Housing Update

I have heard from several readers (aka friends, since only my friends read this blog) since posting about our housing woes. Thanks for the support. I am happy(?) to report that we've found, not one but two places to live. First, I am excited to say that we're making the big move to the East Side of Madison - to the Schenk-Atwood neighborhood. We were able to find a single family home that WANTS dogs and is a great location. Though a bit further from our jobs and the daycare (more on that later), it's right on the bike path, blocks from entertainment, restaurants, and a great local market, and a 10 minute walk to the lake. One thing about it, we can't move in until July. Since the house we live in now needs us out in May, we could have a problem.

This is where our second place comes into play. We found a sublet apartment on the west side of town that will go from May 15-July 15. Thus, we have a place to move into and we have some overlap to relax the moving process a bit. As I write this, we are almost completely moved in to the apartment and getting ready to spend our first night there this week. We'll be moving some other stuff into a truck this weekend and putting it in a storage unit for a couple months. Overall I'm excited to be moving, and I really like the prospects of living on the East Side this summer.

A few weeks ago on a Friday afternoon, in the middle of this housing search, we were told that the daycare we use would be closing. To me, the daycare seems like a can't miss business plan.

1. have people line up for over a year to be your customers
2. hire young woman who have studied to perform their dream job - taking care of cute little kids
3. charge whatever you want
4. refuse to provide diapers, and in some cases snacks and lunch - instead have parents pay and bring for their own
5. if you like, operate extremely short hours everyday, either to charge extra for overtime care or to give your workers a great schedule

Daycares can and do get away with and benefit from all of these, some places do all of them at the same time. Unfortunately the daycare we have been going to was unable to take advantage and has to close. The building is in disrepair and the church next door, which owns the building, refuses to pony up for the work. Needless to say we've been subsequently scrambling to find new care. While it is much easier to get a 2 year old into a place than a toddler, it still is not easy. We looked at several places on both sides of town - since we didn't know where we'd be living yet - and finally settled on a 4 day a week place just blocks from our new 'July house' and we're searching for Friday in-home care.

I feel like we're almost through all of the tumult and ready to settle in and enjoy all Madison has to offer in the summer. We just have to move twice, switch daycares, and I forgot to mention I am squeezing in a trip to Africa for work. I can't wait (til it's all over and we have a new hectic list of things to take care of).