MODERN MARVEL
An eco-friendly Fox Chapel home priced under $3 million SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2021
The house at 999 Elmhurst Road in Fox Chapel is a celebration of Earth Day every day. With solar panels and a geothermal heating and cooling sytem, its sustainability was a big draw three years ago for city dwellers Nicole and Steve Shapiro.
“As a vegan, environmental-activist type, the geothermal heating and cooling and being solar-powered was important to me,” she said.
The couple and their three children moved here from Boston 15 years ago.
“My husband grew up in Chicago and we are definitely more city people. The first 12 years I had no intention of moving to Fox Chapel,” Mrs. Shapiro said.
She noticed this house after driving her daughter to a friend’s house nearby.
“As you would come up the hill, it was really striking,” she said.
Then her daughter noticed the house was for sale. Although the Shapiros weren’t looking to move, they visited three days after it was listed.
“We made an offer right away,” Mrs. Shapiro said.
Although they love the house, a relocation for work has prompted the couple to put the 5,500-square-foot, five-bedroom, five-bath home on the market for $2,999,900 with Julie Rost of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices (412-370-3711 or www.thepreferredrealty.com). The property (MLS No. 1490447) is nearly 1 acre.
“It is a truly unique property in so many ways,” said Ms. Rost.
The openness of the home and abundant sunlight set this custom-built Lindal home apart. The modular, pre-fabricated house was built in 2013.
“The company is based in Seattle,” Mrs. Shapiro said. “I know they had all the cedar beams in the house brought in by truck from the west coast.”
The kitchen features two sinks and two dishwashers, which makes it ideal for entertaining. There is also an espresso bar and a steamer drawer near the large island. There are two fireplaces, one in the open living room and the other in the family room. Other amenities include a large patio, fenced-in yard and exercise room.
“Wefeel like we are in an Insperato vacationhome every day,” Mrs. Shapiro said.
Although the previous owners did lots of hardscaping, the large planting beds were filled with thistle and weeds when the Shapiros moved in. They were
shocked by a landscaper’s weeding estimate.
“They told us it would be $18,000,” she recalled with a laugh. “It was absurd for a one-time weeding.”
The Shapiros redesigned and planted the landscape for far less money, installing hardy plants and an irrigation system.
The house originally had three bedrooms, 2½ baths and two garages with room for five cars. Both garages contained car lifts.
“The previous owners were big car collectors, but we had more children than cars,” she said.
So they converted a two-car garage into an addition with two bedrooms and two full bathrooms. “Now it is five bedrooms so more family-friendly.”
A first-floor master suite is a plus for anyone hoping to age in place, surrounded by nature. An adjacent room can be used as a bedroom, study or office.
Their real estate agent said these were smart improvements.
“The current owners have done a magnificent job of expanding the living space and enhancing the property,” Ms. Rost said. “There is no other luxury property of its caliber and age on such a prime Fox Chapel lot.”
The home is a 5-minute drive from shopping at Waterworks and the entrance to Route 28.
“One of the reasons we had not considered Fox Chapel when we first moved to Pittsburgh was we thought it was too far out,” Mrs. Shapiro said. “But from this house I can be at Whole Foods [in East Liberty] in 10 minutes.”
The property’s Allegheny County assessment is $1,904,800. Over the past three years, three houses have sold for prices ranging from $820,000 in May 2017 to $ 2.2 million for this house in June 2018 (www2.alleghenycounty.us/RealEstate/ GeneralInfo.aspx?).
Mrs. Shapiro said she and her husband had hoped to stay longer, but he recently took a job in southern California. They are house hunting.
“We are finding nothing that compares to that house even at prices three times whatit is listed for,” she said. “We will miss the light, the openness and the warmth of the cedar beams and ceilings. There is nothing like those22-foot ceilings.
“It truly is spectacular and we won’t find anything like it even in sunny southern California,”she lamented.