Party time! Excellent!

Now that all this real estate stuff is settled, we can get back to enjoying our time in the city. At this stage in our lives, that means...birthday parties for 2-year-olds. Ha! We had two this weekend and even said no to one. Next weekend we're stepping it up a notch and attending a party for a 3-year-old. Molls is a popular girl!

Happy girl in a tent

Cake!

Hanging with her birthday boy pal, Whistler

We really did have a fantastic weekend. In between all of the parties, we got to meet Daryn & Kristen's adorable new baby boy, Zane, and Jason got to go to a Sox game with Pat.

And then, of course, we spent the rest of the weekend talking about our new house -- where we're going to put our furniture, what new stuff we need to get, even where we're going to hang Christmas lights. You have no idea how excited we are! Here's a more in-depth look at the house and floor plan:

http://www.smartfloorplan.com/orders/bin/shell2.php?folder=il/v320338&idx=yes

Home sweet home

We love it! Details to come...

While we wait

With all this house drama, I've been neglecting to post pics of the girl! Enjoy!

Molly fast asleep with her pillow, elephant, duckie, baby, and at least 2 "night-nights" (blankies). Full crib!

It's been a busy day of offers and counter offers and waiting and paperwork. I have no "official" news, but believe me, I will post as soon as a deal comes together!

Pins and needles

SO, I think we're going to accept the offer. We've been back and forth a little bit on price, and now that Jason and I have had a day to deal with the injustice of it all, we think we're going to be OK with it. The reality is, if we reject this offer and wait, we're unlikely to get much more, and we could end up with even less. Not to mention, I'll have to keep scrubbing this place clean every morning and figuring out stuff to do every weekend during showings :)

I think another reason we're willing to take this offer is that we have found two houses we really love in Evanston. Each one has pros and cons, but the pros outweigh the cons all around! Our absolute favorite is the one I wrote about last week that's close to campus but doesn't have much of a yard or a large master bedroom. The location and play areas are just so great...I think it would be a lovely place for Molly to grow up.

The other house that we love was one that we saw for the first time today. It's on a semi-busy street, so that kind of sucks...BUT it has a huge, gorgeous back yard and a huge, gorgeous master suite. 3 full bathrooms, plenty of space, a lovely deck for entertaining. Not to mention a fully updated kitchen with appliances that rival my mother's. Take that! We'd eventually have to replace the peach-colored tile in Molly's bathroom, but whatever :)

This all sounds pretty good, right? Well, there are a few complications that I haven't mentioned. The first is that our potential buyer wants to close May 31st and it doesn't sound like he's willing to be too flexible about it. He's buying the place for his daughter (lucky girl!) and her lease is up that day, so he wants her moving into her new place, no ifs, ands, or buts. I'm not sure we could close on one of the Evanston places by then, so we might have to do some kind of short-term rental/storage situation for a few weeks or even a month. Boo.

We also have an O'Grady family reunion in Louisville the last weekend in May, Jason has Jake's bachelor party in Nashville the first weekend in June, and then Jason and I are going to wine country with friends the second weekend in June (trip already paid for). So it's a little overwhelming to think about squeezing a move into the middle of all that. We could back out of the Louisville weekend, but I'd hate to do it.

There's also no guarantee we'll even get one of these houses! Apparently there were a number of second showings at the first house I mentioned, so we may not even be the only offer that comes in this week.

Whatever...it's a lot to think about, but if it all works out, we could end up living here:

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL

Go 'Cats!

The plot thickens

We received an offer yesterday! It's actually our second offer, but I didn't mention the first one because it was too low, and they weren't willing to negotiate. While this second offer is also on the lower side, we have started negotiating and will hopefully be able to meet somewhere in the middle. That 'somewhere in the middle' is probably going to be a little lower than we were hoping, but it is a cash offer, so it would be hard to turn away. We also had 3 showings today, so there is a chance (a chance!) we could get another offer, but I don't want to get my hopes up :)

If this ends up working out, Jason and I are going to have to hurry up and make a decision on our next place as soon as possible. We're scheduled to see 4 more houses tomorrow and would also like to get back into our favorite from last weekend. What a whirlwind!

As much as I would like to see this happen, and as much as I am looking forward to moving into a house and starting our next phase in life, it is also totally freaking scary to think that we might be packing up and moving out in 2 months. Where will Molls go to school? Can we really afford to do this? Will our friends still come to see us? Will we miss our condo? We've been here for 7 years -- that's the longest Jason has ever lived in any 1 place. Hard to imagine living somewhere else! But I'm sure we'll adjust :) Onward and upward!

House Hunters: Evanston Edition

We've had enough traffic at our place that Lindsay thought we should start taking a look at some of the houses on the market in Evanston. Just to get an idea of what's out there in case we need to move quickly. A girl can dream, right?

So on Sunday, we dropped Molly off with her Aunt Susie and went to check out a range of houses in Evanston. Little did I know how wide of a range we were talking about! The first house we entered smelled so strongly of cat pee, I almost turned around and walked right back out. Disgusting! I've heard too many horror stories about people who have bought houses ruined by cat urine to ever consider a place that might have that type of problem.

