Post Gazette Essay on a Transplant's Frustrating Home Search

[dissident]

It must have been a tough life in Ruthford Acres, Bethel Park. Whatevs...I'm sorry for your loss, but sweetie, you come off as having a lot of First World Problems.

[SorryIMovedBack]

Originally Posted by juliegt

I understand that it takes time to find the right house. But she's complaining about the things that make Pittsburgh Pittsburgh. She's planning to retire here. You'd think she would have thought about she wanted in a place to retire before deciding to move here. I knew there was a lot of old housing stock. I knew that many, many houses had stairs. It's hilly. For me, those things were part of the appeal. I would not have chosen a place with suburban ranch homes on flat lots and then complained that I couldn't find a two story home at least 100 years old. The article did mention that she was moving here to retire with her sweetheart. Maybe he was from here and she had no idea what the housing stock was like?

Perhaps she decided to move closer to where her sister is in order to have companionship and somebody to do things with, and that was what drove the decision. I think there is a lot unsaid in that "rant" that might be very legitimate reasons for her looking for certain features in a house, as well. Perhaps the writer has some health problems herself? Or her fiance does? Everyone with health problems needs an advocate when they are hospitalized or having surgeries, etc.

I dig what she's saying about wanting and probably just expecting to find homes with 2-car garage. Heck, Kittanning and Yatesboro and half a dozen coal camps have terraced rows of streets that go up hilldsides. But, the lots are deep enough that most company homes had a backyard for a garden or kids play space. And there were nice alleys running between rows of homes, and each home had room back there for at least a 1-car garage. Sharon and Farrell, PA, are company towns with streets full of kit homes that were built by Westinghouse or Carnegie Steel or other mill or factory. But, again, those towns were laid out with enough room behind the house for a 2-car garage to be added later. Philly is probably a lot flatter than Pittsburgh is. Pittsburgh and WashPa were built for able-bodied people who could hoof it up and down stairs and hillsides to get to where the public transportation was.

Look at photos of Pittsburgh, or Washington, or Charleroi, and it looks like rows of dominos piled on hillsides. Would be a lot better for modern living if they'd knock down of the worst of the old decayed bumpkin-millworker-remuddled homes and buildings, and sell the lots to the neighbors. If the house has been gutted inside and redone a la the hodgepodge closeout section of Habitat for Humanity's warehouse, why not knock it down. It's ruined now, anyway.