Next Up: Greenfield

Another post??? I know. It's a miracle.

I was so confused when we got here with all the neighborhoods and boroughs and what was what and all that. So I finally think I figured it out. In the city of Pittsburgh, there are 90 neighborhoods (which I showed you yesterday). Outside of the city there are a bajillion (yep) boroughs which are their own thing but they make up the greater Pittsburgh area. We have a bunch of people in our ward that live in these "boroughs" - Homestead, Forest Hills, Wilkinsburg, etc. etc. But we are in Pittsburgh, in the neighborhood of Greenfield.

Let's zoom in to the map, shall we? Haha.

Okay. Here'a a little tour. See Squirrel Hill South? That is home to 2 giant parks - each about 500 acres (frame of reference: Central Park in NYC is 800 acres, most neighborhood parks are 5-20) - Schenley Park on the west edge (and a little into Oakland) and Frick Park on the east edge (they're only a few minutes apart). We live just a couple minutes south of Schenley Park - probably around the "en" in Greenfield :), and just north of the park is Carnegie Mellon University (Jeremy's school).

So we get to drive through the gorgeous park to get to school! It's only a 5 minute drive and about a 20 minute bus ride. So CMU is technically in North Oakland, at the corner where it meets Squirrel Hill. The church is also in North Oakland, , about 5 minutes north of the school, so it only takes us 10 minutes to get to church. Woohoo! If we had to go around the park it would take forever because of traffic, but cutting through the park is great.

We feel SO LUCKY to have found our place. There are a lot of shady areas in Pittsburgh - which we were told to avoid - but we really feel like we hit the jackpot with our location. We didn't realize it until we got here, but we are in such a great spot! A lot of the MBA students told us to look in different areas (Shadyside and Squirrel Hill - where most of the CMU students live - undergrad & grad), but everything in our price range there was gross, so we were a little bummed when we found this great house in this location, but now we're so glad! We feel very fortunate.

And I know this is getting long, but here's a little about Greenfield:

• It is .773 square miles in area (it really is ridiculous how many neighborhoods there are - why can't we just consolidate here people? oh well)
• It is called one of Pittsburgh's "surprise" neighborhoods, because you can get great views of the city in unexpected spots throughout the community (like our house!)
• Everyone in our neighborhood is old and has been here a long time. Betty 2 houses down has lived in her house for 50 years and grew up a couple streets down; her sister Marianne lives across the street and has been here forever; Dave next door has been here since the 70s; Pat and her husband (whose name escapes me) have been here forever, etc. etc. They are all so sweet and we love them to pieces. They are out on their porches all the time waving and chatting with us as we come and go. We feel very safe and relaxed in our little spot.

Now for some pictures! I'll get to pictures of the inside of the house later (we're still working on it), but for now, here are some pictures and videos of our house and the surrounding areas. I really want to take some pictures of the park and other areas that we frequent, but for now this will do. Enjoy!

Ok, so this is not our house, but it's kind of next door where our landlord was power washing. It's not the best angle because I was trying to be discreet, but you can kind of see what I was talking about. See the different in color between the top section and the side? Yeeahh.

Here's our house! We're in a duplex, so we have the main level and a basement (there are essentially 2 basements - 1 for them, 1 for us) and a little garage in the back. Our front door is on the left, theirs is on the right.

(And sorry for the weird angle - we're on a hill, so that's why it looks like I was laying down when I took it. I wasn't I swear!)

View of downtown from our front yard.

Zoomed in.

And view to the right. That street has the same name as our street, but it doesn't connect. The roads here are crazy. And yes, there are power/cable lines all over the place.

And a little video. The other night Connor was being so funny. We were out on the porch enjoying a rare clear and non-humid evening, and every time Eli said anything Connor cracked up! It was so adorable. He was giggling harder than I've ever seen. Of course when I brought out the camera he kind of stopped, so I gave a little panoramic view from our porch. (By the way, I love that we have a porch. I feel like I've gone back in time every time I sit out there and chat with our old neighbors. :)

And one more picture of our cute boys. Love these two!

Still more to come if you can believe! I want to share about CMU and share some pictures of the inside of our house - specifically the kitchen and how my awesome husband, with the help of IKEA, helped make it so much better!