Coming Home to Kansas

(Barring any unanticipated problems with our credit check. I've never been turned down for anything involving a credit check before, so it's probably fine, right? RIGHT??

Oh crap. I hope I don't jinx it by posting this now.)

An awesome apartment in a GREAT location! It's small, but liveable. (Katie and her husband live in a two-floored one bedroom right now, but they said they could probably fit just fine in this one.) It's on the 3rd floor, which I like for safety reasons, but oof. I'll get some good muscles from climbing the stairs!

Ok, the pictures hide the awesomeness a teensy bit, because my BIL sent low-res files, and the current tenants are in the middle of packing. I think you can see its potential, though. (Hannah: It's on Logan Blvd and California. Three blocks from the Calif blue line stop.)

Outside. It faces a boulevard, so tons of grass and trees.

Welcome to the mess. Living room area. The brown door through the doorway in the back
is to a closet or the bathroom. Past the entertainment center on the right wall is another doorway to the dining room area.

Looking back at the living room. One the left side is the foyer area. The paned door is mirrored, and it's the closet.

Dining room area. There's enough room in there for our table and maybe the computer desk. Door to the right goes to the kitchen.

Another view of it. Katie and the landlady's husband have their backs to the living room.

A TON of counterspace and cupboards in the kitchen.

It looks pretty small--and I'm sure it is--but it's bigger than the kitchen we have now--which is a decent for just the two of us.

Back porch. Small, but should fit a few chairs.

Bedroom.
Small, though larger than the picture appears to be. Will fit our dressers. Just not a desk like they have crammed in there.

Bathroom.
Eeek! How cute is this? Everything looks brand new, and I'm going to have to copy the small delicate plants at the window! They look like bamboo shoots, which are really expensive at flower shops, but crazy cheap at the vietnamese markets on Argyle.

There's also a storage space in the basement that will fit our bikes plus other stuff.

I'm so excited! Plants! Sunshine! Hardwood floors!! CHICAGO!! Paula is flipping OUT coming up with decorating ideas. I think my 30th birthday is going to be a lucrative one.

I just . . . I can't even express how relieved I am about finding a place--and one I like, and how in awe I am. I'm moving back to Chicago! This is REAL!

I thought we needed a bright and cheery pic. Since I have no more puppies I decided to put my thong here to share with all of you. Here it is do you like it? It smells good too! LOL!!!!!!!!!

What do you take into primary consideration for your home: the neighborhood or the actual home?

I'm in a conflict right now searching for a place, and to make things worse, I'm only vaguely sure of what I'm thinking about--I can't actually see these places that Katie is looking at for me.

She saw a place today that is 2.5 bedrooms, huge kitchen, tons of windows and sunshine. It's close to my school, and near an interstate. The problems are, it's actually TOO near an interstate (try half a block), and just generally in a neighborhood I don't want to live in. (I'm a north-side girl, this is kind of south.) The hood is fairly residential, though an artist's community, but it doesn't necessarily have many restaurants, bars, sidewalk cafes in the area, and so forth. I'm not even sure where any grocery stores are in the area. It's also not in a great location for Tim (the theatres and agents' offices are mostly on the north side) so he'd have to drive everywhere instead of biking and taking public transit.

On the north side, for the same price, we'd probably be in a smaller one-bedroom, but in a cute, darling neighborhood.

(Also, even though they are developing a park across the street from this big apartment, on the north side, there are tons more trees.)

Arg. This is stressful.

how is everyone? what's up? the blog has been quiet and I miss you all.

Aside from getting ready to move, we are pretty ho-hum here. I'm continuing to write my dissertation -- I'm nearly done with my second chapter and hope to have the third drafted by the end of summer -- and Topher is keeping on, keeping on at work, designing levels to a game that will be the sequel to one his company will release this August.

We've been winding down in the evenings to episodes of Deadwood -- really good western series from HBO. It's gritty and sleazy, to say the least, but seems like the most authentic western-themed show I've ever seen. The characters and stories are really well-written, as long as you can just get past some fiercely obscene language. We are a season behind. But we need to start Veronica Mars! Is anyone else watching anything good right now? Movies?

This morning is slower for me than most -- I've put off writing until this afternoon.
Last night, I got a wild hair and started writing a short story. Not about anything in particular. I wonder what it will be. Summer does that to me. Has anyone else written anything as of late? Thought about writing/drawing/creating anything? I am just being pesky and curious.

Hope you are all doing well!

.... but we need a new post here. However, I'm the one doing it, and I have nothing really amazing or great to say.....except that we would gladly take a puppy if there weren't a possibility that Kit and Mil would go all cat ninja on a new roommate.

Did everyone have a good Memorial Day weekend?

Oh, wait, maybe I do have something cool to post. I just realized that I hadn't posted a picture of our house-to-be.

This actually makes the exterior color look sickly yellow, but it is really more goldenrod to tan. And it has rained so much that everything is wonderfully green and growing all around! We close two weeks from today.