File: Life

Been kind of quiet on here recently. It's gotten a bit rough for me in Chi-town. The routine has been some variation on: get up, obsessively look for houses (more of that in a moment), work, come home, go to bed and obsessively look for houses, come downstairs for edamame and rice, go back to bed, obsessively look for houses, then sleep, exhausted.

The condo purchase fell through. I haven't wanted to blog about it. There's so much going on in the world and I'm sad because buying the condo I wanted is a bad idea, oh, boo for me. But, I am sad.

We lost some money on the deal. ($270 for home inspection, the best cash I've ever spent in my life; $80 for the lawyer.) Turns out that the great big condo had some issues. Examples: faulty electricity, possible plumbing corrosion, insulation installed incorrectly, furnace installed incorrectly, dangerous space heaters/no furnace, ponding water in the basement, mold, weird bugs, either no money in the reserves or no idea where they put the money in the reserves and the big finish of the flaking asbestos pipe.

Grr.

**Update** I realize I never posted the initial ramblings above, written 10/31. Things have gotten better. We found another place that we like a lot. It has central air, central heat, a washer/dryer, (Matt was practically doing cartwheels at this point), a working fireplace, and two secret squirrel rooms in the basement better known as the bat cave. It was completely redone at the turn of this century (2000 -- tee, hee), and it's huge. It's growing on me. It initially lacks the charm of the other places we really liked, but as Matt's dad, the architect, says, you can create charm. Structure is harder. The more we're in the space (and we've been in it the last two weekends), the more I like it. I've been dreaming about wall colors and furniture arranging. We'll have the awesome problem of not having enough furniture for the space, Yay! We had the inspection on Saturday and it went very well. Now, it's just waiting. I think we're going to close on Nov. 30 so a December move is in our future.

We decided not to go to Florida for Thanksgiving. The fare was insane ($800 each!) and we really need the time to get organized and pack. We started packing seriously over the weekend -- one run to the Brown Elephant and 5 boxes and one trunk packed so far. I plan to pack my office in a moment before I leave for work. I love packing. I don't even mind unpacking. It makes me feel in control and organized and I love being organized. It also allows me a chance to go through everything and filter what I have from what I need.

My mom's having surgery at the end of November and my dad is getting shots in his hips in early December. The schedules didn't work, so we're going down in mid January, timeshifting Hanukkah, my birthday, and my dad's birthday all at once.

Okay, I need to pack before work.

File: Sports

This is Matt yesterday when he picked up his number. We saw him at mile 7.5 and he was looking great. I just got an email from his tracker. He hit the half.

He finished. Lots of emotion from me, lots of tiredness from him. He's recovering. He tells the tale better on his blog. Had lots of fun with Matt's dad and Deb taking the train and skipping all over town. We only saw Matt twice; he only saw us once (at a half mile from the finish).

I'm so proud of him, I could just kvell.

File: Home

I'm in the market for a furnance/HVAC unit. Any idea how much that costs?

File: Life

It is snowing. This guy is mowing the lawn. Ah, October in Chicago.

File: Life

The floorplans to our new home.

File: Life

Here we are with Iliana, our awesome realtor, with our offer to purchase. After a little negotiation, our offer was accepted. We are on the way to owning!

Yes, this took the cake in terms of excitement.

We are buying a house! By house, I mean pretty duplex condo on the northside of the city (Edgewater). It's large and has a lot of potential. And is pretty! And a fireplace! And places for the bookshelves. Oh, so much happiness a girl could burst. Who knew the bank would approve us for a mortgage? It feels so grown-up, but yet at the same time, perfectly normal. Very strange indeed. Yippee!

File: Life

My photogrqpher.

This is from a moment when he was photographing me and I was photographing him before we went apple picking. Apple picking was a blast, but surprisingly not the highlight of our weekend...

File: Life

Cubs game with Travis. Cubs are down, Trav and I are up. He says We are having fun. He is also worried about his double chin.

He doesn't have one.

It was nice for the Cubs to finally win one. We both got pictures of the last pitch.