a quest ended

I know we've said this before only to have to eat our words, but after a few wrong turns, some detours, and misdirections, we are finally moving forward on purchasing a house.


More pictures are at our shutterfly site (link at the right).

Like many of the other options we had explored before, the house is in our favorite town, 2 blocks from an elementary school, 3 blocks from a middle school, 1 block from a park, with the L, two grocery stores and several restaurants in walking distance. The house is a 3-bedroom 1.5-bath rehabbed house that turns 100 years old this year. It fits us well, and we are very excited.

Our sense of relief is palpable as we get the last few details in order. I literally walk around feeling the desire to exhale deeply.

In the end, our nearly 12-month delay between accepting an offer on our condo and closing on the new house

• allowed us to live in a new part of Chicagoland (thanks so much to Grammy A and the whole family for letting us crash at her house for the last 4 months),
  
• allowed us to get into a much better house at a similar price, and
  
• definitely taught us patience as well as a great deal about the real estate industry.

Most of all, it taught us we don't want to go through this again any time soon, and fortunately we believe we have a place that will work for the long term.

Thanks to everyone for all of their thoughts, prayers, and words of encouragement through this process. We know what we have been through is nothing compared to the struggles that others go through with health and much more serious issues, but we are very glad that the process is coming to an end. We are slated to close and get moved in by the end of July.