It was January 2017. I was traveling for work in Hartford, CT when I first saw the Zillow listing for 311 Highland Terrace. I was blown away. The staircase, the stained glass, the woodwork, the fireplaces, the architecture, the HISTORY! I called my wife who was back at our small 800 square foot apartment in New York City. After a short discussion we immediately called the realtor to set up an appointment for a walk through. The only problem? The house was back in Pittsburgh and we were not able to get off for work until early February. The realtor said he couldn’t promise anything. If the house was still available in a few weeks, we were welcome to see it.
I fretted for 2 weeks, wrecked with nervousness. The house was PERFECT. It was devastating that we couldn’t get there sooner. I was convinced someone would swoop in before our visit and take the house up from under us. Two weeks passed and it seemed like we were in the clear. We drove 7 hours to Pittsburgh on a Thursday night after I got home from work. The walk through was set for 8am on Friday morning.
311 Highland Terrace has some fascinating history. It was designed and built in 1910 by German architect Frederick Sauer. If you have ever been to Pittsburgh, you know his work. Sauer was famous for his churches, including the landmark Stanislaus cathedral in the Strip District. He designed a few homes for others, but he designed 311 Highland Terrace for himself. Sauer, unfortunately, wasn’t long to stay in his new home. By 1914 he was forced to sell. The home then remained in the same family through 2017. The first owner passed in the 1960s and the home lay vacant for 10 to 15 years. Her daughter eventually moved back and lived in the home until her death in 2015. She had no kids and lived the final years of her life confined to the first floor dining room. Because she was confined to the house and had no close family, friends set up cameras throughout the house to monitor her safety via the internet. The house then passed to a more distant relative, an Irish priest who lived in North Carolina.
February 3rd, 2017 was a cold day in Pittsburgh. My wife and I arrived at 311 Highland Terrace early to look around. The house was just as beautiful in person as it was in the Zillow pictures. It was at the end of a narrow road, up on a hill. It seemed stately and inviting. Not related to the appearance of the home, my wife and I began to see one reason why this home may not have sold yet. While the house was once likely surrounded by farmland, it now stood just above a highway. While you couldn’t see the highway from the house, you could definitely hear it. Outside, the noise was over 100 decibels. Inside, even with the windows closed, it was over 50 decibels.
Finally the realtor arrived and we went inside. Needless to say, my wife and I were both starstruck. Yes the home was noisy, but it was magnificent. I loved the smell of the old wood floors. The downstairs tour was largely positive. The home had a large parlor and the floors and woodwork seemed to be in good shape. There was an illegal bathroom that had been constructed off the dining room for the previous owner who was confined to the first floor. It would probably need to be removed. The kitchen was a blank slate. It would need to be re-done but there was enough space to make it work. The most captivating feature of the house was, without a doubt, the staircase on the first floor. It came off from the center entrance, the formal carriage entrance, and was boarded by decadent molding and stained glass. The 14 foot ceilings made it seem even grander in person.
The second floor started to get a little hairy. The bedrooms themselves had no major issues, however, a crib room (the main bay window at the center of the house on the second floor) had some major structural problems. The floor bowed about 3 feet from the hallway to the window. The floor joists would need to be raised to re level the floor. There was concern that you would need to tear out the ceiling below (above the grand staircase) to do this. Additionally, the bathrooms on the second floor were – not functional – to be kind. I am not sure the last time they were functional. I am not sure the last time they were used. There was dirt, water damage, and dysfunction. Despite all this, we were still excited. We could take on this work. A house like this could be special.
Elsewhere in the house, the third floor was a mixed bag of potential vs. reality. Between water damage and general decay, it would need to be gutted. That said, this potential master suite was huge and had a full vista of the valley below. The basement was also large and contained an old billiards room, reminiscent of something Mark Twain would use. Oddly, the billiards room in the basement had a wood floor with some spots of rot. The realtor shared an assessment from a local contractor which suggested the home needed at least 300k in repairs to fix these main issues. Home insurance on the house was not possible until some of these key violations were fixed (we would need to get vacant property insurance). Because of lead paint, we would probably need to rent a separate apartment during renovations.
We had received the report of potential issues in mid January and had reviewed them with a contractor in the family. By the time we saw the house in February, we were confident we could handle the repairs and complete them for significantly less than the 300k originally suggested. Within a week we had put in an offer for 20k less than the asking price. The offer was accepted and an inspection was scheduled. I can’t remember if we celebrated at that point or not.
It was around this time that reality set in. These renovations were going to cost A LOT. This was going to take a LONG TIME. We were in the process of buying a house in Pittsburgh but, technically, our jobs were still in New York. My wife had been interviewing for jobs back in Pittsburgh but she was not guaranteed to get one. While I thought I could likely transfer offices in my job to Pittsburgh, that was not a done deal either.
The day of the inspection came. We were back in New York so the inspector video taped his visit and sent us the DVD plus pictures. The news was not good. The home had all the problems we anticipated and a few key ones we didn’t. First, the third floor (which we knew we had to gut), was filled with mold. The inspector was concerned that this mold may be creeping down the walls of the house. Second, the damage in the basement was not rot but was actually termites. Termite damage was observed in other areas of the house. The placement of the house into the hill seemed to be part of the issue since it had poor drainage. Third, there were some cracks in the foundation that would need to be evaluated by a structural engineer. These might be minor but also might require substantial excavation and repair.
My wife and I combed through the report. We read about the three big new items but there were also dozens of smaller observations that would also require further evaluation and money. Finally, we had to stop. We called the realtor and explained that the results of the home inspection were forcing us to withdraw our offer. It was emotionally exhausting. We had spent months at this point learning about the house, researching its specific renovation needs, and making moving plans. Everything stopped. There was going to be no move to Pittsburgh. There was going to be no housewarming.
We settled back into our lives in New York disheartened. The experience would put us off from any further home searching for 6 months. Interestingly, it would also be the last home we ever saw in Pittsburgh. Ever since we left Pittsburgh in 2013, we had been convinced we would return. Now, with home prices in Pittsburgh rising and our careers in New York seemingly not going anywhere, it was hitting us that Pittsburgh may not be an option for us anymore. I had no idea where else to look or where we could find a home we could afford. 2017 moved on and so did we. I started checking Zillow again during July. Minneapolis, MN had a good stock of Victorian homes and my wife’s former boss might have a job for her there. Albany, NY was where I was born and also had somewhat affordable Victorians. We slowly moved our toes closer to the tepid water of the search.
The Round Hill House 