House Offer Number 5

The risk with building up to our fifth and final offer is an Arrested Development-style “Her?” skepticism in response to our new house. If you have any doubt upon seeing these photos, you’ll just have to trust me when I say that, after a full year of searching, we know we landed a really great house for us. As I did with the other houses, these are the MLS photographs: I won’t try to make it look any better or worse. In real life, it looks both better and worse.

Offer Number 5: End of the Line

Location: Albany Park. Just south of the river, and so much closer to the train than we ever expected to be able to afford. It’s a 0.2 mile walk to the Kimball Brown Line station. That’s nothin’! We had hoped for the Kedzie stop, but homes simply weren’t being listed in that area. So, it’s the end of the line both literally and figuratively for us.

In addition to the Brown Line, we’ll be on three main bus lines. The Foster bus gets us to Andersonville, the Kimball bus takes us to Logan Square, and the Lawrence bus is a quick trip to Lincoln Square. We have friends along all of these routes and we’re excited to be so easily connected to them via public transit.

Why We Made an Offer: The first floor layout was unlike any other we saw. It felt so spacious and gracious. The living room flows into the kitchen/dining room, but there’s also a nice separation — one of us (Jarrod) can be in the kitchen listening to The Gist while the other (me) is in the living room watching Orphan Black. It’s also on an oversized lot: 40’x125′ vs the standard 25’x125′. In a crowded city, owning some extra outdoor space is a great luxury.

The open, light-filled kitchen is perfect for us. We don’t need or want a formal dining room, and I can see all our friends hanging out around that huge island.

The kitchen, of course, isn’t my style but I haven’t seen a single one that is. Remodeling a kitchen was in the cards for us no matter what, and this kitchen is functional and modern enough to last us several years.

Though it looks formidable in that exterior shot, it’s a great floor plan for us. Roughly 1600 square feet, with two large bedrooms and full bath upstairs plus a half bath on the first floor. Two toilets for the first time in 9+ years of living together: it’s going to be a game-changer.

I love this central staircase so much. If you’ve been in any Chicago bungalows, you know how rare open staircases are. They are usually cramped, steep afterthoughts. This one is sunny and beautiful. This staircase feels like a home.

Listing Price: $339k (no MLS link because, ya know, it’s our new address!)

Our Offer: $340k. We feel very lucky to have purchased this property in this market without getting into a bidding war. We have the tornado sirens and the Chicago Blackhawks to thank: we got into this house on that crazy Game 7 night and made an offer immediately. They accepted the next day and immediately had back-up offers from other prospective buyers.

There’s a great mix of short and long term projects: some expensive stuff we’ll need to pay for right away (e.g. plumbing work), some expensive stuff that will be fun to plan for over several years (e.g. redoing the kitchen, bathroom and, well, everything else), but also lots for me to do on my own. I see so many things that I’ll enjoy tackling without spending a lot of money. That’s what I’m most excited about: it’s a project house that is great and livable now, and I see a clear path for years to come to make it even better. PROJECTS FOR LIFE.

That’s it for now! I wrote this post on Thursday night and hit “Publish” as soon as we successfully closed today (hooray!). I’ll be back with so many more details: the exact timeline and all the drama that happens between offer and close, details about finances, and lots of photos of the house and all my plans for it.