The Ghettos of Barrington

Well, we return. Again. Only to leave in 3 days. Again.

I'm not a traveler. I'm a homebody.

So our trip to Chicagoland was fruitful. And a bit discouraging. We found a lot of places to live. A lot of places we can't afford. With property taxes at 2.5%, it's killing our bottom line. But we have a decision to make.

1. Do we want an acre of land 45 minutes from Sean's office? Problem, the HOA will not allow any outbuildings (ie. a garage big enough to hold our trailer), or for us to park the trailer on the side of the house. So what's the point of an acre that you can't do anything on?

2. Do we want a house in a cookie cutter neighborhood like we live in now, 10 minutes from Sean's office? Problem, the land is too small for us to park the trailer on the side of the house. Do I want to spend $100 a month for storage? Although, the smaller property comes with lake rights, and is right across the street from the beach of the small-ish lake. Possibly sell the trailer and buy some wave runners?

We did drive through some areas that had homes on 300+ acres, with ranch houses and barns as big as neighborhoods. Barrington is one of those. If only there was a ghetto. We didn't get to see any of downtown Chicago, since Sean's office is over an hour away from there. We looked into Wisconsin, but property tax isn't that much less, and the commute would be brutal, so that was nixed. Hopefully we can narrow down some homes and get out with a Realtor and see them in a few weeks.

Other things that happened:

Sean puking on the plane after THE WORST take off ever.
Our "little person" car.
Marble Columns.
RED LIGHT! SCREEEEECH!
No sense of direction, due to lack of mountains.
Lake Michigan. Freezing, BTW.


Many, many many thanks to My "'Da Bomb" Mom, and of course Meg, for watching the girls. It sure made life easier not having to schlep around 3 kids. Gretta is having Nunn withdrawals.