It's Christmas time in the city...

I can't believe how the time has flown!  So much has happened in these 3 months.  At the end of September we participated in the first annual Wilkinsburg home and garden tour.

We were one of 6 great houses and there were also 2 beautiful churches on the tour as well as Biddle's Escape coffee shop.  There were over 400 tickets sold and the weather was absolutely perfect.  We had a great time meeting many of our neighbors and telling the story of our new house.

  I think everyone had a great time and it was a lot of fun.  Craig had a great time showing everyone all my shoes and pointing out my size 12's.

We've had our first snow but nothing major yet. This was our first snow in November.

We had snow again yesterday.  I do not miss driving clear up to Butler from Pittsburgh in the ice and snow!

We celebrated our first Thanksgiving here last week.  We were wondering how many years it's been since there was a Thanksgiving dinner in this house.  We had a great time.

Here's Craig working on the potatoes.

And all of us at the table.  And of course we can't leave out Ruby, Simon & Callie!

The girls were waiting for their turn from Craig while Simon got his.

Craig sharing his leftovers! 

And it feels like I blinked and now it's Christmas time.  Hard to believe we've been here for 5 months now.  We've been busy decking the halls.

This is so different than the primitive/colonial decorating I've done for the last 30 years. 

It's been lots of fun to do something different.

Here is my favorite elf.

And Santa's boots are here.

Here's hoping that everyone has the best Christmas ever!  Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Itchy and Scratchy, Scratchy, Scratchy

It's really starting to look and feel like fall.  The lack of humidity is great but I do not like to think about what's in store for us in the next few months!  I do not do well in the dark and cold.  We (I) have committed to being a part of the first Wilkinsburg Home and Garden Tour on September 28th.  I said yes to help out our new neighbors.  So we've been busting our butts trying to get unpacked and ready for the event.  It feels like we have our house on the market again!  The good side is that it is making us get things done and not putting things off until tomorrow! 
Our backyard was probably untouched for at least 20 years.  It was taken over by English ivy and poison ivy.  Craig sprayed the whole yard with Round Up and after everything was dead we went out and started raking and pulling.  You may not be aware, but poison ivy is still potent for years after it's dead.  It seems that I'm not allergic to it, but unfortunately Craig is.  This is how the yard is looking now.  Craig is feeling much better too, after a round of Prednisone.

We've added some plants.  I've contacted 5 different landscape contractors (4 from Angie's List) about sod/seed installation and only 2 have bothered to answer. Apparently landscaping is a lucrative business in the Pittsburgh area since they don't return inquiries.
We finally have some furniture for guests to sit on!  We searched and searched for antique dining room furniture and could not find anything that we liked.  We finally ended up with brand new furniture.  We were trying to get something before the home tour.  We found new stuff we liked and went to 3 different stores in the area.  I have to say Today's Home on McKnight Road was by far the best price and they came through for us!  If you're in the market for furniture definitely stop in and ask for Kristen.

You might notice that the dining room is a different color.  We had painted it a cool cucumber (light green) before we moved in.  It was just too blah.  It's now a rich emerald green, technically Sliced Olive, and I think it looks so much better.  Craig even admitted that he likes it too.  We have a rug on order to break up all the wood colors and hopefully brighten it up a little. 
The same day the dining room furniture arrived, the living room chairs FINALLY came.  These are from Crate & Barrel.

The shades for the bedrooms also arrived and we think they look great.  I found these at J.C. Penney for a great price.  And I looked everywhere for something that wasn't a fortune but looked good.

On my to-do list is window seat cushions.  That's the next project.  I got one of the Roman shades done in the kitchen and it turned out great.

We also met with Carol Peterson, the Pittsburgh house historian.  She's done numerous buildings in the area, been on WQED with Rick Seback and recently worked with Mr. Rooney (Pittsburgh Steelers) to publish a book on his home.  She told us the house was built in 1907 by George A. Todd.  He was married to Mina Todd and they had 3 children.  Sadly, Mina and her maid were killed by an explosion in the basement in 1915.  Mina was preparing for a trip to California and they were cleaning clothes with a gasoline washer of some kind.  They also had an instantaneous water heater in the basement.  When another maid upstairs turned on the hot water it ignited the water heater.  The water heater then ignited the gasoline fumes and the explosion burned Mina and her maid.  They were both taken to the Columbia Hospital were they died a few hours later.  Carol found no evidence that Evelyn Nesbitt resided here.  We are the 11th owners of the house. 
Happy Fall!

Life at Whitney

It's been nearly two months and they have flown by.  We've met most of our neighbors and they are great.  They are no Clouse family, but they are nice people.  We've been to a couple of block parties already.  I honestly cannot get over how friendly people are here.  It's such a shame that don't have a nicer place to walk Ruby and walk Simon and Callie when they come to stay with us.

We have a nice little coffee shop just up the street called Biddle's Escape.  They have all kinds of music such as drum circles, harpists, singers, etc, plus great drinks and food!

