New Digs

So I'm sitting here waiting for the goddamn Cardinals game to start (rain delay) so I decided to update all of you loyal readers about my living situation. As you know, I am moving to Chicago in about 10 days - Kristen is already there, staying with her sister.... but not for long. Today, she just inked the deal on our new place.

Since we still have the condo in Maplewood and realize it probably won't sell quickly in this market, we knew that the only thing we'd be able to do is rent for now. Renting is a big deal in Chicago. There are so many properties to rent it is unbelievable. The craigslist rentals page blows up everyday with nothing short of 100 listings. In fact, they even have Realtors up there that people hire to show them around and there is an MLS and everything. I'm sure we have that here in the Lou as well, but I know that it would be nowhere near the scale of what it is in Chicago - mostly because I've never heard of it until we started looking. Luckily we found one of these Realtors thanks to her being the wife of a coworker of my sister-in-law. She showed Kristen a handful of places that met our budget and furry four-legged friend requirements. Of that group we narrowed it down and picked one. We made the down payment and first month's rent and Kristen now holds the keys to our new home (at least for the first year).

The apartment is actually a rental unit in a condominium building. It's on a nice tree-lined street in the Portage Park neighborhood on the north side of the City of Chicago. We are extremely excited about it. It's a cute little place which was just rehabbed and Jake has lots of places around the neighborhood to play and do his doggy business. If you want to look it up on Google Streetview, or if you just want to send us a housewarming gift (haha) the address is:

4834 W. Henderson St.

Chicago, IL 60641

Phone numbers and stuff will remain the same for now, since they're cell phones anyway. The picture was taken from Kristen on her walk-thru to show me what the inside of each looked like. I have more that I will post on facebook or something at some point, but I encourage anyone that wants to see it to come up for a visit and take a first-hand look.

Anyway, as I said we are really excited. It's located in a quaint neighborhood almost on a corner lot, so we're hoping the street parking is manageable for our TWO cars. We are about 3.5 miles, or about 30 blocks, due west of Wrigley Field, so we have great access to watch the shitty Cubs attempt to play baseball - I am looking forward to Cardinals games so I can be an obnoxious St. Louis fan! The Lake is only about a mile past that, so we are still pretty close to the beaches and the bike trail. I can't wait to ride my bike around and do some swimming!

So that's the update, I guess. We got a place and are moving into it soon. Of course I will miss my STL since I am so deeply rooted here, but this will be a great change for me (I've never lived in any other part of the world then St. Louis), and of course a much needed return for Kristen to her family. Thanks everyone for your love and support. See you soon!