With interior decorators, professional renovation companies, and
DIY home improvement tips, you can easily customize your home to fit your own style needs. However, every city has its own set of unique quirks that come with traditional homes. Here are a few things that make Pittsburgh homes unique.
The Pittsburgh Potty
For most homes, a home listing that mentions a “partial bath” usually means a fully furnished bathroom with all the amenities of a regular bathroom except for the shower. In Pittsburgh, a partial bath often refers to a lonesome toilet planted in the basement of a home without any other bathroom features, including walls. That’s right, it’s just a toilet in the middle of your basement. This fully functional, but not so private, “partial bath” is often referred to as the Pittsburgh potty. Today, Pittsburgh natives may drape cloth around the area for added privacy, some may even build walls around the toilet for a complete bathroom, and others just leave it as is and use the appliance as a back-up toilet during family get-togethers. If you’re planning on using your potty for an upcoming holiday, here’s how to
Get Your Pittsburgh Potty Ready For The Party.
Steep Hills
It’s no secret that Pittsburgh is not a flat-landed city. With hills of varying levels at almost every corner, Pittsburgh homes have to be uniquely constructed around some frighteningly steep roads, such as Canton Avenue. This Pittsburgh road definitely wins the scariest-street-to-drive-up award. In fact, with a 37 percent grade, Canton Avenue is one of the
steepest streets in the world. If you do decide to challenge gravity and test the mechanics of your vehicle, choose a day with calm weather and clear skies because navigating this road in the snow is not a good idea. If you do make it up the hill successfully, you’ll have to go around the block to get back down because Pittsburgh law does not allow traffic to drive down the hill.
Art
Source:
Randyland
Randy Gilson, Pittsburgh native and local artist, didn’t stop at just a few indoor paintings or outdoor lawn decorations. Decorated with brightly colored gnomes, mannequins, mismatched patio furniture, pastel paint and countless plastic toys, Gilson transformed his home from an ordinary corner building on the Mexican War Streets in Pittsburgh’s Northside to something out of a colorful children’s book.
Open for exploration almost every day between 1:00 pm and 7:00 pm, Randyland’s decor may not be a style that most other Pittsburgh houses share, but its certainly an attraction that makes one of our city’s homes unique.
What’s unique about your Pittsburgh home? Do you have a Pittsburgh potty in your basement? Tell us in a comment!
