Dilapidated or abandoned houses (Pittsburgh, Oakmont: chapel, neighborhood, buy)

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by robrobrob

They are only cheap if you build them yourselves. I think they are priced about the same as granite. I looked into them a few years back but never got a quote since I was more interested in DIY.

Wrong. It's slightly more expensive than formica but it's not nearly as expensive as granite.

I talked to the man a few months ago. I just haven't taken the leap yet.

Here's a cost comparison for countertops: Cost of Concrete Countertops

The Pittsburgh area is on the lower end of that pricing range for concrete because contractor prices are cheaper in low cost of living areas.

btw, expense isn't my main concern. I don't like granite, never have. I think it's ugly.

And I strongly believe kitchens with granite will look very dated a decade from now.

If I were to pick a stone, I'd chose soapstone or limestone.

[robrobrob]

Originally Posted by Hopes

Wrong. It's slightly more expensive than formica but it's not nearly as expensive as granite.

I talked to the man a few months ago. I just haven't taken the leap yet.

Here's a cost comparison for countertops: Cost of Concrete Countertops

The Pittsburgh area is on the lower end of that pricing range for concrete because contractor prices are cheaper in low cost of living areas.

btw, expense isn't my main concern. I don't like granite, never have. I think it's ugly.

And I strongly believe kitchens with granite will look very dated a decade from now.

If I were to pick a stone, I'd chose soapstone or limestone.

I realize that you aren't interested in granite, but my granite from Lowes was 54/sq. foot installed. They also threw in a free undermount sink. I wanted Soapstone too but it was too pricey. I also like marble but my wife hates marble.

By the way, fomica was more expensive than corian at least for our countertop design and was pretty close, maybe 20 percent cheaper, to granite.

[fleetiebelle]

Are granite or concrete countertops really heavy? I'm envisioning my kitchen floor collapsing under the weight of trendy counters.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

Are granite or concrete countertops really heavy? I'm envisioning my kitchen floor collapsing under the weight of trendy counters.

They're definitely much, much heavier than formica. I plan to reinforce my kitchen floor via the basement. We had to replace a main house beam a ten years ago. (I'm not talking a floor joist, I'm talking a huge giant beam at one end of the house that sits on the foundation.) The floor was cut from the old beam to tear it out and install the new beam. I'm well aware that there is a structural weakness on the kichen floor along that wall. (Thankfully, our floor joists are solid and run parallel to that wall.) After we add support to that edge of the floor, we're installing a new subfloor, concrete board or whatever it's called, which will also add strength to the floor since it spans many joists. Strengthening an old floor isn't very expensive or difficult. My house is over 100 years old and I'm comfident that my floor can handle the extra weight. I'm just taking precautions to play it safe. If that main beam hadn't been replaced, I wouldn't be the least bit concerned about my floor handling the extra weight.

[subdivisions]

Originally Posted by Aqua Teen Carl

I think Pittsburgh might have an odd comparison to beautiful cities in Eastern Europe. For example take a wonderful city like Krakow, Poland. It's an old and beautiful city but suffered under Communist rule (much like Pittsburgh suffered during the fall of the steel industry). However, now that the rule of Communism has been lifted it is now undergoing a renaissance (much like Pittsburgh is undergoing a renaissance due to the medial and technology industries). However, there are still signs of the negative affect of Communism abound in the buildings and attitude in the culture(much like there are signs of the steel bust still in Pittsburgh's culture and appearance). A bit of a strange comparison I know, but in many ways that's how I see this city.

A few years ago I took a trip to Leipzig, which is a city in East Germany formerly ruled by the communists.

I was really surprised by how much it resembled Pittsburgh. The climate and flora was similar, it has an extensive canal system reminiscent of our rivers, it has a large university culture, and the architecture everywhere in the city was very similar to the kinds of buildings you see in Pittsburgh. It was also clearly a city which had gone through some hard times several decades ago, but which was attempting to revitalize itself. Like Pittsburgh, it had many stunningly beautiful and ornate buildings and also many dilapidated houses and graffiti'ed warehouses, often all on the same street. It felt and looked so much like Pittsburgh to me that I felt almost like I'd fallen into a 'burgh in some alternate universe where the rivers were smaller and everyone spoke German instead of English. Leipzig seemed utterly foreign and completely familiar and normal to me, all at the same time. It was a funny experience.

