Rain, Rain, go away

Chicago has been experiencing some pretty torrential downpours as of late. Last week some areas received as much as 16 inches in a 48 hour period. As a result a lot of families, schools, churches, and the like have experienced flooding in their basements. My heart goes out to all those people, as Peter and I thought we had a water problem in our basement but through further investigation found it was just that our back door in our basement is not sealed correctly. Once our contractor is done with all his flooded clients he'll be by to take care of our place.

This basement thing is all new to me. Growing up in Texas we don't have basements. Mostly because of things like clay soil, high water tables, and solid rock. Although I think the number one reason there are basements in the North is because you have to dig below the frost line to install water and electrical pipes and those things need to be some what insulated during the winter. If you are digging down that far why not make it usable space. It doesn't get that cold in Texas in case you didn't know.

Oh and this happened on the South Side.

Yes that is THREE cars in a sink hole caused by a 98 year old water main breaking. If you search the internet there is actual video footage of one of the cars falling into the hole. I'm unsure as to why the owner of said vehicle did not try to save their car as I imagine falling into a sink hole can do significant damage. Perhaps they were hoping to become famous.

Once the clouds clear I promise to put up a virtual tour of our home.

A new decade, a new house.

I am finally settled in enough and have the time to let you know how busy we have been. Expect to see a virtual tour on these pages soon. I'm waiting for a really beautiful day where the light is just right. It's the Terrence Malick in me :)! 

Peter had a fantastic 30th birthday. His brother Ian was in town from Toronto but unfortunately his wife Lana didn't make it in. But we had a nice dinner at Table, Donkey and Stick, named after a grim fairy tale, and then a lovely Easter weekend. 

Forgive the poor photo quality as it was taken with my phone. From left to right we have Claire, Wyatt, Elliott, Drea, Me, Peter and Ian. Good looking crowd and the food was great. 

Our move was successful and we now feel pretty settled in. The basement is still a wreck but that might just be the permanent state of the basement. It is strange moving from a space where I could always hear or tell what room Peter was in to a space where I can yell from downstairs and it's possible (if I'm not really yelling) that he won't be able to hear me. It's a lot of house but we have managed to fill it sufficiently. It also amazes me that we were able to fit everything in this home into our little two bedroom apartment. 

This weekend we went out to a crawfish boil at a neighborhood bar in Uptown called Toons. Usually they have a few of these events every season and you pay $25-$30 for all you can eat crawfish. Basically all day or until they run out. I believe I put away at least 7 lbs Peter made it through about 3. 

The scene of the massacre! They also had a great New Orleans musician Davis Rogan, you may know him as portrayed by Steve Zahn in the HBO show Treme. He was amazing! Unfortunately I did not get his photo. We headed up the evening at Second City for a stand up show performed by Nick Thune. All in all it was a fun day out and it was even more fun to come home to our brand new house!