Good News! Apt. Found!

So, after much searching and driving in the craziness that is Chicago, we have found a place! No, it's not in Bucktown, Wicker Park, or Ukrainian Village, much to our surprise. It's actually in a neighborhood north of Bucktown called Roscoe Village. We found with the 3 neighborhoods we were aiming for, that our price range was enough to get us either 1.) A really nice place next to a not-so-nice area OR 2.) A not-so-nice place in a pretty decent area. And, being that we want a nice place IN a nice area, we realized that we weren't going to find something in the 3 areas we had hoped. Bucktown and Ukrainian Village had some pockets of un-gentrified homes/scary areas and Wicker Park was super busy and expensive. SO...onto Roscoe Village! We put in applications to two places and we got both of them, but decided on the first apt. we found.

A bit about Roscoe Village...

What's great about this neighborhood is that it's very "residential" - so it has a safe feeling. Since I will be taking some night classes, we both agreed that a safe neighborhood was of utmost importance. The el' stop is a 10 minute walk (perfect), and is on the brown line. That may be a problem since they are doing a lot of renovation on that line. But, the landlord said that both her and her husband work in the loop, and the train/bus system hasn't failed them yet.
Parking in this neighborhood is also easier. If we didn't get a garage in one of the other 3 neighborhoods, parking would have been a nightmare. But here, the landlord said that most of her tenants find parking on the same street as where they live and sometimes right in front of the apt.! Woohoo!

Another GREAT aspect of the neighborhood is the close proximity to a dog park, a supermarket (Jewel Osco - 3 blocks away), and Whole Foods and Trader Joe's - our (and Shosta's ;o) favorite organic stores!!!!! Whole Foods is 4 blocks away, and Trader Joe's is a bit further. Woohoo, again!
If we were to move to the other 3 neighborhoods, a grocery store would have been quite a distance away (a couple miles, which translates into 20 or 30 minutes - or more). Or we would have had to go to a Walgreen's or 7Eleven to shop - ICK.

And finally, there's a record store in the neighborhood!!!! Sigh...everything we need ;o)
(Almost, I still have to find a Target)

A little bit about the place...

I don't have pictures of the place, but once we move in, I'll try to post some. It's really quite nice, and it's a duplex, so there are two levels of living space (we get the 2nd and 3rd floors). And the landlord lives in the building next door, so if there are any problems, all we have to do is go knock on their door.

The major downside to this place is that it doesn't have central air. It's not too big of a deal to me, but I think we'll probably end up getting a window unit for the upstairs so Kurt can be comfortable.

The living room is a decent size (not huge, but big enough). It has a little "nook" that we can put the dining room table in and possibly the buffet that matches. The kitchen is a tad old and doesn't have a dishwasher (bummer :o( BUT, it's actually quite large (all things considered). We'll be able to cook TOGETHER! It's large enough to put a rolling island in and some extra carts/baker's racks. Having a nice sized kitchen to cook in is VERY important, as we've been stuck in a tiny one for the last 3 years. (And the last nice kitchen I had was way back in the first apt. I had in college...long time ago!)

Also on the first floor of our unit is a bathroom ("vintage" comes to mind, but ok) and a small 2nd bedroom, perfect for our library/office.

On the second floor is the master bedroom - the entire floor! There's quite a lot of space, which sold us on the place immediately, as most bedrooms in Chicago are TINY (maybe 7' or 8' X 11' or 13' - yeah...that small). There's enough room for our bed and dressers and possibly even a small sitting area. And, if Shosta barks a lot while we're gone or during the transition, it will be a great place for her to stay due to it's size (and a big window towards the street ;o). AND, what's even better is that it has 2 or 3 skylights, so it's a very bright room (with a big closet).

We are really excited about this place, not only because it's nice, but because the landlord was very nice, they are next door, there's a back yard that's fenced, and they seem to be making constant improvements to their properties (they had just refinished the wood floors, painted, and added the skylights). We found that to be pretty important because a lot of places we saw were not well taken care of. It's as if the owners knew they could get 1000 bucks for a crappy place if it was in a nice area, so what's the use of making it nice? And believe me, there were some CRAPPY places we saw.

So...in the end, we didn't find anything in the areas that we had focused much of our time on. But we are REALLY happy with the area we ended up in. It feels "homey" and safe which, in the end, we found to be the most important factor in our search.


