After searching for the house of our dreams for over 1 and 1/2 years, Jeff and I have decided to build our own. Our requirements seemed reasonable (to us) – solid, old, well maintained, built-ins, hardwood floors, charm, character, “walkability”, and it must be in the City of Pittsburgh. We thought, “this should be easy…right?” We looked in Squirrel Hill, Highland Park, Morningside, East Liberty, Friendship, East Allegheny (Deutschtown), Central North Side (Mexican War Streets), Allegheny West, and Manchester. The houses we looked at varied from – too big, too small, too much work to do, too much work to redo, neighbors with mattresses on their porch, too expensive, bad parking, too much outdoor space, no outdoor space, smells bad, looks bad, taxes too high!, etc. We actually made offers on three homes:
Highland Park – Outbid by a third party!
Mexican War Streets – Phew, glad they didn’t accept our offer.
Morningside – Entered a bidding war – WON! But then the house was sold out from under our noses…(it’s a long story that I don’t want to get into)
We had just about given up. Every real estate agent in Pittsburgh knew us and we still couldn’t procure a home. The Cork Factory looked really appealing at this point…apartment living is great…right? Guess what – the Cork Factory is FULL TOO!!!
Fast forward a few months. I believe I owe a “shout out” to my friends Bob (The General), Pat, Donald R, and Bob for helping me out without them even knowing it. We met at Penn Brewery one night for a beer. After leaving, I decided to take a drive through Deutschtown. We had looked at houses near the Priory (Too Big, Bad Parking), we envied the owners of the homes being restored along Cedar (Too Big, Too Expensive), and we just never really found anything in this area that looked like a possibility. As I drove around, I noticed the cutest house with brown paper in the windows. I parked my car and took a closer look. It was a moderately sized house (good!), with a beautiful restored brick façade (really good!), a deck off the second floor overlooking the city! (OMG!), and PARKING!! I had to find out about this house. I dropped my business card in the mailbox with a note on the back asking – “is this house for sale? Please call me!” (Hey, people in New York read the obituaries to find an apartment…sometimes you have to be creative). The very next day, Rege Fate called me (Thanks Rege!!). No – the house was not for sale BUT! He would pass my business card on to Al DePasquale of October Development (http://octoberdevelopment.com/index.html) – the developer who rehabbed his house.
The rest, as they say, is history. We met with Al several times and immediately hit is off. He took us through a town home on James Street that he built in conjunction with the URA, East Allegheny Community Council, and the North Side Leadership Conference. He took us through a home he rehabbed for himself, which he was selling (Too Big, Too Expensive, Bad Parking), that was stunningly beautiful. We walked through the neighborhood and he told us about other homes he had worked on, the new people moving into the area, the homes being rehabbed on Cedar Street, the vibe, and the tax abatement (more on that later). Not only is Al a talented developer, he is a great salesman. We were sold. The original plan was to buy a town home on Suissmon Street near Max’s Allegheny Tavern (Walkability at its finest!) It turns out that that development is too far in the future for us so we were offered the corner lot of James Street Phase II on the 1300 block of James Street. The home will be a three story, brick and wood home, with a nice size courtyard (No Grass!), Off Street Parking (Oh Yeah!), a roof top deck with an amazing view of Pittsburgh (Are you kidding me?), an open floor plan (this is too good to be true), and A-Mansard-Roof (w00t!)
Highland Park – Outbid by a third party!
Mexican War Streets – Phew, glad they didn’t accept our offer.
Morningside – Entered a bidding war – WON! But then the house was sold out from under our noses…(it’s a long story that I don’t want to get into)
We had just about given up. Every real estate agent in Pittsburgh knew us and we still couldn’t procure a home. The Cork Factory looked really appealing at this point…apartment living is great…right? Guess what – the Cork Factory is FULL TOO!!!
Fast forward a few months. I believe I owe a “shout out” to my friends Bob (The General), Pat, Donald R, and Bob for helping me out without them even knowing it. We met at Penn Brewery one night for a beer. After leaving, I decided to take a drive through Deutschtown. We had looked at houses near the Priory (Too Big, Bad Parking), we envied the owners of the homes being restored along Cedar (Too Big, Too Expensive), and we just never really found anything in this area that looked like a possibility. As I drove around, I noticed the cutest house with brown paper in the windows. I parked my car and took a closer look. It was a moderately sized house (good!), with a beautiful restored brick façade (really good!), a deck off the second floor overlooking the city! (OMG!), and PARKING!! I had to find out about this house. I dropped my business card in the mailbox with a note on the back asking – “is this house for sale? Please call me!” (Hey, people in New York read the obituaries to find an apartment…sometimes you have to be creative). The very next day, Rege Fate called me (Thanks Rege!!). No – the house was not for sale BUT! He would pass my business card on to Al DePasquale of October Development (http://octoberdevelopment.com/index.html) – the developer who rehabbed his house.
The rest, as they say, is history. We met with Al several times and immediately hit is off. He took us through a town home on James Street that he built in conjunction with the URA, East Allegheny Community Council, and the North Side Leadership Conference. He took us through a home he rehabbed for himself, which he was selling (Too Big, Too Expensive, Bad Parking), that was stunningly beautiful. We walked through the neighborhood and he told us about other homes he had worked on, the new people moving into the area, the homes being rehabbed on Cedar Street, the vibe, and the tax abatement (more on that later). Not only is Al a talented developer, he is a great salesman. We were sold. The original plan was to buy a town home on Suissmon Street near Max’s Allegheny Tavern (Walkability at its finest!) It turns out that that development is too far in the future for us so we were offered the corner lot of James Street Phase II on the 1300 block of James Street. The home will be a three story, brick and wood home, with a nice size courtyard (No Grass!), Off Street Parking (Oh Yeah!), a roof top deck with an amazing view of Pittsburgh (Are you kidding me?), an open floor plan (this is too good to be true), and A-Mansard-Roof (w00t!)
No comments:
Post a Comment