After spending a lot of time thinking and contemplating, we decided to sell our suburban Wilmette home of 10 years. Nah!!! Who am I kidding..we just went for it. The City was calling us. It was time to simplify, shed the big house and get back to the action. Don't get me wrong, we loved Wilmette and our boys were super lucky to live in such a idyllic neighborhood right out of a John Hughes movie... literally. One thing I knew for sure was I wanted a historic home so our search began.
But where do we start? Chicago has soooooo many amazing neighborhoods to choose from each with their own unique vibe and culture. And within each neighborhood there are little sub neighborhoods.
We had a few requirements to help us nail down the search. Be close to the L (that's the subway for you non-Chicago people), keep the commute for the Hubby down to a minimum and be able to walk to restaurants and bars. And of course budget, something small and $500,000 or under. Based on these requirements we quickly narrowed down neighborhoods to Roscoe Village, Logan Square, Avondale, Irving Park, North Center, Lincoln Square and Albany Park, all on the North side of the city.
I discovered a great website that gave some great information and fun descriptions of our desired neighborhoods. On the site I even stumbled across some of the sub neighborhoods within neighborhoods (I know, it's confusing). To learn about Chicago neighborhoods check out this great website. So fun and I love all of the neighborhood logos this artist designed. Click the image below to follow the link.
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Immediately I was drawn to Roscoe Village.
I hopped in the car and headed in to the city to check it out. By chance the hubby was at a work function at a Cubs game so we decided to meet at a little cafe in the Village. To my surprise and joy he was able to walk to the neighborhood from Wrigley Field. That was so cool and awesome I thought. We'd be walking distance to all the action. Through dinner we scrolled through Redfin and Realtor.com. Homes and condos were a little pricey for the size but we saw the value with it's close proximity to the city, amazing neighborhood restaurants and stunning streetscapes. We'd have to sacrifice size. Meh, no worries. We planned to out and about anyway. We asked ourselves.. can we manage the commute? To investigate we decided to Airbnb an apartment in the neighborhood for two nights during the work week. Smart decision. It took only two sleeps for the Mr. to realize - No way could he handle that commute for the next 10 years. It was a good hour. Scratch that. Sorry Roscoe Village you're out. We were a little disappointed but were excited to continue our search.
Stayed tuned for the next blog post where we discover a new neighborhood of interest.