Anything Goes 30: Topicality Not Found

[ChiHawks10]

My wife and I have been a little home sick lately. So we looked at houses in Chicagoland... We were like "well, we need at least what we have here", put some filters on, look in popular areas......

I absolutely love basements, but jesus christ, the housing market is big dollars up there. Not sure I am willing to let go of my McMansion down here for a shack. I have been spoiled.

Chicago is high. We were discussing this a while back in regards to houses/property taxes, etc. I can get twice the house (Both in square footage, property, and quality) in northwest Indiana, and they're basically suburbs of Chicago, and pay the same amount as my mortgage in Chicago right now. It's outrageous. Which is why we'll be moving to northwest Indiana within the next couple years.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

Yeah, the price of houses in the area was the main reason my wife and I decided to live downstate rather than in the north suburbs after we got married. Down in Bloomington-Normal, we got an amazing, 2800 square foot house with four bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, 2 half bathrooms, and a fully furnished basement well in our price range. Up in Evanston or Skokie, our max price probably would've maybe gotten us a very nice, but small, two bedroom/two bathroom condo or a very small house. I had already been doing a mental count in my head how long we reasonably could've expected to live in my previous 950 square foot, 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom condo, and the timeline was fairly short had we stayed up there.

Miss Chicagoland, but no brainer especially if ever have kids.

 

[ChiHawks10]

IN is nice but keep in mind you get what you pay for with the taxes. It's no reason not to do it but when the snow comes, it comes hard and they just leave it there, shut down parts of the expressway and clean it up little by little throughout the day(s). Police are busy, hard to get pulled over, much different. I don't know what the response time would be if you needed it, mostly volunteer fire departments. You're out on your own and that's good in a way. Get an SUV or a truck though.

I have a bunch of friends that live in northwest Indiana and have spent a ton of time there the past few years... it's not like it's just cornfields like if you go farther east, or farther south... I'm talking NW Indiana, basically suburbs of Chicago. It's literally no different than any of the western suburbs I'd be looking at living in around here like Willowbrook, Woodridge, Darien, etc. Local police and fire departments exist... I have an all wheel drive SUV and would be getting a truck in the next couple years to replace it, anyways. You're right about the snow. They get all the lake effect stuff. But I work in IT for a living. I don't mind the roads closing down. I can work from home.

I mean, northwest Indiana where we're looking - Dyer, Schererville, Crown Point, etc.. are still considered the Chicago Metro area, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Easy E]

Chicago is high. We were discussing this a while back in regards to houses/property taxes, etc. I can get twice the house (Both in square footage, property, and quality) in northwest Indiana, and they're basically suburbs of Chicago, and pay the same amount as my mortgage in Chicago right now. It's outrageous. Which is why we'll be moving to northwest Indiana within the next couple years.

Good point... I never though about moving to NW Indiana...

Yeah, the price of houses in the area was the main reason my wife and I decided to live downstate rather than in the north suburbs after we got married. Down in Bloomington-Normal, we got an amazing, 2800 square foot house with four bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, 2 half bathrooms, and a fully furnished basement well in our price range. Up in Evanston or Skokie, our max price probably would've maybe gotten us a very nice, but small, two bedroom/two bathroom condo or a very small house. I had already been doing a mental count in my head how long we reasonably could've expected to live in my previous 950 square foot, 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom condo, and the timeline was fairly short had we stayed up there.

Miss Chicagoland, but no brainer especially if ever have kids.

We are on the same wavelength my friend, I don't have a basement here in TX, but I love my 3,000 sq ft, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath, 3 car garage house, and media room. Property taxes are a wash from TX to IL, but I don't pay state income tax. My house would easily run double in IL.

IN is nice but keep in mind you get what you pay for with the taxes. It's no reason not to do it but when the snow comes, it comes hard and they just leave it there, shut down parts of the expressway and clean it up little by little throughout the day(s). Police are busy, hard to get pulled over, much different. I don't know what the response time would be if you needed it, mostly volunteer fire departments. You're out on your own and that's good in a way. Get an SUV or a truck though.

Very good points as well.

 

[ColdSteel2]

Delete

 

[ChiHawks10]

Yeah, those are good places. I'm not saying it's cornfields and stuff, it's set up the same way. But the police/fd presence is non existent compared to IL. I like it, don't have to hear that **** or pull to the side of the road like ever. It seems like they are all over the place in IL in comparison. No cops camped out trying to pull you over, total 180 on that front. If you can work from home and let your wife use your truck if she needs to go out on those snow days, you're good. The snow is no joke, I get snow days at my new job, like being a kid again, wake up at 5 like Christmas morning on those days to call the company hotline, lol.

I assumed you just meant less of a presence, which is fine with me, too. But every one of those towns I've been in for the past 5+ years(the amount of time our two friends have lived out there) the presence doesn't come off much different. Still see cops on the main streets consistently, and camped out to pull people over, etc. Still see fire engines and ladder trucks and ambulances responding to calls. IDK. Didn't really ever notice a difference in that regard.

