This Time for Real?
November 6th, 2018
The bad news is that house we were going to buy in Monroeville turned out to have a serious mold issue, so we canceled the offer.
Plants from my yard are potted and ready for a move to Churchill, Pa.
The good news is that we found another home in Churchill (about 9 miles east of Pittsburgh) that’s in a lot better shape. Things are going smoothly this time around, so if all works out, Sue and I will be moving westward in early December.
We’re both planning to cut back on work and be closer to our grandkids in the Pittsburgh area.
This house is a two-story Colonial on a half-acre corner lot in a fairly quiet suburban neighborhood with a lot of trees. Besides having more steps than we wanted, the worst thing I can say is that deer are lurking nearby.
I noticed munched hostas near the garage door (gardeners look for that kind of thing) and saw a doe prancing through a front yard up the street.
The lot is also hillier than I’d like. However, everything is on a hill in the Pittsburgh area – or worse yet, on a cliff.
The front yard is the biggest part of the lot and is almost all grass. It’s sloped but not so much that it can’t be mowed.
If I were younger, I’d be adding border beds and island gardens throughout it. But now that my aging body has me gardening in a lower gear, I’m planning to limit the work to maybe five trees with groundcover around them.
The back yard is partly level and partly shaded with a bank running up to the property lines above. It looks like part of the bank was planted at one time, but now the whole thing is overgrown and covered with whatever won out.
I don’t think the sellers were gardeners, although the lawn is in excellent shape, thanks to a lawn-care company and an irrigation system.
The foundation plantings are also pretty blah, so I’ll have my hands full the first year improving those and tackling the bank.
I’ll also be working on the grading around the house. Soil has settled all around so that there’s negative grading that’s been contributing to dampness in the basement.
I’ll keep you posted on the work as I go along since these are all issues that a lot of people run into.
As for our house in Hampden Twp., this is your last chance to let me know if you’re looking for a place with a lot of plants and gardens – or know someone who is.
Once we move, we’d like to sell our place ASAP. I was hoping to find a gardener who might keep some/all of the gardens and actually appreciate caring for the many plants. But if that doesn’t happen, we’ll go the conventional route, hire a Realtor, and list a house with three bedrooms, a finished basement, a large back patio, and a whole lot of plants. I’m thinking of offering to come back and dig out plants for a buyer who’d rather have more lawn.
If you’re interested in buying, email me at george@georgeweigel.net or call 717-737-8530.
The house, I think, is in excellent shape. Here are the basics:
Size/Style: Two-story Colonial built in 1981; brick and no-paint beige vinyl siding with brown trim; 2,100 square feet of living space.
Our house is a two-story Colonial with brick and beige siding.
Location: Quiet subdivision (Creekview Estates) with homes on third-acre lots. It’s in Hampden Twp. (great services, very well managed, low taxes) and in the Cumberland Valley School District. It’s also within five minutes of Pinnacle Health Hospital, Wegman’s, Target, Giant, I-81, and more via Creekview Road and/or Good Hope Road.
Heating/Cooling: Heat pump and central air. All electric house with recently expanded/upgraded electric box.
Utilities: Public sewer, Verizon FIOS, private well with UV light (included). Well has never gone dry. I was leery about moving here from a house with public water, but I’d take our well any day over public water now. It’s nice not having a water bill!
Upstairs: Master bedroom with en suite full bathroom, two other bedrooms with shared bathroom, large hallway.
Main Floor: Large front living room, dining room, kitchen with eat-in space (and nice view into gardens), TV room with working fireplace, half-bath. Refrigerator, stove, dishwasher, garbage disposal included.
Basement: Huge and under whole house. Two-thirds is finished and divided into three carpeted rooms, one of which I’ve used as my office. Back part is unfinished and has workbench, lots of storage, washer/dryer (included), chest freezer (included), and furnace and water heater.
Garage: Attached two-car garage with work bench (included) and attic access with more space for storage.
Patio: We added a big paver patio out the back door with half-walls on either side and a pair of columns flanking the two steps down to the gardens. Nice for entertaining, lots of pots, and for what I’ve mainly used it for – writing and overseeing the gardens.
Asking Price: $295,000.
Honestly, we’ve loved this house, the neighborhood, and the location, and would’ve stayed here until the bitter end had our kids not moved away.
For more on the move and our gardens, check out the post I wrote a few weeks ago or see the Photo Gallery of shots from around the yard.