Buying a House = A Lot More Work Than Selling a Condo

We're closing on our house on Monday. Everything seems to be in place: The mortgage, they say, is ready. The homeowners insurance is lined up, as is the babysitter. The sellers had the asbestos removed from the basement today. Tomorrow I wire in the money that we got from selling our condo last year. Thank you, crazy San Francisco tenancy in common, for appreciating so quickly and giving us the opportunity to buy a real house. I'm so glad we made that mad investment when we were still young enough to say, hell, let's go for it. Because probably no sensible investment we make for the rest of our lives will pay off as well.

We won't actually move in until a month from now, because first we have to order new upstairs windows and wait for them to be installed. Hopefully in that month we'll manage to paint, have the plumbing fixed, have a gate put on the yard to stop the kids from wandering into the alley, and put in some window air conditioners. And a few other things not coming to mind at the moment. Obviously we are going to be on the road a lot in this month of sky-high gas prices.

Things I'm looking forward to:

Summer in the yard and on the deck. Especially eating on the deck since it is right off the kitchen. We sometimes eat on our picnic table on the patio now, but every time you realize you forgot something, it's a long climb up.

Garbage disposal

Using the kitchen sink and the dishwasher at the same time

Doing laundry without going outside

Second bathroom!

Setting up a home with long-term living in mind. I have a lot of ideas. I hope we can find the time to carry out a few of them.

Things I will miss:

Lincoln Square

our 3 wonderful neighborhood parks

the babysitting coop

Northside and Evanston friends

being on the Kenosha Metra line

feeling like we could go to the Lake at any time even though we never, ever go to the Lake

our little grocery store

this apartment, with its large bedrooms, huge living room and big bathroom