Although I've been in the Chicago area for about six months, I've had this feeling that I still hadn't settled in. I realize there are no finish lines in life, but moving in to my own place feels like a bit of a finish line to the journey I've been on over the past six months. My sister (and her kids) have made my return to Chicago fun and easy as possible, by giving me a great place for Annie and I to stay while I looked for work. So after I made it to Chicago and found work, I turned my focus towards the next step on the Chicago journey: establishing a home of my own.
I knew I needed a few paychecks to cover rent and some furnishings (I sold everything I owned when I left Seattle) and targeted December 1 of this year for a date to move in. And although I know the city pretty well, I called in the help of an apartment finder to sort through the rentals and steer me in the direction of places that would fit with my lifestyle. I can't believe I never used an apartment finder for previous searches, but it made a world of difference having someone's help.
So Echo Victor (the apartment finder) and I set out this past Saturday to find a place for Annie and I to call home. As I mentioned to Echo, I really don't do the whole "shopping" thing very well and am the kind of guy who doesn't spend time shopping for things--regardless of cost or importance. My main criteria for the apartment were proximity to the expressways (since I drive so much for work), and a dog-friendly building. I gave her a few other cost parameters, and we were off.
We looked at a few places that seemed "OK", but were located over near Millenium Park/Navy Pier and although one of the places was nice I had a feeling I'd go nuts with the traffic coming in and out of that area for events. So we headed to my old neighborhood, which for those who don't know was just west of the loop. I had some initial reservations about being back in the same neighborhood, but after seeing the place I was sold.
The place is in a high-rise building that was completed about a year ago, and my apartment has only been lived in for three months of that year. The building has a ton of amenities which is a little different from my past apartments, but something I can definitely get used to. And there's even a dog park in front of the building where Annie can run off leash. Tons of other cool stuff, but you can read apartment listings elsewhere on the internet.
As I mentioned earlier, I sold just about everything I owned when I left Seattle (other than clothing, my car, and Annie) so my focus today turned to things like furniture to fill up the apartment. Furniture shopping is another one of those things I don't love spending my time to do, so much like the apartment search it took me about 30 minutes to find a couch and table to deck out the new living room. The only challenge I had was deciding the delivery date for the furniture (and ultimately my move in date), but I settled on November 21 as my first day in a 606XX zip code.
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