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We are still looking for a new place to live, closer to MFH’s work. Since we only have one car now, that means that every time we want to look at a place to rent, he has to drive home from Eden Prairie to St. Paul (i.e., all the way across Minneapolis) to pick us up, and then back over again. A lot of driving and a lot of time.

Here’s what we’ve seen so far:

A small house in Edina, very close to the highway. Edina is the inner suburb where all the Republicans with very shiny cars and very green lawns live, with the exception of one house, which appears to be inhabited by hippies trying to evangelize to the carbon-spewers. Anyway, this house had just been fixed up and remodelled by a flipper, who admitted that she would be renting it at a loss. (Makes me want to start doing credit checks on potential landlords!) The kitchen had been totally redone and over-improved out of character with the rest of the house. At least, the appliances were over-improved; there was practically no counter space or cupboard space and actually cooking anything there would have been a total pain. There also weren’t any grounded outlets in the bedroom we would have wanted to use as an office. Overall, the house was cute on the inside, with lots of little cupboards all over for storage (except for in the kitchen). The rent was on the high end of what we could afford, and when we asked about doing the lawn work and snow removal ourselves in return for a discount on rent, the most we could get out of her that it was possible, but “negotiable”. The use of that word at that point pretty much ended the negotiations right there.

A duplex in Minnetonka, basically the upstairs of a house with outside access to a laundry room in the basement; there was a basement apartment. This place turned out to back right onto 494, and was just too small. Hauling the laundry around to the back of the house with a toddler in the winter would have been fun, too.

A townhouse in Eden Prairie. It looked good, but when we thought it through, it was also just too small for us. Staying home with a toddler, I’ve found that it’s good to be able to move from place to place within the house throughout the day and have a change of scene. This townhouse just didn’t have enough places. Also, the only place to eat was a little table crammed into the kitchen; it would have been hard to fit a high chair in there.

A small house in St. Louis Park. Also somewhat too small, but here the problem was the very, very musty basement. I’m allergic to the musty-mildew-whatever-it-is now, and that place was definitely setting it off. So that was definitely a no-go.

A duplex in south Minneapolis. This actually looked pretty good, aside from little unfinished corners in the basement, and a garage that wasn’t usable for more than storing junk. It was a side-by-side duplex, with a full half basement underneath each unit. The basement had two finished rooms, like a family room and an office, and an unfinished space with the furnace and laundry. So there were plenty of places to be in it. We liked it pretty well, but after sleeping on it and praying about it I have a bad feeling about the place, so I guess we are still looking. That’s ok, the bedroom closets in this place were absolutely tiny.

The way we’ve been evaluating places is to go take a look, and then while we’re driving away, make a list of pros versus cons. That helps us think clearly about the place and better evaluate how it would or wouldn’t meet our needs. Otherwise we would get carried away by our desire to just take a place and be done with it.