That One Greater Pittsburgh Home That Just "Speaks" to You (Oakmont: house, school district)

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

$45,000 on Mt. Washington.

Certain things I like are the brick and the fact it looks 'perched'. You can see steps going up to it. Plus you have that grand porch just hovering over something or another.

I think this kind of housing is quite typical of Pittsburgh as well.

^ OMG, Tiger Beer! That was the one house I toured and pondered purchasing back in November 2010 as I was moving here! It truly did have a lot of character. While it was solidly constructed it would have required $50,000 in renovations to modernize the interior, though.

[groar]

that place across from the hospital is amazing on the outside, but 139k is an insane price for it, obviously. it probably would take at least that much to restore it. that's one of the first houses i noticed in pittsburgh, back when my husband and i used to drive or walk around and get lost in order to learn our way around the city.

oh and by the way, there may be some pediatric cancer patients at agh but the vast majority are at children's, for obvious reasons.

i actually saw the house we own now from my bus to work every day about 3-4 years before we bought it - i really liked it from the outside and i fantasized about it a bunch when it went up for sale but we weren't in a position to buy it at the time.

years later when we were looking for a house, we were weeks away from getting married and i decided to stop looking until after the wedding, and my husband found the place i had been ogling years before on craigslist a few days later. it seems that the owner never found a buyer at his price ($60k), so he found a bank that would refinance it (it had been in his family for a couple of generations so i doubt he had a mortgage to begin with) and then split with the money and let them take the house. we watched it go from $70k to $44k and decided to go look at it, and ended up getting it for 36.

it is awesome - a big 1890s queen anne victorian in move in condition in the hamnett place neighborhood of wilkinsburg, lots of original unpainted woodwork, it needed a roof, it basically had no kitchen, and we are still working on other stuff, but we've been here for 3 years now and no regrets.

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by RestonRunner86

^ OMG, Tiger Beer! That was the one house I toured and pondered purchasing back in November 2010 as I was moving here! It truly did have a lot of character. While it was solidly constructed it would have required $50,000 in renovations to modernize the interior, though.

That would have been worth it though! The renovations could have been done over time....the solid exterior looks gorgeous!

[rhondee]

Originally Posted by groar

that place across from the hospital is amazing on the outside, but 139k is an insane price for it, obviously. it probably would take at least that much to restore it. that's one of the first houses i noticed in pittsburgh, back when my husband and i used to drive or walk around and get lost in order to learn our way around the city.

oh and by the way, there may be some pediatric cancer patients at agh but the vast majority are at children's, for obvious reasons.

i actually saw the house we own now from my bus to work every day about 3-4 years before we bought it - i really liked it from the outside and i fantasized about it a bunch when it went up for sale but we weren't in a position to buy it at the time.

years later when we were looking for a house, we were weeks away from getting married and i decided to stop looking until after the wedding, and my husband found the place i had been ogling years before on craigslist a few days later. it seems that the owner never found a buyer at his price ($60k), so he found a bank that would refinance it (it had been in his family for a couple of generations so i doubt he had a mortgage to begin with) and then split with the money and let them take the house. we watched it go from $70k to $44k and decided to go look at it, and ended up getting it for 36.

it is awesome - a big 1890s queen anne victorian in move in condition in the hamnett place neighborhood of wilkinsburg, lots of original unpainted woodwork, it needed a roof, it basically had no kitchen, and we are still working on other stuff, but we've been here for 3 years now and no regrets.

It was meant to be yours! That is such a cool story, I couldn't help but get a chill when I read it!

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

That would have been worth it though! The renovations could have been done over time....the solid looks gorgeous!

I want it. I just wish I had the money to buy it.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

I think this kind of housing is quite typical of Pittsburgh as well.

Absolutely--very representative of between-wars housing in Pittsburgh.

[Q-tip motha]

Originally Posted by alleghenyangel

Here are some of the houses that speak to me

Plenty of potential in many of those buildings in the bluff neighborhood. Can't tell you how many times I've walked past that first building you posted a picture of and marveled at how beautiful it could.

My own personal home (aside from the one my wife and I bought in Troy hill) that really 'speaks' to me is this oddly shaped corner house in the Hill District.

pittsburgh pa wylie street - Google Maps

[BrianTH]

I have always loved triangular corner buildings, despite the obvious shortcomings--and just imagine, at one point space on the Hill was at such a premium that such a structure made economic sense. Maybe that will happen again in the future.

[Little Mizz Pittsburgh]

...a bunch of them on Beechwood Blvd and a few across from the Forbes Avenue Side of CMU..there's this little cobblestone street you take off of Forbes that leads you to this back street. Don't know the name of the street, as I use it as a short cut when I walk to Shadyside, but um, yeah..those houses...YUMMY

[XRiteMA98]

I have many houses I like in Phg!!! This is one of the first things I discovered in Pittsburgh and I loved it. With the houses and I is love at first sight

There was this house on Morewood ave (in front of CMU, perpendicular on Forbes) that was right across from Bayard st, in the apartment complex I lived. It had all kind of towers and octogonal windows it reminded me of the screen saver I had at that time: a hounted house.

I started to call it the hounted house for this matter.

Oh and I have to tell you about this one. Oh, my... I haven't seen such a thing in America yet, let alone Pittsburgh. Each time I drive by I can't keep the direction because I keep looking at the house discovering one detail or another. Actually it's on Parker Rd. off Cochran ave in mt. Lebanon.

This one I am talking about is huge and ... fairly new. But not the size is impressive but the architecture. God, lots of personality and lots of intersting styles. Don't think cookie cuter monstruozities, aka nevillewood. I hate those.

This one looks very European: it has a round room with a round window; your octogonal window by the entrance, lots of entrances, 3 car garage with individual doors, stone pillars bordering a manicured garden.

That part of mt. lebanon (left and right off Cochran before reaching the Giant eagle) has a bit of more upscale/expensive houses that are different in styles. But this one I'm talking about stands out as far as architecture goes. A German coworker showed it to me and we were both ogling it like "i can't believe this house is in America".

Apart from these, I just love some houses in troy hill and old victorian ones in Bloomfield.