rental was also built in the 1960s, I'm assuming. Maybe the 1950s based on the timeline the neighbors have given me.

Good things:
The outside has been nicely landscaped so it's just upkeep on our end. Landscaping was a never ending battle in Colorado because of the prairie wind.

There's a covered patio, nice sliding door, flat yard, shed, and one-car garage.

It's a ranch house, which is what we're used to and is so much easier with the baby (and for the purposes of moving in and out).

It's in a nice, settled neighborhood that is off the main highway but is still just minutes from everything we could want/need. Better than both our Colorado house and our Laramie house in this way (Laramie didn't have much and the Colorado house was far from town).

I believe most of the walls are freshly painted and, when looking at the color choices, Scott realized it was the same color palette he used in our Colorado basement. The paint for this house is in the basement here and yes, whoever painted all the rooms used the same Pin from Pinterest as inspiration and it's identical to what Scott used in our Colorado basement.

The main bathroom has just been redone with subway tile and a double sink.

There's a full Pittsburgh potty in the basement, with a sink and shower (and a door), but it was soooo dirty when we moved in. Not like bathroom-dirty. Like actual dirt. We don't use it and I took pictures of it and the rental company will see those eventually. I suppose it'll be fine for dog-bathing.

The bedrooms are pretty large for a ranch. Our furniture, which is huge, fits perfectly.

The kitchen has almost brand-new appliances and a ton of storage. This was the only reason I came to look at this house in the first place. The person who posted the pictures did a horrible job and didn't post any of the outside.

I like the lighting in this house. No fluorescents. Dimmer switches. LED/can lights in the kitchen.

The basement is the same size as the house and has a ton of storage. There's also a finished family room but we likely will just use it for storage because this is our staging grounds to get rid of all.the.things. before our next move. It's time to consolidate. We did that with furniture before we left Wyoming. Now it's time for all the boxes full of stuff.

There's a nice washer and dryer and, while they're not guaranteed for the duration of the lease (they won't replace them if they break), this was the only rental I looked at where we wouldn't have had to buy a set. We have had our own in every other rental and left those in Colorado. The Laramie house came with a set and they also stayed put.

The bad:
The front door is pale yellow. I don't know who thought that was a good idea, but I'd like to talk to them and then I'd like to paint it navy blue.

The guest room could also use a coat of paint. It was the only room you can tell they didn't do anything to, as well as the half bath. It has updated features but still has striped yellow wallpaper.

The backyard isn't completely fenced in. We're going to be putting up a temporary fence around the gaps, but we haven't gotten to it yet.

I'm 99% sure the outside walls of this house aren't insulated and it's not exactly been a warm winter. The bedrooms, especially the master, run like 5 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.

The kitchen also gets a bit chilly.

Pretty sure the windows are just very old single-pane windows.

Wells' bedroom carpet is purple.

The owners have two locked closets in the basement and we're pretty sure there's pot-growing equipment or something in them. Whatever. Not my problem. Everything is still as illegal as can be in Pennsylvania (even transporting a gun in your vehicle apparently!), so when the DEA shows up, I'll just point them to the basement.

The master and the guest room have the same wood floors as the rest of the house (the original wood floors) but those two rooms simply had the carpet pulled up and weren't refinished like the living room, dining room, and hallway. They're kind of a mess to look at.

This really is just about the physical features of the property, but it's worth mentioning...

The company we rent from double charges us for the dogs. This is the only place that not only made us pay a huge deposit, but we have to pay monthly, per dog. I mentioned before that rental pickings were slim, so it is what it is. The lady I deal with is nice enough but that's not the point. I'm pretty sure I dealt with pure evil in the agent we rented from in Wasilla, Alaska, so this lady isn't that bad in comparison, but still. Agencies are agencies. I would've much rather rented from one owner.

Anyway. Good and bad everywhere. I know Scott hates renting so, so much and I hate the complications that go along with it, like getting bad landlords, etc. If our house in Colorado would've been under contract in December or something, we would've looked to buy instead, but it would've been far too complicated to try and buy a third house right now, otherwise. While renting can be a huge waste of money, it does give us a chance to just reset and decide what we want to do next. We'll *most likely* rent again when we leave Pittsburgh, just because in July of 2020 we'll be heading to another base for just a one-year school. After that, going to a regular duty station for 3 more years, we'll be ready to buy again.

How to fix a four-wheeler tire

I had put this off for over a month. The dog probably could've done it.

Here's the tutorial that I totally "needed".

Tiny Houses

Have you seen the documentary Tiny on Netflix?

We first watched it well over a year ago but, when we had a friend visiting over Christmas break, Scott told him about it and we watched it again.

The idea is that we don't need STUFF.  Of course, many of us subscribe to this theory and we don't like excess stuff everywhere and purging old clothes, toys, and books feels good.  However, the point of this documentary is not only that we don't need excess stuff, we don't need excess space.  Imagine what you could do if you don't need to maintain, decorate, furnish, and pay the utilities for a 2,000 square foot house.  The documentary is about why we can become happier and more fulfilled if we focus on aspects of life other than having a big house, with lots of stuff, and the high-stress job that pays for it all.  

