Starting to blog

I’m starting this blog because I think this experience needs to be documented.  And if I can help anyone else interested in doing something similar, I feel this is my opportunity to share, advise, inform. 

My boyfriend and I have decided to become homeowners on the south side of Chicago.  We currently live on the north side in the Lakeview neighborhood.  There are several reasons for this move.  First and foremost, we are ready to buy a house and start a new chapter in our lives.  We’ve been together for seven years.  We are choosing the south side because we think it's the right time to move there.  The south side has neighborhoods full of empty homes and vacant property that are in need of people to occupy them.  We also recognize that our great city needs to be more integrated.  People of different races, religions, socio-economic backgrounds and ages should live together, not separate.  Maybe I’m being too idealistic but I don’t think so.  Part of what makes a city like ours so great is all of the diversity.  We want to be part of the change that we want to see.  And so we have found a home and are moving to the South Chicago neighborhood.

This blog will document the process it has taken for us to find and obtain our home.  It will also detail our experiences of being the first-time homeowners and all of the rehab we plan to do on the house.  Finally, I plan to share our experiences both good and bad as we move into the neighborhood that is now obviously different than the one we have been living in.