I had a temper tantrum yesterday. Literally, a crying, throwing stuff temper tantrum.
It started on Saturday. When I found a house in Forest Park. Now, let me back up a minute. We are exceptionally difficult people to find a house for. In addition to requirements that we NOT live in Crackden, IL, USA, we need a place that will let us have dogs. We also need a place with a yard, because I am not trying to walk dogs down 2390482390 flights of stairs at 2am, just so Gordon can sit there and look at me like I am an idiot.
We are also trying to find a place we can actually afford... and that has at LEAST 2 bedrooms. I say at least 2 bedrooms, but what I mean is two bedrooms and a basement or three bedrooms. Shockingly, this puts us eligible for about 5% percent of listings that I actually find. Now, once you rule out all the places in Indiana and the far flung suburbs (seriously, I'm not driving my happy ass an hour and change to work every day. Nor am I going to sit my happy ass on a train for 4+ hours every day. Aint gonna happen. Aint no one got time for that.) So this makes us eligible for about 1% of the places that I can actually find on the internets. And then there was the place in Forest Park.
It is the second suburb west out of Chicago (next to my dream town of Oak Park). It is a 3/2 with a finished basement. In our price range. With a yard. Walkable to the El. I convinced a DePaul coworker to go by... he gives it the two thumbs up. We set an appointment for him to look at the inside of the house for Tuesday at noon. And I get an email from the realtor at 1145 that the house is off the market because someone else rented it. SON. OF. A-.
The most annoying thing? Its not like I have been looking for a day. I have been looking since mid-January. I have apps for this. Today when my mechanic decided to open his shop up an hour and a half late (seriously, who does business like that?) I was on my phone. Searching for properties. So, this is annoying. We have a couple of feelers out there... some friends in the area who have leads on places, one in Arlington Heights and potentially Oak Park.
There are three places that are on our list now, one is in Evanston- small, with an unfinished basement... Evanston is cool because its kinda hipster and an easy ride on the train to my work... Northwestern is there. Another in Norridge (an easy, short commute), which is a 3/2 with a finished basement, but Dave doesnt like Norridge. And another in Hoffman Estates- which is verging on too far... but the house is CRAY. It has more bathrooms than our house has rooms. It looks like one of the victims of the bursting housing bubble... 2700 square feet.... HAY (which is short for Huge Ass Yard). You think Jessi Bishop-Royse has a hard time keeping a 1500 square foot home clean? Wait till she is dealing with a 2700 square foot home. Seriously- I kind of want to have the house just so that during the holidays, JJ and I could play soccer in the living room and Max and Emme can play tackle football in the kitchen.
I am starting to rethink my strategy. I wonder if I should just sit tight and wait till I get up there at the end of the month. Then find a place I want, go there, start throwing money at them until they get me a key. Probably a good idea. Meh.
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