May 29th, 2007
We’ve been enjoying the nice weather the past couple of weeks and have been sitting on the porch or patio as much as possible before the much-touted emergence of the 17-year cicadas, aka Northern Illinois Brood (Marlatt’s XIII) in our area. According to the University of Illinois Extension, it has the reputation of being the [...]
May 25th, 2007
As anxious as I am about moving out of the 1962 raised ranch in which I have lived for 17 years, there are some things that I will miss about the place, such as the kitchen sunlight. Even though the bungalow has the same orientation as this house, it doesn’t have windows as large or [...]
May 23rd, 2007
I’m a flatlander. While others wonder how we can stand the flatness of Illinois, I have a deep appreciation for it. I especially love driving down I-57 toward Champaign-Urbana around sunset. The colors in the sky are beautiful and all you see for miles is an open expanse of land, mostly farmland. The horizon is [...]
May 18th, 2007
The plumber rodded out the sewer, fixed the ejector pump, installed the basement toilet in the main bathroom and put the green-eyed monster toilet in D’s pod. It was nothing major, thank the “Reno” gods.
Pete pulled up the vinyl sheet flooring, which was a little hard to do but he managed. There was an article [...]
May 17th, 2007
We broke the news last week to D about the mold needing to be removed in the bathroom before our loan could be approved. He was not pleased but we quickly offered up our plan to demo the bathroom now. Turns out D is on vacation for 2 weeks anyway, so we would have easy [...]
May 16th, 2007
The bank called last week. They said that the appraiser had been out to the bungalow and that the house appraised fine, however the basement bathroom is an issue. There is mold everywhere in that bathroom which we were well aware of. When we were haggling over the price, I brought up the bathroom issue [...]
May 13th, 2007
I like to plan. I like to make lists. I like to get things done. I like that sense of accomplishment. I’m usually not a very patient person. To purchase this bungalow from our neighbor, I have had to become a patient person. It has been quite an exercise for me and I’m sure I’ll [...]
May 12th, 2007
While I continued to plan and dream about either adding on to our current house or moving, our neighbor down the block stops by to let us know that he’s getting married. We’ve known this neighbor, D, for a long time. Most of our neighbors have been around for a long time and we’re all [...]
May 11th, 2007
We are Denise (the author of this blog) and Pete. We are under contract on this Chicago-style octagon bungalow in Morton Grove, Illinois, a small suburb just north of Chicago.
We currently own a 1962 raised ranch. It’s a perfectly nice house, for someone else. I’ve lived there since Pete and I got engaged in October [...]