Like Pittsburgh, I thought the contrast between the shabby remnants of Leipzig's past and the elegance of Leipzig's revitalized future was actually very beautiful and compelling. But then again, I'm probably one of those with a 'decay fetish'.

Anyway, the short version of this post is that I very much agree with AquaTeenCarl. I think Pittsburgh is very comparable to some eastern European cities, both in attitude and in visual gestalt.

On a completely different note, I agree with the posters who said that what a Pittsburgh street or neighborhood looks like is not necessarily representative of what actually goes on there in terms of crime. As someone who came from a Western state myself, it was a bit of culture shock for me too to realize that shabby doesn't automatically equal "bad neighborhood" here. Out West, you get used to the idea that the "good neighborhoods" are the ones with new houses and perfect lawns and vice-versa. But it's not necessarily true here.

(And BTW, I actually ended up living in a really bad neighborhood in Colorado Springs one time because I was fooled by how nice certain things in the neighborhood *looked*. But it wasn't that the people there were so good at taking care of their property or being good citizens - it was more that everything was so new it hadn't had time to really deteriorate yet. The moral of that story is that fresh paint and apartments that were built last year don't really make up for people shooting one another in the street.)

[subdivisions]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

When I came to Pittsburgh from NoVA in November 2010 to tour my current apartment in Polish Hill (near the big church) my landlady immediately tried to dissuage assumed apprehensions I would have regarding the two blighted rowhomes directly across the street. Polish Hill used to house roughly 5,000 residents and now struggles to hold onto 1,200.

I think Polish Hill is an extremely underappreciated neighborhood. Eventually they're going to run out of crappy little rowhouses to buy up in L'ville and then some developer's going to figure out that there are more up the hill, in a safer area with a better view, and then watch out for those skyrocketing prices!

My relatives just moved here a few months ago. When they were house shopping, we went to go see a $60K house in Polish Hill. I was utterly amazed when we stepped out of the car in front of a nicely kept little place bordered by two community gardens and fronting what would probably be a 3 million dollar view in any other city (the entire panorama of the North Shore).

They weren't interested in the house, but I was!

Interestingly, that house went under contract in less than two days, in "shabby" Polish Hill. And that wasn't the only place where we didn't even have the chance to see the inside before someone else snapped it up - in multiple neighborhoods in multiple parts of the city. I'm pretty bullish on Pittsburgh, and even I was surprised by the roaring market we were encountering for under-100K homes this summer.

I think some changes are happening in this city this year - good changes.

[BrianTH]

Another grab-bag post:

I agree something pretty dramatic is happening in the lower end of the City's housing market, at least in certain areas--although I guess whether the changes are good depends on whether you will still be looking for a great bargain on a house a few years from now (in fact, I think some of the best bargains of even a few years ago now virtually no longer exist).

I love the look of concrete counters but I couldn't get past how fussy the sealers seemed to be. I was told you weren't supposed to put hot things on them, or cut on them, or use abrasive cleaners, and so forth, all to protect the sealer, and I gather some people also think you should wax them regularly. I'm sure that would be fine with some people, but that's not how I treat a kitchen counter.

If it was just me, I probably still wouldn't care--I think it would be cool to have a worn, stained, "patina-ed" concrete counter--but I would worry about resale.

[Hopes]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

I love the look of concrete counters but I couldn't get past how fussy the sealers seemed to be. I was told you weren't supposed to put hot things on them, or cut on them, or use abrasive cleaners, and so forth, all to protect the sealer, and I gather some people also think you should wax them regularly. I'm sure that would be fine with some people, but that's not how I treat a kitchen counter.

I hear you. How they are maintained depends on the specific process used by the artisan who creates them. I plan to talk with him about this first.

Originally Posted by BrianTH

If it was just me, I probably still wouldn't care--I think it would be cool to have a worn, stained, "patina-ed" concrete counter--but I would worry about resale.

The wonderful thing about concrete is it can be refinished!

[Hopes]

I wonder if the OP ever made it to Morningside and Aspinwall before she left?

[gg]

Originally Posted by Hopes

And I strongly believe kitchens with granite will look very dated a decade from now.

If I were to pick a stone, I'd chose soapstone or limestone.

Granite is timeless. I can tell you have no idea how many different kinds of stone are out there. Heck there are granites that are about one color with almost no other markings. The range is amazing. I suspect you see the stuff in Home Depot and just think that is it. Go to that big place in Oakmont. They usually let you walk around, even know it is wholesale.

Dated? ha ha ha.