Expanding to Chicago

I haven’t posted anything on my blog in several months, so I want to share what’s been happening in our lives. My husband, John, and I have owned a commercial office furniture dealership in the Twin Cities for over 20 years.  Earlier this year we were asked by our main manufacturer to open a second location in Chicago. After much discussion about how much time we would need to spend in Chicago getting things up and running, John and I decided to rent an apartment in Chicago for 12 months. We both love Chicago and are very excited to have the opportunity to spend more time there.

For two months, I was glued to my computer searching for, reviewing and prioritizing apartment rentals. Renting an apartment has gotten a lot more complicated since our last apartment 30 years ago. First, there are multiple listing sites and not every apartment lists on every site. Second, brokers create bogus addresses to get you to contact them instead of the management company at the apartment building. We did end up working with a broker, but I still checked all of the rental listing sites instead of relying on the one site the broker company utilized. The nice thing about working with a broker when you’re moving into a new city is they set up all of your showings on the days you will be in town and they will give you information about each apartment and the surrounding area (e.g. the nearest grocery store, bus line, access to the L, crime, etc.)

In July, we toured ten apartments, but we were disappointed with the layout or dated décor in all of them. We got lucky on our eleventh and final apartment. It was a new building with the exact floorplan we wanted, great appliances, wood floors, granite countertops, lots of windows and a wonderful location. Our apartment is in River North less than a mile from Michigan Avenue and the Riverwalk but next to a quiet, residential neighborhood and park. It’s also three short blocks from the L and only one stop from the Merchandise Mart where our new office is temporarily located.

After we signed a lease, I spent a week laying out furniture, finalizing fabrics and finishes, and placing orders. A few items like the couch and barstools took 6 – 8 weeks so everything needed to be ordered ASAP to meet our August 31^stmove in date. Fortunately, we already had a relationship with an installation company in Chicago who has a large warehouse space and agreed to take delivery and store our furniture until we moved in.

Luckily for us, my parents agreed to come to Chicago and help us move in. We flew in early on August 31^stto finalize paperwork, complete a walk-through and start moving in. In addition to the four of us, the installation company sent four guys to deliver and help assemble our furniture. By the end of the first day we were exhausted, but we had beds to sleep in and most of the apartment (including the kitchen – thanks to my Mom!) was set up. We spent the rest of the weekend shopping for accessories, hanging artwork and exploring Chicago with my parents.

We have been back to Chicago approximately every 10 days since we moved in and it’s so nice to have a place to call home instead of living in hotel rooms. This expansion is exciting, exhausting, exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time. And having two homes is sometimes just downright confusing. There’s nothing quite like waking up during the middle of the night and thinking “which city am I in?”