Saturday, May 3, 2008

On My Own...

On Friday, I was on my own...the Realtor, Karen had other appointments, so it was a good day for me to wander around on my own. After I took Colby to work, I drove around a little...but the sky was looking rather ominous, so I decided i should probably head back to the hotel. No sooner than I stepped into our room and opened the curtains did it begin to POUR! The thunderstorm didn't last too long, but other parts of Missouri got hit pretty hard, from what I saw on the news yesterday...several tornadoes, etc.
I went back up to Colby's office around noon and met him and Erick (his new boss) (and yes, that's the way he spells his name...I know, I thought it was strange too....) for lunch. We went over to the West County Mall (which is literally a stone's throw from Colby's office) and ate at J. Bucks...it was pretty good. Then we went back to the office, and Erick showed me places I should go explore that afternoon online...and pointed them out on maps, wrote down addresses for me, etc. So nice...
Plus, I met another girl from their office, Shannon...super nice and friendly, and about our age. She said her and her husband lived in Webster and loved it, and said if I needed anything or had any questions, to feel free to call her. That is definitely one thing about the people we've come in contact with so far...all very welcoming and friendly!! Which makes thinking about moving here easier.
So, after leaving the office, I drove down into the city, into what they call South Hampton, which is an older neighborhood, but very, very cute!! I drove a lot of the residential streets and just looked at houses. I would love to be in a neighborhood like this...but a lot of these houses are at least 60 years old, and some are even over 100 years old. I picked up a few info sheets on houses that were for sale, and there were some in our price range. Here are some pictures I took of the area:


All adorable houses...all for sale, but definitely smaller than the ones I saw the day before. Here, you're paying more for the location. These are all actually in the city of St. Louis. Probably a completely different experience/lifestyle. This would still be about a 25-30 minute commute for Colby.
Anyway...something else to think about...

Today, we're going to a farmer's market in Soulard (a neighborhood in the city), and then we're going to head over to Union Station, where Amtrak comes into, and ride the metro link into downtown and walk around for a little while to see the arch, etc. Then we're going to the Cards/Cubs game at 2:45...Colby's company has tickets...and they gave us to them for today's game...which is amazing seeing as how that is such a big rivalry, and the Cards are in 1st and the Cubs are in 2nd...someone else told us it might be hard to get tickets for this game...but they just gave them to us!!!!! So, we're excited about that. The stadium is literally right smack in the middle of downtown! I'll post pictures tonight when we get back.

Last night for dinner, we drove into downtown and ate dinner at an area called Lacleade's Landing...cobblestone streets, lots of restaraunts, shops, etc. The Cards/Cubs game was on in the place we were eating, and everyone was glued to the TV's...yelling, cheering, etc. It was fun...I might could become a baseball fan...although I've never really cared much for baseball. I like the action of football so much better...but, I'm not sure I could ever get into the STL Rams either. It's a good thing Dallas is just an hour and a 1/2 away(by plane)...because one thing's for sure...no matter where we move, we will always be die-hard Cowboys fans...no getting around it...

Friday, May 2, 2008

More of the housing search...O'Fallon

Yesterday, Karen and I went out to St. Charles County (across the Missouri river) and saw several houses in St. Charles, St. Peters and O'Fallon. Some were fair...and others were really good. I found an area that I think we would really like in O'Fallon called Winghaven. It's a newer subdivision (which is important to Colby), with cute ideallic streets; tree lined sidewalks, little "main street" retail areas, playground/park areas dotted all around, and nice fairly large houses. Here are some pictures I took of some of the houses I liked...


These pictures were of my very favorite house out there that we saw...it was really gorgeous, the pictures don't do it justice. But, it was a great floor plan, LOTS of space, cute exterior and a great location. It is still a little out of our price range...but, we're going to keep looking in this area, because there is a lot out there in our price range. We're planning on going out there on Sunday afternoon to try and find some open houses so that Colby can see some of them too. Everything is so green here, with gorgeous trees and landscaping! O'Fallon is a little further out than we originally thought we wanted to be, but...we drove out there as soon as I picked Colby up from work yesterday and the traffic wasn't bad at all...it took us about 35 minutes from his office out to this neighborhood (and that was with 5:30 traffic...which wasn't bad at all!) Without any traffic, it probably would only take about 20 minutes. Click here to see a map, so you can kind of get an idea of what I'm talking about..."B" is Colby's office..."A" is this Winghaven neighborhood in O'Fallon. St. Louis city is to the East (about 15 minutes) from Colby's work.

Everything is really growing out there...lots of construction going on in terms of retail/commercial, etc. I'm hoping we can see a little more of that on Sunday out there.
So...that area is definitely promising.

Today, after lunch, I'm going to drive down further into the city and look at some neighborhoods there. A couple that Lauren and Angie know lives in South Hampton in the actual city of St. Louis, and they love their neighborhood...so I'm going to go look around there. I think those are mostly older homes, probably bungalow or brownstone style...we'll see. I'll take pictures.
We're having a lot of fun...so far, we really like St. Louis.

Last night, we went to a "going away party" for a guy that's leaving Suddenlink, and I got to meet lots of the people Colby would be working with...and they were great. Very friendly, and very welcoming...all ready with advice about where we should live, and their opinion of the different areas. All very helpful. We're just soaking it all in... :) It was a lot of fun, though...and great to meet everyone and put faces with names that I hear all the time.

Today, I'm going up to Colby's office in about an hour to go to lunch with him and a few guys from the office...then, I'm going to head out and explore. I drove around a little this morning after I dropped him off...and found some GORGEOUS areas...green, sprawling, huge trees, beautiful gigantic houses, etc. It really reminded me a lot of Atlanta...which I loved.

I better go get ready...I'll write more later this afternoon or evening.
Have a great day! :)