And the winner is.......Chicago!!

photo credit: Terence Faircloth

Hi, everyone. After three months of peregrinations, visiting city after city, scratching our heads, making spreadsheets, pondering, reflecting, and discussing, we've chosen the city where we'll make our future home: Chicago.

We liked the Twin Cities a lot; in the end it came down to a decision between Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul. We liked Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, too, but they didn't quite make it into the finals. We dismissed Cincinnati pretty quickly; it just wasn't our kind of town.

Most of you are probably not surprised to hear that we chose Chicago. Bob lived there for twenty years before moving to Atlanta, and he has friends and professional connections there. I lived there briefly in the mid-seventies and enjoyed it.

But I think the main reason we chose it is because of the vibrancy, diversity, and excitement that's evident from just riding around and walking the streets of the city. It's an exciting place to be, no question about it, and we expect to thoroughly enjoy living there.

We spent last week looking for a place to live, and we found an apartment in a great neighborhood called Ravenswood Gardens (part of the Lincoln Square area). It's in a two-flat (two-apartment) building built in 1915, and it has some great interior features: box-beam ceiling, built-in buffet/hutch, etc. It has an updated kitchen and bath, too, which means not sacrificing comfort and convenience for vintage detailing.

The neighborhood is full of lovely, well-maintained early 20th-century housing on quiet, tree-lined streets. There's an elevated train (except that it's at grade in this neighborhood) stop just two blocks from our apartment. Surrounding the el stop there's a nice commercial district with a neighborhood restaurant, a non-chain coffee shop, a yoga studio, an upscale pet supply store, and other useful businesses.

We don't know exactly when we'll move in, though it will definitely be sometime in May. [update on April 28: we're on our way to Chicago today to take up residence! The movers will arrive with our stuff on May 1 or 2, and we'll get started settling in with our many, many boxes over the weekend of May 3-4].

We're planning three trips between now and mid-May: to New Orleans and California for Bob, and then both of us will go to Ohio for my mom's memorial service. Somehow we'll have to squeeze in a move between these various trips.

Here are some photos of our new home and neighborhood: