Sunday, July 20, 2008

Moving

Oh yes, faithful readers, we here at Steingruebl World Enterprises will be moving headquarters by the first of October. Our two-year lease here is up when the landlord returns from Spain, and the race is on to find new headquarters.

It's not as simple as it might sound. We're pretty committed to staying a one-car enterprise, which means staying close to transit. Ideally, Andy would be able to continue walking to catch the free shuttle from the train station. We would also like some outdoor space-at least a patio but ideally a fenced yard. The prospect of finally having a small patch of the outdoors to call our own makes the effort of moving seem worthwhile.

Then, of course, there is the school situation. Our "neighborhood" school is a 10 minute drive from our current home. We have a year of preschool ahead of us still, but since I'm not planning on moving again in a year we've got to have that figured out. From what I know, the school for this area is pretty good, and several of Elise's friends from preschool (and the neighborhood) will be going there.

Finally, even a very good cat closes a lot of doors for us. Nobody wants to rent to pet owners. I think part of the problem is that everything here seems to have wall-to-wall carpeting, so the potential for pet destruction is higher than it would be for hardwood. I understand the reluctance, but what about those of us who take care of our pets and keep things nice? We come with references! But the number of ads reading, "no pets, no exceptions" is disheartening.

A big bright spot in this is move is that we will be getting rid of all kinds of stuff before we move. It's been nice having piles of storage in the garage and closets here as we figure out what we're doing with ourselves, but now we get to empty them out! I sold two strollers and a tricycle on craigslist last week and it was intoxicating. Now that we're officially done having kids, I can get rid of the gear, clothes and toys we'd been saving for "the next one." We can also sell off some of the toys that Elise has outgrown. It's a nice opportunity to donate clothes that we don't wear, too. If you had to go to the trouble of moving in a few months, what would you get rid of?

So, off we go. We have two promising housing leads. One is for a townhome in the neighboring development. Convenient, new-ish, and it has a patio and reasonable square footage. The downside is that it's on a street that is likely to get very busy when the neighboring roofing warehouse and yard get demolished and turned into high-rise condos. Oh, and it has 3 bathrooms (or at least 2.5). I hate cleaning bathrooms, and with three of 'em it becomes a full-time job. The second lead is farther afield and would be a longish walk to the train station. It's not far from the home of some wonderful friends, and is in a very close-knit part of the neighborhood. Close to school, too. And a yard. I'm still waiting to hear back from the landlady on when it's available and the exact address so that we can have a better sense of what life there would be like.

Yay, moving? Well, yes and no. Stay tuned for more developments.

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