Holding Pattern

I know people are dying for an update on the housing situation. Unfortunately, I don’t really have one. The good news:  looks like the sale will go through okay. We came to terms on the final contract and the buyer paid the rest of the earnest money yesterday, so that means our appraisal came back okay. Whew!  The bad news:  we’re not much closer on finding a place to live by the end of the month.

The house hunting on Sunday went okay. The last house we saw was in Edgebrook. It was soooooooo close to being perfect! But, not close enough to make an offer. There’s no master bath, which isn’t a deal breaker per se, but the shared bath is really tiny. The house does have the potential to add an addition to the second floor, but who knows how much that would cost…

We’re off to see an apartment tonight, and I’m crossing my fingers we like it, can get a lease signed, and be done. That would take A LOT of stress off the situation. We’ve decided to look at one-year leases that will allow us the option to sublet. Our realtor has advised that there won’t be a ton of inventory coming on the market between now and next year, so we don’t want to run the risk of a short-term sublet running out on us and then having to pick-up and move to a second rental. It’s a risk (what if we can’t find people to sublet when we need them), but I think it’s the most stable option. Plus, rent is MUCH cheaper for one-year leases.

On top our housing stresses, Lainey came down with a viral something or other this week. She was sent home from daycare on Monday morning with a fever.  We had to keep her home Tuesday and Wednesday and hire a temp nanny, because neither Mark nor I could miss any work this week.  So, by paying the nanny (and of course still paying the daycare tuition), I actually paid to work the last two days. Not to mention, I just feel crappy about leaving Lainey with a stranger when she’s sick and needs her mommy the most. Poor thing isn’t sleeping either…poor mom and dad have been averaging about four hours of sleep the last four nights. Crossing my fingers that she’ll be back on track tonight!

Pending and Perturbed

I know I have been absent for the blog for quite sometime, but we've had a busy few weeks.

• Visit from Dad to celebrate Lainey's birthday (and to finally get his Segway tour--I have to admit I had a lot of fun, even wearing the dorky day-glo vest)
• Travel to Moline to celebrate our nephew Ben's birthday (and Lainey's for the second time--but WITH cake!)
• Hectic work schedules and closed daycare on July 5 & 6
• Our annual Pitchfork Festival outing (big shout out to Frank and Lonnie for watching Lainey for two days!)
• Various other social engagments
• Oh yeah, and we accepted an offer on the condo...

Which we're happy about, but has sent us into a stressed-out tailspin. We're still under attorney review and are haggling over some requested buyer credits, so it's not a done deal, but we're hopeful it moves forward. We really, really want it to move forward.

One little problem...where the heck are we gonna' live? If we'd gotten this offer even three weeks earlier, there were several properties out there we were interested in seeing. Now, not so much. It seems everything has been snatched up. So, we've hit the ground looking for short-term rentals or sublets, which are WAY pricier than I had assumed they'd be. Poor research on our part, I guess. We viewed a few places last weekend and found one that would be doable short-term and not blow our budget. But, we can't sign a lease until we get out through the lawyer review and settle on all the terms. Right now, this guy could still walk.

We're hitting the real estate listings hard this weekend with scheduled stops in Andersonville, Evanston, and Edgebrook/Sauganash, which, hello!, I had NO idea about this area and am pretty pumped to check it out. It's still a Chicago zip code, the schools are great, and the houses look awesome and are very much in our price range. There would be some definite trade-offs, but good public schools and beautiful yards may be worth it.

Keep your fingers crossed for us! (And maybe your spare rooms open...we could be homeless on August 29!)

Let Her Eat Cake!!!

So, it had to wait a few days until her tummy recovered, but Elaine finally got her birthday cake this weekend! It was worth the wait...