Now for the"Before" Tour of the Interior

It's rather unusual for houses in Pittsburgh to have integral garages, so let's start our interior tour there.  For starters, this garage has a real wood panel door - none of that fake "wood" grain and steel doors that you find in suburban developments...  And, though not all that wide, the garage is long enough to have plenty of storage in the back.  One bad thing, notice that the heating ducts run right across it with not an ounce of insulation or fireproofing around them!  Not too energy efficient and not too safe!

Right next to the garage is the official "basement" which is quite roomy with a nice high ceiling, but also quite damp due to what we would later find out to be totally clogged and overflowing downspouts on the back and right side of the house...

Up the stairs, you enter the kitchen.  While not a large kitchen by any means, with a little reconfiguration and wall removal, it will work quite nicely and be even better connected to the dining room (you are seeing its green walls) than currently.  The cabinets are not original, and while they seem to be good cabinets, they just don't suit the house.  So, they'll soon be gone, along with the bulkheads above them and the various layers of awful flooring.  Surprisingly, the refrigerator and stove are rather new - in fact, the refrigerator still has its blue plastic film on the doors - so, they are keepers. 

The adjacent dining room is quite nice, with great views of the backyard through its picture window.  Unfortunately, that window will have to go, so that future homeowners can better access the deck and patio out back.

And, now comes the living room.  And, what a great big room it is - well, it will be once those awnings are removed and light can stream in... and once the green walls and pink (yes, pink!) ceiling is gone...

Once you get to the top of the stairs, you understand where previous owners got the green and pink color palette: from the bathroom!   A convoluted path through the bathroom, windows you can't see through, the ugliest vinyl tiles anyone has ever seen, a cracked vanity sink and a claustrophobic tub area don't let you appreciate the bathroom's generous size or its potential.  So, here comes a total gut and some moving of doorways and walls....

The back bedroom is next.  Good size and good light but terrible closet:  only 1' deep (can't hang anything in it) and with sliding doors that limit access to one half at a time.  This won't do, so I guess we'll be moving walls here too.  One good thing:  inside the closet is a laundry chute (how I would love one in my own house).

Now, the front bedroom is what will definitely sell this house!  For starters, it's huge.  In addition, it's filled with morning light (i.e. the "morning-side" bedroom!).  And, once, those trees with the pine cones that are clogging the downspouts are gone, there will be views of Highland Park and the Heth's Run Valley.  Super!

Now it's time for the renovation to begin...

The "Before" Tour - the exterior

Even before you could reach the actual house, it was pretty clear that much work was needed.  The three sets of concrete stairs leading to the porch were broken or sinking or both.

Once on the front porch, I knew that the unique front door would really be cool once it was refinished,

and could imagine how much nicer the house would look once the dirty aluminum was stripped off the siding and off the unusual vertical trim boards between the leaky metal casement windows. 

A wood deck and a concrete paver patio out back were nice and practical but dingy and not very welcoming.

I couldn't wait to get inside!

An International purchase in more ways that one

I had promised myself that I would take a year off from buying another house to rehab and the year was up.  Casually, I started to look for something different and interesting but nothing really jumped out at me.

Then, one day driving on a different route through Morningside, there it was!  Clearly different from the other houses in the neighborhood (an "American International" Style house, not Arts and Crafts).  Definitely younger (1956 to be exact, not 1920s).  Definitely a one-of-a-kind house (never seen one like it Pittsburgh, and let me tell you, I look at houses...). And, most definitely in need of some work (somebody, please get rid of those aluminum awnings and overgrown shrubs).  And, what was even better:  a for-sale sign in its front yard!

A little investigating uncovered that it was vacant and it was a foreclosure - clearly an orphan to be adopted before the "remuddlers" and "flippers" got a hold of it.  It took some phone calls to get to see it but when I finally got in, I knew immediately that this had to be my next project.

We went back and forth several times with the realtors for the Bank of New York, the  settlement company based in Atlanta, and its agents in India (!) and finally settled on a price and a closing date.  Then, on December 13th, the house was ours.  The adventure would soon begin.