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!