This is the house in the spring/summer. (obviously not now!) 
This is the house in gloomy winter. (that peach color is going to have to go - but maybe not until spring)
This the back of the house now. That is Greg and our realtor (who is also a good friend of ours who we're *so* happy about giving some business to in this awful economy).
The boys had so much room to run and play - they didn't know what to do with themselves! Oh - giant fan. There is a giant fan there. No central air unfortunately. But - we have several air conditioners and there are some in the house there. We're going to see about having central air installed - but it may not be possible b/c its such an old house. The bench-like object is a covered radiator. The house has steam heat - wonderful wonderful for the winters up here!! (and we'll save lots on heating!!)
The 2 rooms shown in this photo are what will be our bedroom (through the doorway there and the office (with the checkerboard floor). We see our financial guy tomorrow about the mortgage details. I'm nervous. I'm sure it will be fine - but still. We actually had a mortgage for the other house we were looking at (a short sale), but it expired before we were able to purchase the house (its still pending with the seller's bank. still!) Right now our close date is February 25th. Its not perfect - but its perfect for us and its exactly what we need. So - maybe it is perfect after all! Its very big - we're a little unclear on the square footage - but there are more rooms than we'll actually have a use for (doesn't that sound bananas?). It has 1 1/2 baths - we were really hoping for 2 - but that is hard to come by in the area that we're looking at where most properties are older homes. (I think actually IN the historic district) The school district that we're in is the best in this area actually - so we're very very excited about that and not worried about trying to get into a magnet school or anything now. I keep saying "the area" - LOL! I should probably explain - its not in Chicago. Its in a suburb bordering Chicago called Evanston. (its very chic to live in Evanston - and we LOVE it there and spend a lot of time there anyway - so that was our first choice of cities) Its only about 10-15 minutes by car from where we are living now. We feel very lucky to have found a property in our price range (that isn't a short sale!) and I think we sort of got lucky with it being an estate sale. Its on the commuter train line and on the city train line and there is a bus system - so we're still very "public transit" friendly. Oh - and there is a park - ACROSS THE STREET. If it were any closer it would be in our yard. This was a giant selling point for us - park - across the street. Awesome. And the house is on a little culdesac street so there is very little traffic. We have a 2-car garage (not attached) and a parking "slab" big enough for 3 cars in the backyard. There is a front porch, a back porch, a small (but not tiny! - we've seen tiny - its not that) yard and a picnic table in the side-yard. Its very cute. There are 3 official bedrooms, 2 extra rooms upstairs that we're going to make into an office and a sitting room, a sunroom downstairs that will be the boys' playroom, and then there is the finished basement. Greg is very excited about the basement. There is a wet bar and a main room downstairs, 1 extra room, a laundry/utility room, 1/2 bath, and an extra utility room with a door to the backyard. The house needs some updating - but is basically move-in ready. We're going to do some work (painting - maybe some floor work etc) before we move in - but the rest we're going to do as we go along.... Also - we're going to have to buy furniture - because we don't really have much. I've just been waiting to purchase anything until after we get our finances in order to see what we've got to work with.
more updates soon!
