Edgewood Club 2011

Much of the summer has revolved around trips to the Edgewood Club in Pittsburgh.  Most of the folks we know have membership and we have been heading there most days after school and then during the day (kids and Shaz) during the hols.

Bayside Maine #4

I have never been much of a one for return visits to the same holiday destination but Bayside Maine is an exception.  Maybe it is the fact that it reminds us of home but it just feels like our kind of place.  Slightly cooler than Pittsburgh in the summer, on the coast, lots of trees, islands and rocky shorelines.  It feels a bit like the West coast of Scotland.

We drove up on Friday last week having started moving house on Wednesday.  Packing for vacation AND packing all our stuff into storage and leaving a clean empty house for the next tenants was a challenge.  This probably explains why I have spent the last 4 nights sleeping 10 hours per night.

1151 Wightman St

After years of renting houses in the USA we are finally making preparations to move into our own place. Shaz and I have spent the past couple of months meeting various building contractors and engineers and trying to make lists of what we NEED to do to the new house, what we WANT to do and what we can actually AFFORD to do.  Not surprisingly the last of those three is the shortest list.  As a consequence and in typical fashion we have made a dramatic U-turn in our plans.  Plan A was to do a major remodel of the house while living in yet another temporary place until it is ready.  However, the effort of moving out of our most recent rental on Ivy Street has motivated Plan B, which is basically to move right in and do the remodeling work in stages. Despite the inevitable hassle of doing this we are much happier about this version because it means less time spent moving and less money spent renting.  It probably also means less money spent remodeling too although the result may be less impressive.

Here are some before and after pics of the new gaff!

One plan is to add a french door at the front, which would open onto the large patio.  My mate Gordon has does a nice job of photo-shopping this one.

Catch Up

It has been almost a whole year since I blogged. To be honest, I find that tricky times leave me either too knackered or too gloomy to blog and once I miss a few I miss a lot.

Last summer we came back from Maine to a moldy and half fixed rental house for which we were paying a whopping $2300 per month. We were still on H visas and so had no real idea of whether we would be allowed to stay in the USA for the long haul. Because of this uncertainty and the never ending insecurity of my job I was really hesitant to buy a house. Mostly this is because of the enormous expense of buying and selling houses in Pittsburgh. Aside from he texes, which are high, the real estate agents here charge a standard 6 or even 7% commission, which is ridiculous.

In October of last year our landlord booted us out with 2 weeks notice. We could not find a new place in time and ended up staying with our good friend Rob O'Doherty who is basically family to me. A very special guy. The kids love him too.

We spent around 2 months at Rob's house while we searched unsuccessfully for a house to buy. Right before Christmas 2010 we moved into a rental house on Ivy St. Small and expensive but a welcome relief. I must admit, this was a low point.

Everything changes. My R01 grant was reviewed at the NIH and scored a 10. The lower the score the better and 10 is the lowest and most perfect score you can get. Nobody gets a 10 but I did! I guess I am still on a high from that. Of course the grant scored in the top 1%. Nice! Then we got word that our green cards would very likely be granted. At least we found out that my "outstanding researcher" application was approved and from there it is only a short hop to a green card.

The crown jewel was that we finally bought a house. It is a rickety old 6 bed victorian on our favorite block in Squirrel Hill but it is a gem and we are looking forward to getting it fixed up.

Onwards!