Well, once we had 95% of our stuff moved out it was apparent that this would be a perfect time to spruce the place up. New paint on almost all the walls, which I've been doing personally over the last year and a half. At the risk of sounding a tad conceited, it looks pretty good. The old furnace that was in the house when we bought it died two Springs ago and we replaced it with a very nice high efficiency furnace and added central air. Then the water heater decided to bottom out (literally, water everywhere!) so that's less than 2 years old too.

It's got a decent roof. The reason we decided to spring for central air is because this nifty house is a "Pittsburgh Hillside House". Now, I don't think that's an actual, defined term, per se. What I mean is that it's technically a 6 room house. 2 bedrooms and bath on the top floor, kitchen and dining room on the second floor and a laundry room, bathroom and a whatever you want to make of it entry room on the "first" floor.

It's common and unique at the same time. The house technically sits on a paper street. That is, what should have been the front of the house is facing a leveled road bed, long overgrown with lawn, trees and such. The alley turned into the main street because the township never put in Ayers Avenue proper. It's technically two stories but almost looks like 3.5 - 4 stories the way it sits on the hillside. We spent many a 4th of July just sitting on our front deck watching fireworks from 3 different cities. Unfortunately many trees have matured since we bought that house 18 years ago so the fireworks are a bit less visible these days.

We're still tidying up a bit and finishing the last bit of painting. I have a few small projects I'd like to complete but we've put up that for sale sign. We'll have to stop putzing with the property soon (and I'd like to stop paying for all the taxes, utilities, etc.). We're going to find out just how crazy we are for trying to do this ourselves. I'm happy that we went through the purchase of our "new" house. I have a couple very good resources out there to get the paperwork and legal side of things handled (I hope). That may be the biggest worry for a "for sale by owner" deal. Wish us luck!