Closing Time

It's official! My Aunt Marcia is now the proud owner of Colonial House (as I've taken to calling it.)

She flew in from Boston late yesterday morning and closed on the property in the afternoon. It was a pretty easy, smooth experience.  We finally got to meet Lou, the former owner's son (and executor of the estate.) Lou grew up in Colonial House, so he is a wealth of information on the house, the neighbors, and the neighborhood.  Marcia and I sat and talked to him for at least 30 minutes after all the paperwork was complete. We promised to stay in touch, call when we had questions, and invite him over as work progressed to see what we were up to.

As a future occupant of the house, I was particularly excited to hear that this is what Lou called a "backyard neighborhood," meaning the neighbors are extremely friendly and like to get together a lot. It sounds like their block parties are legendary. I have always liked having that in a home, and have missed it when I didn't. The neighbors across the street let kids cut through their backyard as a shortcut to the school (something that will cut my girls' walk in half). Marcia and I had been wondering about that. Apparently all the neighbors are very anxious to meet us.

Something I would have realized at some point, but was interested to hear yesterday, was that the backyard has grape vines, strawberry plants, and a pear tree that all produce edible fruit. Not sure how much grape and strawberry jam I will be making, but we'll see.

Lou's dad was a worker and took meticulous care of the house. That much is evident in little things, like how the installation dates are written on the furnace and hot water tank in Sharpie. Things like that are really nice for the new homeowners. I had been wondering about the hard wood floor in the attic. I mean, really, when have you ever seen a hard wood floor in an unlivable attic? Lou's dad was a postal carrier based out of the old Mt. Lebanon post office on Washington Road. When they tore down the houses behind it to put in the trolley line, the discarded materials were available to take. Lou's dad brought home the wood and installed it in the attic.

Tomorrow we have an electrician and a plumber scheduled to come out to the house.  The plumber needs to inspect and turn on the furnace and stop a few small gas leaks in the basement, as well as give us an estimate on other things like a sewer camera test, replacing the cast iron sewer and drain stacks, installing a gas line for the dryer, reconfiguring the powder room..... The electrician will give us an estimate on replacing and upgrading the electric service to the house and a few other minor things mentioned in the inspection report (more on that in a later post.) We also plan to go to the municipality and apply for the work permit so we are ready to hit the ground running after the holidays.

Marcia spent a few chilly hours in the house last night, getting a feel for the house, playing around with some ideas. I woke up at about 1:30 am and couldn't fall back asleep. Around 2:30, I figured out how we can reconfigure the kitchen, and where we might be able to install a laundry chute! I am anxious to get back over to Colonial House in the morning with my notebook and measuring tape.

Now the fun part begins...