And yeah, I can work from home, so I could care less about the snow. That's not a deal breaker for me.

 

[ColdSteel2]

Delete

 

[ChiHawks10]

Yeah, by all means, do it. Most of the things I listed are a plus. I've spent more of my time out here the last 10 years than IL, and at least compared to where I live, it's different. I speed around all the time out here, nobody GAF. Cruise only after I hit the border, lol.

Are you living in Indiana now?

 

[b1e9a8r5s]

For the dads out there. Any experience with your kids having food allergies? Looks like my daughter's allergic to eggs. How big of a pain is that going to be?

 

[ColdSteel2]

Delete

 

[ChiHawks10]

No, I've been working in different parts of NWI the last 10 years. I'm considering moving too. You listed some good places. Winfield is one to look at, work buddy just bought a nice 1 year old house there, 220K IIRC. He was telling me it's so hot right now people are demanding the list price and will only come down maybe 5k but then you could lose it to someone else. That happened to him. Munster is where a lot of the affluent people live, lots of big stores and stuff. CP like you said, always popular. A lot of people I know send their kids to private school, never got into it with them about that and why but something I've noticed. People are nice, down to earth, helpful. It's got a lot going for it, I hope you find something nice.

It's a least a year out, anyways.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

Witcher 3 was on sale with all the expansions for $20. Traded my copy in after I beat it, gonna replay the whole thing. Definitely on my short list of best games.

 

[No Fun Shogun]

That's a game I really need to give a crack at at some point. Does it matter if it'd be my first entry into the series?

 

[x Tame Impala]

For the dads out there. Any experience with your kids having food allergies? Looks like my daughter's allergic to eggs. How big of a pain is that going to be?

No bread, pasta, baked desserts, pizza, meatballs, scrambled eggs...

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

There's some backstory/lore you'll be missing out on but no it does a good job of giving you the bullet points.

 

[CallMeShaft]

I mean, northwest Indiana where we're looking - Dyer, Schererville, Crown Point, etc.. are still considered the Chicago Metro area, if I'm not mistaken.

I grew up in Dyer, lived roughly a 5min drive from the state line. Most people in that area certainly would consider that the burbs.

 

[RayP]

No bread, pasta, baked desserts, pizza, meatballs, scrambled eggs...

If that’s the case....

 

[Blackhawkswincup]

Going to watch some movies on Movie Channel (Ch 363 on Comcast) that I haven't seen in years

Grizzly (1976) starts at 7 and Day of the Animals (1977) starts at 9

Both from the flood of animals attack movies in late 70's that flooded cinema after success of Jaws

Honestly haven't seen Grizzly since TBS used to show movies like that back in early 90's. Remember when TBS shows stuff like Kingdom of the Spiders , Night of the Lepus , etc

Back before TBS became big

 

[ColdSteel2]

Going to watch some movies on Movie Channel (Ch 363 on Comcast) that I haven't seen in years

Grizzly (1976) starts at 7 and Day of the Animals (1977) starts at 9

Both from the flood of animals attack movies in late 70's that flooded cinema after success of Jaws

Honestly haven't seen Grizzly since TBS used to show movies like that back in early 90's. Remember when TBS shows stuff like Kingdom of the Spiders , Night of the Lepus , etc

Back before TBS became big

Never heard of either, just DVR'd both.

 

[ChiHawks10]

I grew up in Dyer, lived roughly a 5min drive from the state line. Most people in that area certainly would consider that the burbs.

Yeah. Most people I know living over there consider it Chicago burbs too, despite being in Indiana.

 

[DisgruntledHawkFan]

I'm from the south side. I had a guy say "Me too!" at a party a long time ago. I asked him what part?

"Valpo".

As in valparaiso, Indiana.

Yea....

 

[ChiHawks10]

I'm from the south side. I had a guy say "Me too!" at a party a long time ago. I asked him what part?

"Valpo".

As in valparaiso, Indiana.

Yea....

 

[JaegerDice]

Witcher 3 is great. I just wish it ran better on the base consoles (it runs butter smooth on PS4 Pro).

Destiny 2 has consumed ALL my gaming time.... I've almost done everything to do at this point. Just need a Prestige Nightfall and to collect the last of the exotic weapons.. My Trials of the Nine armor is SWANK.

 

[Sarava]

Just downloaded the new Mario game to my Switch. I'll be trying it out this weekend. I really can't wait.

 

[JaegerDice]

Just downloaded the new Mario game to my Switch. I'll be trying it out this weekend. I really can't wait.

Yeah, I bought a physical copy. Haven't had a chance to play yet.

I hope it's as good a Mario game as BOTW was a Zelda game. I 100%ed that one (ok, except for like half the Korok seeds, I'm not looking for all 900 or whatever), 120+ hours playtime. It was a masterpiece.