Long time…

So yeah, it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything of content. Things are moving apace in our lives…we spent a few days over the holiday Up North, which was a lot of fun. I’ll get some pictures posted to Flickr one of these days.

Mostly I’ve just been focused on work (which has been a LOT) and our house searching. We are now narrowed down to two possible homes (although our realtor keeps finding new possibilities). The contenders are as follows:

The East House
This is a 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath house in Winfield. It’s got a great finished basement, and the rooms are a good size. The master bath is great – double sink, soaking tub, and nice shower. Yard backs up to the forest preserve, and has a deck which will need some work. There’s also an above-ground pool in the backyard that we would want removed. It is just a little over a mile to the train station, and about 30 minutes drive for Carrie to work (in bad traffic). It’s pretty close to Carrie’s parents, and not very far from my folks.

What’s holding us back – Location. It’s further west than we’d like to be, and the neighborhood is kind of “eh”. The kitchen would need updating, and it’s not that big (but it has some possibilities). Needs some minor updates

The Pinebrook House
This is a 3 bedroom (more on that later), 1.5 bath house in Lombard. It’s in a psuedo-cul-de-sac with a large (but somewhat oddly shaped) backyard with a GIANT deck. It’s the epitome of “move-in ready”; lots of nice little upgrades. The basement is completely finished in a family room/playroom setup, with an additional bedroom (bringing the total to four), laundry area, and office. It’s a Lombard address but has Glen Ellyn schools. It’s a few miles from my parents, and not that far from Carrie’s folks.

What’s holding us back – 1.5 bathrooms and possibly the kitchen (it’s on the smaller side). This house is also listed a little higher than East.

So we have a lot of thinking to do. The East house is vacant and has been on the market for a long time, so we feel like we could get it for a good deal. The Pinebrook house has had a few price drops, but the owners still live there, so we don’t know how motivated they are – but it’s not necessarily priced out of our range.