Ok...time to go. I have the day off today (first day in a LONG time since all of the musical rehearsals began), so I'm going to try to be productive by cleaning/packing up the office. Or, I'll just sit here and make a wish list of nifty things on the Ikea website.
(Thank you, Michelle, for introducing me to Ikea so many years ago ;o)

A SUCCESS!!!

"The Best Little Theater in Town" was a HUGE success!!! The kids were fabulous and the theater at ODU was perfect! And believe it or not, I wasn't too nervous! We performed for all of the elem. kids at school today and they did a great job. So, there wasn't too much to worry about (except handing the mics around ;o).
I'll be sad to leave the kids behind, though... :*o( The principal even came up and said "Do you really have to leave us?" Sniff sniff... I haven't told the kids I'm leaving yet...not looking forward to that.

What a crazy month! And thank goodness it's all over...well almost.

We're off to Chicago this weekend and hopefully we'll find a place to live...finally. I've got a list of 30 or so places to contact/look at, so we'll have a full weekend. We've got an appt. with an apartment locating service on Saturday - they'll take us around to see listings they have open. But other than that, we'll be on our feet huffing it!

OK...gonna finish up now. Gotta eat some dinner - at 9:30pm...ha.

Take care and I'll post again once we get back from chi-town this weekend!

Only a few days before...

"THE BEST LITTLE THEATER IN TOWN" !!!!

Our latest trip...

We made our most recent trip to Chicago this past weekend. As my mom says "it feels like we're growing roots to our car seats." It seems like we're constantly traveling...hardly a weekend at home!

We had a good trip this time and it felt like spring instead of winter ;o) We went to a couple of open houses and viewed a couple of others by appt. Only 1 of the 4 we saw really stuck out to us. The problems with that one were the move in date (June 1st only) and the location (wouldn't feel as safe walking around at night-and considering I'll be taking night classes, that's important). The street that it was on was great, and there were streets near by that were just the same. However, we visited a REALLY AWFUL apt earlier and it was just around the corner. SO...the area wasn't consistent enough for us.

One of the most important things we did this trip was drive around Bucktown. We had placed it lower on our list (UK vil, wicker, then bucktown), but now find that it's 1st and UK vil. is 3rd. It's very residential, but very eclectic (school bldgs. painted with murals, artsy houses, intriguing stores). You could find all sorts of nifty little restaurants on just about every street corner. Parking was reasonable and there were a lot of grassy places. AND it's about a 1/2 a mile to a mile from the train station. SO...we are focusing our search on Bucktown and Wicker, and sadly, have raised our max. rent up to about 1250. But, if we want to be in a safe neighborhood and have enough space to feel comfortable, we'll do it ;o)

We'll be back in Chicago in a week and a half (May 18th-21st) so we're hoping to sign a lease then. We may have to change our move in date to July 1st instead of June 22nd - funny thing in Chicago, there's not many places willing to do a mid-month move in. Oh well. But if we can sign something then, we'll have some time to recuperate, pack, and enjoy Columbus before we head out. We have been writing a list of restaurants we want to eat at before we leave, so we've gotta get started on those ;o)

Ok...that's it for now. My MS musical is next week, so I'm sure I'll have something to post then! Believe it or not, it's going REALLY well now ;o) (knock on wood)

Take care~

One Down...One To Go!

One down, one to go!

My elementary musical was last night and went VERY well. There are always a couple of little "oops," but they all performed amazingly! I had a lot of compliments from the parents and teachers, which is always nice...even from parents that I haven't met before! Phew, what a relief!

I have 3 "normal" rehearsals left with my Middle School kids (thank goodness they are about 2 hours each) , then a dress rehearsal at Ohio Dominican University, a school performance in the church, and then the main performance.
The kids REALLY improved yesterday, so I'm feeling a LOT more confident about the show. They still need to sing out, but they are beginning to sing AND dance together! Woo Hoo!

Onto the Chicago front...we're off again tomorrow after we get off work. It makes for a long night (We usually don't get in until after midnight when we leave at 5:30pm), but it's still fun! We're HOPING to find a place Saturday so as to alleviate some of the stress. Kurt and I were just talking at dinner tonight...In a month and a half (and a few days), we'll be living in chicago! Then we realized, about a month and a half ago was St. Patty's day...and that really didn't seem that long ago. Which means a month and a half (and a few days) from now really isn't that far off. SO...needless to say, I lost my appetite ;o)

OK...well...I gotta get packing for the trip (after "the office" of course).

Hope you all have a great weekend!