Well, That Made It Easy

Looks like Oliver will be making Hoyne Avenue his home for awhile.

We've been struggling since Oliver was born to figure out our next move house-wise. We hope to bring another Weinstein into the world at some point and the 2BD/2BTH condo probably wouldn't cut it, so we are trying to anticipate what's next for us. For some reason this is an extremely difficult decision for us -- part laziness, part resistance to change, part an aversion to spending money.

So, anyway, one of the top contenders for the next move was converting a 3-flat rental we own into a single family home. It has a beautiful backyard, a three-car garage, a great neighborhood, and would yield 4,900 square feet of living space (including a sunlight adorned third floor for Eric's painting studio) -- quite a move up for us.

We engaged an architect to help us figure out if it could be done, if a 108-year-old home could be converted to modern luxury. We passed that test and worked with him to do a basic layout of the dream home -- 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, and a bonus two-bedroom apartment on the ground floor (to help subsidize the mortgage). Next step was to get a contractor to give a rough estimate based on the layout -- not a specific bid, but a rough estimate. That was three weeks ago and the numbers came back yesterday.

$525,750

(not including lighting, plumbing fixtures, tile, cabinetry, which would run another $80K). Hold on, let me get my check book. And keep in mind this is an estimate -- we all know what that means, right? Oh, yeah, and let's not forget that we still owe hundreds of thousands on the 3-flat itself. What a mess!

Actually, it's not too much of a mess. It does well as a rental and we'll probably just hold on to it and let the rents pay down the mortgage. And things actually seem a little less messy as we eliminate the myriad options, which was the point of this whole exercise in architecture anyway... but we've still got the big question of WHAT'S NEXT? Could be a new house in this neighborhood, or a move to another hood closer to the highway for Eric's commute, or in a better school district, or gawd-forbid the suburbs.

For now, though, as with all things having to do with finances and economy these days, I think we'll just hold tight and enjoy the conveniences of not having to walk more than 15 steps to get a crying baby from his crib or more than 30 to carry the laundry from the hall stackables to the bedroom. It doesn't mean our dreams of a wrap-around front porch and plenty of room for entertaining and guests are dead, but we are grateful to be one step closer to knowing what the next step is -- or isn't, as the case may be.

4800 Block of North Hoyne

I love our neighborhood.

This is a new-found love that comes with having children, I think. I mean, I've always liked where we live, but now that Oliver's in the picture, we find ourselves fraternizing with our neighbors much more -- and really enjoying getting to know everyone. We especially love all the diversity -- Cambodian kids next door, Indian nanny, Guatamalan girl whose mother owns a Mediteranean restaurant around the corner on Lawrence Ave.

Not to equate Oliver to a dog, but I feel like a "dog person," experiencing the attention and camaraderie that comes with having a dog around. We're becoming more and more involved with all the kids in our neighborhood (even though there's nobody quite Oliver's age). It reminds me of when I was a kid running around with all the neighbor kids -- really good memories. Of course, we have city-issues to contend with -- like traffic (we're petitioning the city for speedbumps at least) and having only a sliver of a berm and a stretch of sidewalk on which to play. But all in all, it feels like community and feels like home.

Every afternoon (after school, I presume) all the kids get together and hang out on the sidewalk to play -- with a good handful of parents keeping an eye. Even our nanny (Pushpa) spends her free time out there with all the kids. Yesterday afternoon I was on my way to the grocery store (actually just Chuy's, the somewhat-pathetic corner market) and was waylaid by the gathering, put down our blanket (still in my backpack from Stroller Strides) and proceeded to hang out til nearly dark.

Oliver loves to watch the other kids. He sometimes gets a little overwhelmed, but it's all good fun. Toys are discouraged, though, because of the issues that come with "sharing" among so many kids.

We are really trying to savor these last days of summer. Can't believe next year he'll be running around with the lot of them.