Downsizing, Part 1: Judy

Judy's new kitchen

It's been quite a journey.  When we sold the oversized house in State College last year our plan was to rent for a year until we knew where we would be living long-term.  The apartment was in the perfect location, across the street from Sam's school and walking distance to the Squirrel Hill businesses.  We revived our old city living skills, and have enjoyed walking to restaurants and walking around the neighborhood.

We put a lot of ourselves into the State College house, personalizing the space and updating everything mechanical until it was in tip-top condition.  Still, that meant having close relationships with our handyman and plumber, as well as other contractors.  It was, after all, a close to 50 year old house.  When we made the decision to move, we vowed to avoid the pitfalls of an old house, sitting on shale, in the forest.  We imagined that we'd find a house where most things had been updated, but we would remodel the kitchen and probably a master bathroom.  

Once we moved to Squirrel Hill, we began walking in the neighborhood, which is filled with absolutely gorgeous period houses from the early parts of the 20th century, of all sizes and design.  At first, we'd look for moss on the roof or evidence of leaking and congratulate ourselves for not being willing to take that on again.  Many of the houses are quite large, so we'd again be proud of ourselves for not wanting that at this time of our lives.  Nor did we want to take on a large yard.  Plus because of the nature of the landscape, the sidewalks are uneven and there are often steep slopes up to the front door or garage.  Some of the streets are made of brick, which play havoc on car transmissions.  But as time passed, we found ourselves looking at the houses for sale in the area and began seeing ourselves in something with beautiful wood and stained glass and enough space to have our whole family together again.  

About two months ago we started going to open houses...just to look.  It is always a shock to see how much smaller houses are without the benefit of the fish-eye lens realtors like to use in on-line real estate sites.  The houses in our price range had small rooms, and the kitchens were both small and would be difficult to enlarge, particularly when you look at removing 100 year old walls.  You can do it, but just because you can doesn't mean you should.  Then we started looking at larger homes so that we wouldn't have to move walls in the kitchen.  What we saw was work to be done everywhere, and unfortunately, we'd feel compelled to do it.  And as our son reminded us, it doesn't exactly make sense to buy a house to fit the whole family when that only happens once or twice a year.  

The other thing that started to happen was that we expanded the area we would consider living in to include some houses that were being "flipped."  These houses would have all the electrical and plumbing upgraded and have modern finishes.  This was attractive because we could just move in, rather than be under construction for months.  But I wasn't sure I'd be happy with someone else's choices in the kitchen.  And the locations tended to be near transitional areas or on busy streets where flippers could buy property cheaply, upgrade them, and make a profit.

About a week ago a townhome showed up in South Squirrel Hill.  I looked at the photos and I said to Steve:  "That's my kitchen and bathroom!"  This is a one-year-old townhome in a planned community.  The sellers had expected to settle here long term and put in every single upgrade available, up to and including a Blue Star stove and a kegerator (something we would never have considered, but it turns out you can use it to make seltzer).  Then one of the sellers got a job offer she couldn't refuse, and they had to put it up for sale.  We went to see it last Wednesday, and it was light and spacious, and with a little more pruning of our belongings, it will fit us perfectly.  We even get a view of the Monongahela river from the balcony off of the master bedroom.  So we'll be moving there May 3.

We are feeling very lucky not to have followed our hearts down a very complicated road with a historic house.  With this decision, we are truly down-sizing to something that fits where we are in our lives right now.  We still have 2000 square feet of space, and we have the amenities we want in the important areas of the house.  But we won't have yard work, snow removal, or costly repairs.  There's even a pool in the community that we can take the grandkids to.  Our daily walks around the neighborhood will change, so instead of looking at 100-year old houses, we'll be looking at modern versions of classic Pittsburgh-style houses. 

In the end, we listened to our heads and made the more practical decision, but we both really love it, too!