House Hunting

The dog we almost bought, hah!

It was before Holiday break, I felt that I needed to waste ample amounts of time, and for some reason got fixated on the idea of adding a small dog to our house (reference my Tumblr post here).  We were on the verge of purchasing little Ginger.  I was emailing back and forth with the breeders and all we had to do was put down the payment, and oh yeah... call our landlord.

That's when all dog searching came to a halt.  He doesn't compromise at all on dogs because he had been burned in the past by tenants who promised their dogs were the perfect angels.  Perfectly understandable.  So after going on the dog hunt, the next thing we did was go on an apartment hunt.  I wasn't really excited to buy a home in Pittsburgh, so I started searching around for whole houses for rent.  I found out quickly, this is an expensive option... yikes.

Paul checking out the place, full of stuff...

After searching around for dog friendly homes, Paul and I took the afternoon to look online for houses that we could potentially afford.  It was a long shot, but over the Holidays we discussed the idea of home ownership with our families - and started the HOUSE HUNT.  What a hunt it was.  We were initially inspired by our neighbors who landed a beautiful new home in Friendship after patiently waiting for the local real estate to cooperate, they found the perfect house.

Front of the new pad!

We started out in all the wrong neighborhoods, and finally were able to narrow it down to some of our favorite, yet affordable places.  After one look at a house that I was already sold out without seeing the photos of the inside - we put down and offer.  What a terrifying experience!  Our first offer together on our first home - talk about momentous!  We went in cautiously because we weren't too familiar with the market.  After a few days of anxiety, we were out bid.  Dang.  Well, we were back to square one with a long list of houses we didn't particularly love.  There was something a little off about all the potentials on our list at that time.  We decided to narrow it down to our top four and go out again for another weekend of showings with our (really awesome) Realtor.

Living room and dining room, I cannot wait to fill the built in cabinets!

The evening before seeing the next batch of properties - we got a text saying that the house we wanted came back on the market.  The buyers walked.  Um, okay.  Now what?  We thought about it, and went after the house once more.   They accepted our offer and we had the place under contingency!  Holy CRAP, we may have just bought a house.  We went forward with the sewer and house inspections and they all came back in decent shape - so we negotiated for a few repairs and bought the house!  WILD.

The house was officially ours on March 6th!  

We love the location of the property because it's situated in south Squirrel Hill next to a large city park perfect for running, walking and enjoying the afternoon.  It's a short walk to Starbucks, groceries, and close to the highway so Paul can get to work in just a few minutes in the morning!

Our new home.

There is plenty of work left to do in the place.  We are going to be plastering, painting, and doing a lot of repairs to get it to the point of comfort and relaxation.  It is definitely going to be an adventure.  I will update the blog as we do repairs, DIY projects, and make our house a home!