Now that we've talked about what we needed and wanted in our future house, let's compare our purchase to our list (made before we saw this property).

Our short list of neighborhoods was:
- Shaler
- Glenshaw
- Hampton
- Wexford
- McCandless
- Indiana Township
- Penn Hills

We looked at houses in:

- Shaler
- Glenshaw
- Hampton
- Wexford
- McCandless
- Indiana Township
- Penn Hills

plus Allison Park, not originally on our list.

The first category were "Must Haves". These were items that must already be present in the house or able to be added with little difficulty or expense.

Our house met the criteria in bold:

- At least 2 bedrooms
- At least 1 bathrooms (no outhouses for us!)
- Off-street parking for 2 cars
- Fenced or fence-able yard
- Central air conditioning
- Reasonable proximity to grocery/gas

Our next category was "Would Be Nice". These items were ones that, while not technically 'deal-breakers', would be icing on the proverbial cake.

Our house met the criteria in bold:

- Garage
- Finished or finish-able basement (see how I add -able to anything and everything?)
- Made of brick or stone
- Outdoor living space (deck/patio/porch)
- Young couples or families in neighborhood
- Semi-private yard (bushes and trees)
- Large closets
- Master suite

Now we head into the more negative categories. We called the next one "Prefer Not to Have". This was for items that we could live with, but thought we would want to avoid.
- Split-level or ranch style home

We ended up purchasing a "ranch over garage", which wasn't what we thought we wanted but was better suited for us than two-story houses in our price range (mostly cape cod-style bungalows). The two-story houses that we could buy often had a small half-bath upstairs and two bedrooms with slanted ceilings. They felt very small.

The final category was for items that would be deal breakers for us. We called this one "Must Not Have".

We avoided the items in bold:

- Dense neighborhood (no yards)
- Planned development (new construction)
- Home Owner's Association
- Major repairs needed
- History of water damage/mold

Byron blogged previously about our adventures with water and mold. To summarize, after we'd made an offer on this house, the inspection discovered mold in the basement and attic, and water in the basement. Luckily, our inspection was right after a huge rainstorm. We were able to negotiate with the sellers to have French Drains installed on their dime and to have mold remediation done in the attic, also paid for by them. We told our agent to tell theirs that if these problems weren't fixed, we would walk away. The sellers had lost a buyer previous to us (they didn't bother getting pre-approved for a mortgage before making an offer!) and were willing to negotiate. Thankfully, it all worked out and we haven't had any moisture issues since.

Overall, our new home lined up pretty well with what we thought we wanted. The list we made really helped us stay on track and get the best property for us.