702 Update - And so it begins

702 E 12, Homestead

Earlier this week, we purchased this beauty of a home. It's a 3 story brick home, built in 1900.  Our plan is to resurrect this home to its former beauty, in a way of reinvesting in this community.  It's in pretty rough shape, and for more info on the house, here's the link to the listing on Zillow.

A History Lesson

The home is technically in the borough of Munhall, but has a Homestead address. There was a strike at the Carnegie Homestead Steel Mill, the largest in the nation at the time, and 11 people were killed because of the heavy-handed management response to bust the unions and disband the strike. The homes nearest the Mill were originally predominantly filled with immigrant steel workers, mostly Eastern European. At some point, the Eastern Europeans gave way to African American workers, and Homestead today has a population of 3,200, a median household income of $26,500 and is 63% African American, according to CensusReporter.org. 

Meanwhile, the steel company wanted a place where the superintendents could live, away from the muck and dust of the mill. And Munhall was born.  Carnegie Land Company owned the land where this home is situated, along with my current residence. The Land Company required that homes be built with a minimum construction value, and they detailed precisely which types of homes were allowed to be built. According to the Borough of Munhall webpage, "Visitors will note the area's homes' substantial construction, the large lot sizes, the tree-lined streets, and the small Park Square Commons Area. There is a marked difference in this neighborhood compared to the nearby Homestead, just a block away; where older, frame homes and small closer set lots predominate."  Contrasted to Homestead, Munhall has a population of 11,000, a median household income of $42,400, and is 84% caucasian, according to CensusReporter.org. 

There's a steep hill up from the river and former steel plants. Munhall's area goes up the hill, and over to the other side. While these houses are both technically in Munhall, I've been told by a few Munhall and Homestead residents we actually should consider it, "Lower Munhall", you know, closer to the mills, less wealthy, less white.  So If the Post Office says its Homestead, and Munhall wants to wash their hands of lower Munhall, I'm happy to claim Homestead. It's vastly more diverse than Munhall and looks much more like Homestead - ethnically and socio-economically.  But this are has Munhall housing - big, 3 story brick, beauties that need some TLC to resurrect.

How we got here

We were supposed to close on this house back in May. But apparently, there was a 'mortgage lien' on the property. One major bank had a lien on the house because the mortgage hadn't been paid. The had never foreclosed, so it sat in limbo for years. The former owner was living in the home, and clearly was overwhelmed with her illness, and she was a caretaker for a grown child with disabilities. The mortgage was in the name and social security number of a former husband who'd long since left the scene. The bank wouldn't give the title company any info on the lien without the permission of the owner, and no one could find the owner. At some point Big Bank A sold the lien to Big Bank B.  After several extensions, the liens were finally cleared and we closed on the house. I have nothing but sympathy for the previous owner; as a caretaker of an adult disabled child, I can't imagine doing that work if I was facing serious illness, and faced it all alone.  

Today's Work

Today, we went to the house at 702 E 12 to begin the process of cleaning out. We took down the broken, dingy plastic mini-blinds on the front door, to discover a full pane of beautiful beveled glass. And when I say 'beautiful', I mean it will be, eventually.

Then I tackled the pile of mail by the front door. It included unopened bills, and magazines from 2019. 

After about 2 hours, we'd collected from the house,

An unopened microwave and  unopened mini blinds to use
 at the house while we're rehabbing. 

A box of lightly worn Nike shoes and 
a dozen new-ish Pittsburgh sports hats 
to try to sell

A Steelers/Seahawks Super Bowl framed photo,
mirrors, sand weight belt, game cube, crystal bells, 
a Turtle Wax buffer, and stuffed animals to contribute to a community garage sale in late July

A pile of clothes to donate

And 10 construction sized garbage bags of trash. 

All of this came from the front hall and living room.  Tomorrow we'll return to tackle the dining room, which includes a broken up dining set, small kitchen appliances, and lots of unopened food. 

We'll bring another box of construction garbage bags,  a wireless speaker, and a new lock for the front door.