Owning a Piece of Chicago

We did it. We bought a house! In San Francisco, my personal goal was to own a home by the time I was 40, but even I knew that was not going to happen. So here we are, 5 years ahead of schedule - in a different city, granted, but I still feel like I came out ahead on this goal. After signing papers non-stop for a couple of mind-numbing hours, we came up for air and were handed a set of keys.

We felt sort of out of it (not to mention starving for dinner), but the change in our home status suddenly hit me when I saw the El train pass by ahead of us. I've always loved the Chicago elevated trains, but last night it was different. I suddenly felt a rush of pride, like these cool trains were in my city, the city I own a little teeny tiny piece of. This was a surprising feeling.

We raced home, picked up the boys and took off for Rogers Park, even though it was technically their bedtime. It's not every day your parents buy their first house! The boys loved it; cried when it was time to leave. We had to get them in there last night because the floor refinisher was starting to work today at 8 AM so we can't go in at all over the weekend and I couldn't stand the thought of them not seeing it until next week (okay, and I wanted to see it, too!).

The next few weeks are hectic: floors getting done, the whole house painted, and a wall-to-wall carpet installed downstairs. Oh, and Matt on at least 3 trips. Eek. Wish us luck!