We moved out to Chicagoland right after finishing college. While it was a nice place to live, we still wanted to move back to the Pittsburgh area someday. We finally made that move in 2005, after living in the western suburbs of Chicago for 13 years. My dad had found the property for us--almost 23 acres and it was close to where I grew up, close to my parents and my brother. It was definitely a fixer-uper, but we had plans to build a new house on the property and just fix up the old house to be livable while we built it. HA.
After tearing into the house, it needed WAY more work than originally thought. 4 years later we are still working on it.
We have done ALL of the work ourselves. The only paid help we had is with the install of all the heating, plumbing and wiring. Other than that, the only help we have had in this project has been family. Lots of man hours. We did have lots of experience in doing the work ourselves. We did a lot of rehab on the last house we owned in Oswego, IL. It was stuck in the '70s when we bought it and totally updated it.
So that's how we came to where we are. Just so you don't think we haven't gone off our rockers, he is a photo of what the house looks like today:
Still a little rough around the edges, but most of the hard work is done.
What a beautiful home!!! You have worked hard and it shows!!! Thanks for sharing the story!! Hope you have a great day!!
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