We went and checked out Ten Miles of Treasures with Ben and Randy and Ben's daughter, Elise and her boyfriend Jeff yesterday.  Ben and Randy have also just purchased a new house they are redoing so we were all searching for the right treasures.  We walked away with very few treasures.  I did score a couple of things at a cute shop in Volant.  A vase that Craig absolutely hates but I think it's great.

And we picked up the table it's sitting on at another shop yesterday.

The next thing on my list is Roman shades for the kitchen.  I priced some and just one was $600!  So I ordered fabric and found directions on line and will be giving it a try.  I will get both windows done for about $100.  This is the fabric.  I think it's pretty cool.

I picked up this orange pitcher yesterday too.

Our next BIG project is the backyard.  It's horrible.  I think I mentioned before that we found out that it had poison ivy in it.  Craig has been spraying it the last couple of weeks with Roundup, trying to kill everything in it.  I think we are going to add some fill to the very bottom to try to level it out some.  Then we're thinking of putting in mulch and different shrubs along the back fence.  We're thinking of maybe some type of patio also. 

Notice how nice the grass on the other side of the walk looks.  We planted some flowers last week to replace some that have died.  We have the biggest earth worms I have ever seen.  They were almost like snakes.  It was so disgusting.  Once all the ivy is dead we are going to go out and pull it all up.  We are going to ask Dave that did the front yard to come and work his magic in the back as well.  While I was out looking at the yard I just noticed the back deck.  Can you notice anything different about the deck?

That's right.  Seems like part of it was missed in the painting process.  Our neighbor pointed out that the back side of fence needed painting as well.  Hmmm.  
To end on a happy note, I got these cushions from Grandin Road and I think they are so cute. 

I have also hired Carol Peterson to research the history of our house.  She will go to the courthouse and dig up all the previous owners as well as what she kind find out about the very first owner.  She's been featured on WQED and Pittsburgh Post Gazette.  I've now heard the rumor that Evelyn Nesbit, aka the Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, lived here at one point.  Carol told me about that.  I guess she'll find out if it's true.
That's it for now from Whitney Avenue!  I'll definitely let you know what we find out about the house's history!

We're here!

Finally!  We've actually been here for 2 weeks.  I really didn't want to post pictures full of boxes so I waited until we put a dent in the unpacking to get some pictures.  We still have lots to do so these are in-process photos.  You'll notice 3 dogs in some pictures and that's because we're babysitting our four-legged grandkids this weekend so Ashley can study.  Here's the foyer when you first walk in the front door. 

This chandelier is not original.  We attended a neighborhood watch/block/welcome party Thursday evening and we heard many stories about the house and its former occupants.  We heard one story about a Christmas Eve about 7 years ago when our neighbor caught a man running from the house carrying two crystal chandeliers.  She chased him down the street where he dropped them and he was arrested, but we don't know where the chandeliers ended up!  We were also told that the swan stained glass window was a tiffany (we have our doubts) and that it is still at the police station as evidence.  So it just so happened that the police chief and mayor attended the party and Craig asked them about it.  They said they would check it out.  It turns out that another police officer, Brandon, was also at the party and he said that he had been in the house many times because of thieves.  Everyone here is so nice and welcoming.  Back to pictures!  Here is Craig making dinner tonight.  Spaghetti and fresh strawberries for desert.  His mouth is full in the picture but he looks like he's really pissed at me.

The dining room is pretty sad right now.  Still lots of boxes and still no dining room furniture.  Right now the kitchen table from our old house is in there!

This is a picture of the pocket door between the living room and dining room.  Isn't the glass amazing?  I can't believe it survived all the thieves.
On to the second floor...

Isn't that little dresser next to the fireplace so cute?  Craig found it on Craig's list for only $25.

You'll notice all the dog beds above.  We are having a dog slumber party every night since Callie and Simon are here.

This is the master bathroom. This is one of my favorite parts of the house.  I am so glad we had the washer and dryer put in here.  No more schlepping laundry up and down stairs. 

Next if the third floor where we have Craig's music room.

The family room is across the hall.

Everyone really likes the little bathroom up here too.

I love the door with the glass in it.  This bathroom gets hotter than hell on a sunny day.

Next stop is ladies shoes.  Here's the before pictures:

And here's the after!  Please notice that I do have empty spaces!

And the drawers beneath are perfect for purses!  This wood is really amazing.

Our next big project is going to be the backyard.  It's full of ivy and we just discovered last week that some of it is poison ivy.  Luckily we found out before either of us pulled it out with our bare hands.  I can't wait to get rid of that crap and get some grass in there.
So all in all so far so good.  We are enjoying walking the trails of Frick Park.  We got lost there for 2 hours on July 4th so we got a little more exercise than we intended.  We came upon a wee little house in a hollow tree in the middle of the park.  Is that Karma or what?  I'm sure it was some kind of sign.  Kind of closure as to what I went through starting this time last year!  I'm in a much better place.

We really are enjoying sitting on the front porch and meeting the neighbors and those that have enjoyed watching the transformation. 
Enjoy your weekend!