Now.  Scott would love to build a tiny house.  I would think it could be a fun experiment and would like to try a year of living that way.  We think the business model of, perhaps, manufacturing tiny houses could be pretty profitable.  Especially since we've lived in those crunchy states of Alaska and Colorado.  There's a market for it.  

This got me thinking about the comparison trap, why we insist on big houses, why we feel the need to fill them with stuff, etc.  

Bear with me.  This is a long post.  But I can't get these thoughts out of my head, so here we are. 

Our first house in Alaska was about 1300 square feet and that included the garage.  3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, open living-room/dining room/kitchen, and the garage was only one of those 1.5 car varieties.  It was pretty perfect when we first moved in, but as we amassed army gear and hunting stuff and some tools, we quickly ran out of space.  

17 months later, we moved into a 2600 square foot house.  

House #2 (pictures taken from an old camera phone)

Like this space was kinda wasted, right?

Extra living room we NEVER used.

Let me explain why we had such a house. Pickings were slim in the rental market that winter, and I liked the layout and Scott liked the 3 car garage.  Because we moved to a new town, the house was the same rent price as the former much smaller one.  It wasn't really an adjustment in that sense.  We just could finally spread out.  Well, what happens when you have more space?  You get more stuff.  While we didn't buy new furniture, we did end up with more tools, hunting stuff, a snowmobile, a cataraft, etc.  

The house had an eat-in kitchen, dining room, two living rooms, 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, and a loft.  It was way too big for us.  It was also basic builder-grade, so there was nothing special or unique about it.  It fit our needs though and we were more or less happy there.  We totally were aware the entire time that it was ridiculously big.  We needed that garage though.  The driveway was a pain to shovel and yard annoying to mow, but hey.  It worked for 2+ years. 

We intentionally downsized when we moved to Missouri for these reasons.  We also rented there sight-unseen.  They weren't sure how many square feet it was (ugh, Realty Executives), but it was a ranch with a full-sized basement/foundation.  The basement was unfinished, but it was perfect for a storage area and workspace.  The upstairs was the perfect size for the two of us.  We had a guest room, a room for Scott's army stuff, and 2 bathrooms.  My biggest issue with that place was the white carpet.  Also, we didn't like the street we were on (a hill) and the smallish driveway.  The 2-car garage was quickly overrun because, again, we didn't have room to spread out.  The rent was cheaper than it was in Alaska, but that's to be expected.  It was Missouri. 

So.  Then it came time to buy a house.  This is where ideals clashed.  Scott wanted a house with good bones that he could improve upon and I was secretly craving "the American dream".  

Source

However, I knew that a basic, builder-grade house wasn't something I really wanted.  We'd lived in that from 2011-2013 and it was annoyingly…basic.  Also, land. Owning land was a priority.  Here's the post on why we bought below our means.  It sums up things.

Sometimes I selfishly feel like this house is too small.  I mean, I don't have two living rooms anymore.  And then I look at sense:  We have 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms (one unfinished), a full basement with 12 foot ceilings, and who ever told me I needed to live in the kind of houses I see all over this town?  We've spent more time adding the finishes we want to this house and making it feel like our home, compared to worrying about how many square feet it is.  Let it be known that I only feel like this house is too small after I visit someone else's cavernous (well-decorated) home. I've been in some houses that are just big and new and not necessarily well-decorated or special in any way, and that makes me happy with what I have. (I'm tracking how vain and ridiculous this sounds.) 

This could be something we picked up in Alaska too.  Most people I knew there loved and appreciated their homes (bought or rented) and weren't concerned about having the biggest or the best.  People in Alaska were like that.  They were more into being outside and stuff.  Plus, houses there were expensive.  Prime locations in Anchorage were millions of dollars.  

I think the comparison trap told us we need big houses.  Why are people spending $350,000-400,000 on houses that are 22 feet away from their neighbors?  Why is that considered the ideal?  Why is that the American dream?  The American dream used to be known as manifest destiny.  Expanding over the land, not expanding our square footage.  Why is it that many people believe they've "made it" when they have a $2,000 a month mortgage and 2.5 kids and must work at jobs that run them ragged in order to afford it all?  

I don't know the answer to any of this, so I'm just throwing those questions out there.  Obviously, living  in a housing development isn't a bad thing.  I mean, I did it for 5 years.  (The housing developments around Colorado Springs are fascinating microcosms if you look at how they're set up though.  I'm never seen expensive houses so close together.) I'm asking why is the end game a giant house in a housing development? What tells us we, as a human being, need to accomplish that in order to be a grown-up?  Why can't we be happy in an apartment building? The author of The Happiness Project is.  Is it because House Hunters and My First Place tell us that we need to move "up" in the world by expanding our space into what we can barely afford? Again, I don't know the answers.  I'm asking the question.  

We've watched a lot of foreign t.v. shows lately and I'm always startled by how seemingly small and cramped their homes appear compared to ours.  It's all relative and we're just used to the American ideal, I suppose.  Look at the Home Alone house.  Those were rich people. Of course their house was big.  Why do we assume we all need one too?

