When I bought my house in the spring of 2009 it was not fit for humans or for wildlife. The house was in decay and the yard was a dump with trash and overgrown dead weeds and yews. I cut down the Yews and cleaned the place up and continue to work on the yard and house in hopes that it will become the place I feel it has the potential to be. The place used to belong to the Diocese of Pittsburgh, and was at one time used as a convent and then as the churches rectory. It was given to one of the churches families with the understanding that they would pay the taxes on the place. They did not pay them and they tore the place up while they lived in it. They also caught several of the rooms on fire at one point and the church gave them money to fix up the fire damage. They never fixed this up either. The house was taken in a foreclosure and sold to another family who moved in and tore it up even more. The new owners planed on turning it into an assisted living home but they had no clue of what they were doing. They removed a lot of the electrical wiring and built ins throughout the place and really made the place unlivable and unsafe. It was taken again in a foreclosure and sat empty for several years. I finally arrived on the scene and bought the place. I got it really cheap because of the condition of the property and I had it reassessed by Allegheny County to make sure I was not being over charged in taxes for the property. The house is at least livable now and I moved into it in November of 2011. The yard used to be a basic wasteland. There were dead Yews on one side of the house and brown dead grass in the front and side yards of the property. The back yard was filled with overgrown Virginia Creeper and Poison Ivy. There was trash all over the place and old sheets of rotting plywood and indoor outdoor carpeting instead of a lawn. The place smelled like dog crap and was not healthy at all.
This was my back yard in April of 2009. Sheets of ply wood, old carpeting, weeds, and garbage strung all over. I could not even walk through it.
This was the sunny side of the house about two weeks after I bought it. I already removed most of the dead Yews, Poison Ivy, and thistle.
In May of 2009 I was still getting the back yard cleaned up. The ply wood carpet and weeds were being removed but the poison ivy and vines were growing faster than I could clear and remove them.
In June 2009 I found all thees old paving stones buried under weeds carpeting and plywood about 6 inches below the soil throughout the back yard. I started leveling the yard out and began to arrange them to make a nice area.
By June of 2009 I started having a garden and yard and began to enjoy the space.
These were taken June 6th 2009. As you can see the grass is growing in and the yard is looking better. I did not want to spend a lot of money on plants and landscaping so I bought some bulbs and a box of wild flower mix for a dollar each from Dollar Tree and gathered wild violets from the neighbors yard along with weeds like Queen Anne's Lace, and red clover. I started some cuttings of Forsythia and Lilac. This gave the house the illusion at least that some one was living here and taking care of it finally.
By July of 2009 The house and yard began to draw the attention of neighbors and they began to comment on how nice everything was looking. I was surprised how the plants were growing since I had no water turned on at the house yet.
I still was not living in the house yet and the utilities were not turned on because there was a ton of work that needed done before they could be turned on. No water electric or gas had been hooked up for over 2 years so the city required a lot of work and inspections to be done before I could get anything turned on. In the mean time I wanted to make it look like some one was living here so I continued to work in the yard and staged the inside of the house with my old furniture that had been in storage as well as furniture I got off of Pittsburgh Free Cycle. I replaced glass in some of the windows that were missing glass and I did some painting. When winter came the utilities were not turned on so it remained empty. I would go over from time to time to be sure the sidewalks were cleaned off and I would stay there a few times a month with camping gear to make it look like it was being lived in.
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