Another New Home

So we are officially moving to our fourth residence since our arrival here, just over a year ago. Our lease came up at the apartment, and whilst we hadn't made any plans to move, we thought we would have a look around anyway, at least to see what was out there. Ours is the 2nd from the left in this picture.

Before we actually arrived in the US, we came over on a sighting trip to try to narrow down the area in which we might live. At that time, Libertyville was atop our list, but we felt maybe out of our immediate price range. On reflection, and based on what we saw when looking for our new place, I think we were wrong, but what the hey, Mundelein has been a good place to live, and we will miss our pool.

We started off looking in Libertyville and an area of Chicagoland known as the North Shore, covering towns and villages like Winnetka, Highland Park, Highwood and Lake Forest. Our overriding goal was to find a good sized place in or near a town/village centre, on the train line that runs to the city nights and weekends, that wasn't a huge rip off. Now, as soon as you say the North Shore area to "locals", they instantly associate high prices with the area. However, we soon found out, that whilst it wasn't cheap, it certainly wasn't out of our range, and we did find some places that matched all of our criteria, including in our price range.

We had almost decided on a few places and were hours from a decision, when we saw a listing for a place in Libertyville, one of the very few we had seen listed. We went to see the place and it met all of our criteria, and we still had a pull in our hearts for the town. The place is a still only two bedroom, but it is significantly larger than our current place. Both bedrooms are bigger and the master is en-suite. We have an additional "family" bathroom upstairs and a "powder room" downstairs too. The front door opens directly onto the lounge (a curious American tradition, although I have seen this at home too) which then leads through to a large kitchen and dining area, that will take a table for up to 8-10 people I would think.

There is a small yard area, with a "plumbed in" gas BBQ, assigned parking and a garage. As far as I am concerned though, the top off is the basement. It is full and finished. There is electric, cable, etc down there, and so I will have my "office" down there. There is also a laundry room and workshop area down there too.

The location adds even more to the deal. It is across the street from a 9 hole golf course, which only charges $11 for the round. You can actually see one of the greens from the bedroom and living room windows (sorry Charlie, I don't know which hole yet). There are tennis courts and a village pool further down the road. It is about a 15 minute walk to the town centre, which has lots of shops, bars, coffee houses, restaurants, and a small cinema. A few minutes further and they have a train line which runs into the city on the weekends and evenings too.

All in all we think it is the perfect package, except it is another rental! Hopefully next year, this whole credit situation is going to get better. Wish us luck in our new place. There are some other pictures here. The order got a bit screwed up though.