Anywho.  As someone who has lived in, paid the rent for, and tried to decorate several houses over the last few years, I find myself pondering these things as I watched Tiny.  I highly recommend it if you have Netflix.  

Starting to feel like home

Our kitchen is not quite finished.  We need to install more cabinets on the wall by the oven.  We need to paint a few of those cabinets still.  We need to order a few custom-made cabinet doors.  We will eventually get a new dishwasher (though this one works so well that I see no rush there).  We need to paint the walls and we still haven't decided on a color.  We also need to finish the trim around the bar and paint it.

But it is 100% functional as a kitchen and dining area.  And for the first time, it feels like it belongs to Kristin and Scott.  For the first few months we were here, it was just a demolition zone (see pictures at the end of this post).  We've now been in this house for 6 months and now that the heavy duty work is out of the way (eh, most of it), I don't have to curl up in the corner with my glass of moscato and just wait for it to be over.  

That's a swamp cooler on the wall, by the way.  I meant to do a separate post on that back in June when we installed it.  It's like an air conditioner for the desert climate.  Keeps that house at 70 degrees or cooler during the summer, using evaporated water in an energy-efficient way.  We realized we needed it when we were ripping up carpet and it was 90 degrees inside and that's not a motivating temperature.  Without this $500 investment (installed by Scott), we'd have not gotten very far on this place.  I have no idea how the previous owner got by without it.  

In case you've forgotten….June 2014.

And here's the in-between phase…which has been most of the last six months.  

These are in no particular order.  Just a sampling.

Oh, you'd do it too if you had a puppy and hole in the countertop. 

I desperately tried to keep up normalcy by crock-potting dinner.

Progress is progress, right?  Goal for December:  paint the kitchen walls and cabinets that are left.  

How we are paying for our remodel

Scott recently added up how much we've put into this house since May and it's quite a bit.  In fact, everything liquid has been tied up in this place (liquid, Chuck Bass, he he) to this point.  Now that's kind of over with since the major purchases are taken care of. This is how we've been able to afford a remodel…

We bought below our means.

Colorado Springs is expensive.  In order for us to get the kind of house I wanted, we'd have to apply for at least a $300,000 mortgage.  In order for us to get the kind of house I wanted on more than a quarter of an acre, we'd have to have a mortgage of at least $350-$375,000.  That is not in the cards when we would like to be able to sleep at night.  Plus, I don't think they'd have given us that anyway.  We'd applied for our mortgage on just Scott's income because, at the time, I didn't have a job lined up.

We purposely bought a house that was well below our budget so we could renovate it. They ended up dropping the price right before we made an offer and we still low-balled them because the place needed a lot of work.

We've been able to take all that money we didn't use to pay for the structure of the house and put it into the house.

Scott knew the kinds of houses I would look at if I house-shopped online…I would find pretty ones, already done up with what I wanted.  Or I would find houses that were like our past two rentals:  builder-grade with basic fixtures/features that I would want to improve upon.  But when a builder-grade house already costs $300,000 in Colorado Springs, there's no way we could ever afford to put any money into it.  That's why I let him house-shop for us.  It was incredibly nerve-wracking, but I do trust him and, even if there were moments of doubt about this place (uh, a lot of them), he's made good on his word.

This is actually the second house we've bought and the first one was paid off within 5 years due to the fact that Scott should've gone to school to be an accountant or something.

Also on our side is that fact that Scott is doing all the work himself.  From the carpentry to the electrical to the plumbing…the only thing we've had done professionally is the installation of the countertops.  Just because they're very heavy and accuracy is key and he didn't have anyone with arm strength to help him.

Scott also mentioned that whenever we get around to the garage, we'd have to call someone in to pour the foundation.  But that is a LONG way off.

I suppose the point is that if you're wondering how we're paying for new stuff for this house, it's because our housing allowance more than covers our mortgage, so we're able to take what's left over and use it for the important stuff.  Like copper sinks.  (which actually didn't cost more than a really nice stainless sink…sinks in general are just annoyingly expensive).  Does that make sense?  My advice is that if you're looking to put money into house, lower your price bracket by $50,000.

With that being said…

Aside from the a forth-coming slate floor, I'm done with the master bathroom.  You'll remember that one of the very first changes I insisted we make in this house was the removal of the terrible wood toilet seat and the addition of a towel rack.  I've had plans to paint it ever since I saw this bathroom, and I've spent the better chunk of two weekends doing just that.

However, there's already tile in the bathroom and while it may not have been the exact colors we'd have chosen, it's better than laminate countertops so it's not a deal-breaker.  Also, I think this will come together when we put in the slate floor and I think I'm going to paint the doors.  There are two doors and I think they need to be painted off-white.

I don't have a million "before" pictures simply because sometimes taking "before" pictures makes me overly sad and anxious.  But, I mean, it's just a bathroom. 

Before.

I do realize that it's not the worst color in the world, but I gave an explanation here.  Plus, those cabinets with the white knobs…I need to do something with them.  They make my head hurt.  

After.

One more thing taken care of, right?