Luckily, there wasn't too much time to get discouraged, because the next house was absolutely wonderful! Just a hop, skip, and a jump away from Northwestern's campus (and the lake!) and far enough north that the neighborhood isn't totally overrun with students. The house is updated enough that we could move in without having to make improvements and is full of interesting little study nooks and play areas...I could just picture little Molls doing homework or playing with dolls in this house. Sigh. Downsides include a small master bedroom and a small backyard. However, the master bedroom has a "tandem room" that could be used as a getting ready area, and the 2 porches and abundance of neighborhood parks would probably compensate for the lack of yard. Very tempting.

There was another house we liked a lot that had been recently updated. It had a huuuuge back yard that Jason was very excited about. Downsides for this one include a lack of bathrooms (only 1 full/1 partial) and proximity to a busy street (Crawford). But, it's in the best school district for elementary schools and has a million other appealing features.

I won't describe all of the houses we visited in detail. There were a few that were overpriced AND needed work, so those fell off the list of favorites pretty quickly. But there was one "as is" sale that could be promising. It's a charming Tudor style house on a really nice block with some pretty expensive homes. I think an elderly couple used to live there because it's full of wood paneling and pastel-colored tile. They've already dropped the price significantly, so if it comes down a little more, we could potentially consider doing a gut rehab. I'm not sure I'm up for that, but it's something to think about! Or maybe someone on HGTV will see this post and decide to give me a show and do it for free. Like I said, a girl can dream!

Wide open

That's what Joe, Steve, and Marsha nicknamed Molly last weekend because she was wide open for anything and went full throttle all day long. Oh what fun it is to hang out with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Joe! Here's the proof (photos from Joe):

Grandma lets Molly play with her cell phone. Heaven.

And of course there was a trip to the mall to meet the Easter Bunny. Apparently those ears only lasted a few seconds. 

There's always time for a train ride

And a helicopter flight

Why not try them all? 

Three peas in a pod

Grandpa made sure she found the eggs

First time eating candy. Happy Molly. Happy Easter!

Showings galore

After 2 weeks without a single showing, it became pretty clear we needed to drop our price. Lindsay contacted the agent for the condo down the street and found out that they had 10 showings and an offer their first week on the market!

We decided to re-list our condo at a lower price and, lo and behold, we started getting requests for showings within the hour. Buyers are out there, they're just looking for a deal.

As much as it will hurt to take a hit, we have to accept reality. And as my dad told me, our place is only worth what someone will pay for it.

So tonight, we scrub and clean for the first wave of appointments. Keep your fingers crossed people like the place! And keep your fingers crossed we can sell it as close as possible to this already reduced price. In my opinion, it's a steal!!

Just two rubes in DC

Jason suggested the title for this blog post as we tromped around DC in our tennis shoes, holding our paper map. It seemed appropriate. We hit as many sights as we could in two days, walked until our legs hurt, and barely even scratched the surface of everything there is to see and do in our nation's capital.

So what'd we do in DC? On the first day, we focused on monuments and memorials. It was a gorgeous day, so we wanted to do everything we could outside. Starting at the White House, we ventured south, passing by the WWII Memorial, the Reflecting Pool (under construction), the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the Franklin Roosevelt Memorial, and then finishing the day at the Washington Monument. I would be hard pressed to pick a favorite.

On the second day, we started out by visiting the Jefferson Memorial, which my friend Manu who lives in DC teased us about. Apparently an early Simpsons episode makes fun of it for being unpopular, at least in comparison to the Lincoln Memorial. Only Lisa wants to go there because, of course, she's a nerd. Touche.

After saying "hi" to Jefferson, we hit up the National Mall, thinking it would be a day of museums. First on the list was the Air & Space Museum, but when we finally got there, we were joined by about 15 tour buses and a million teens in matching sweatshirts lined up to get in. No thanks! Again, in the spirit of Lisa Simpson, we chose a less popular option, the American Indian Museum, which was interesting, but not exactly impressive. We decided it would be our first and last museum of the day.

Next up was the Capitol Building and then lunch at Old Ebbitt Grill, one of the oldest bars in DC. It was packed, but worth the wait for some of the best crab cakes we've ever had.

That night, we met up with Manu and his girlfriend Jen for dinner and drinks in Dupont Circle, where we got to experience DC with locals. All in all, it was a fantastic trip. We definitely want to go back and see more -- Arlington, Georgetown, the Air & Space Museum -- a weekend was not nearly long enough. But with Steve and Marsha only 5 hours away and always willing to babysit, I have a feeling this will just be the first of many trips to DC!

Barack's house

Me and Abe

Jason and I across from the Jefferson Memorial

Getting some luck from FDR

Not a cloud in the sky!

Future Senator?

Spring break happiness

We're on vacation this week, and I'm not sure yet if that means I'll update the blog more often because I have the time, or if I will take a break from blogging because I have the time. Who knows! But I will take a minute to add this photo of Molly with her Grandma and Grandpa O'Grady. She's loving all of the attention :)

Having fun at the garden of olives

I'm glad that Molly is so comfortable with her grandparents because it will make it easier for Jason and I to escape this weekend for a little side trip to Washington, DC. I've never been, and Jason has only been for work, so we can't wait to be tourists for a couple of days and check out all of the museums and monuments...alone! Sorry Molls, we love you, but it will be nice to get away for a few days and have a chance to do our own thing. Photos to come!