Happy MATCH DAY!!!

Miranda -
We will be in the same town!! Congrats on the match!! We'll have to get together when everything gets settled. (We will be moving there in June). Are you going to buy a house there? We just bought one in January and are so excited about it!! I have some contacts if you want to look at houses out there... let me know if you want any info.

Jen B.

We are here now (stuck in a blizzard). We just put an offer down on a house. Keep your fingers crossed!


Miranda

Anyone on here in Iowa City?

That's great that the scramble worked out so well for you. Congratulations!

We're not in Iowa City but I think there are some people who are or are on their way there. I've heard great things about the location.

[SuzySunshine]

Miranda, I live in Rochester - isn't all this snow fun! ACK! If you need anything PM me and I'll send you my phone number.

[HeartRN]

Congrats to everybody! I remember exactly where we were when we found out DH matched at Northwestern....I can't believe it's been so long ago!!! Best of luck to everybody.

[Malpka]

Amy, We are headed to IC as well! We just got back two weeks ago from a trip to find a place to live. We put a contract on a house in the East side of Iowa City. Everyone we met there was SO nice. I was a little, shall we say, unenthusiastic at first about the idea of moving to the midwest. But- after our trip I am really excited! We were ina similar situation as you guys-- Paul did not get a fellowship through the match, but they made an extra spot for him there a month later-- what a ride! So we are in IC for 3 years.

Marla-
Oh my gooddness-- I just realized you are in Richmond. If you ever want to get together and commiserate just let me know

Hi Rebecca!
We'll have to try and meet up once we're out there! Our boys aren't too far apart in age either -- ours was born in June 2003. Glad to hear you found a house already! We've been looking at listings online constantly and will be out there in a couple weeks (for one weekend) to hopefully find and put an offer in on a house. It's so hard to pick something based just on online pics, so I am hoping a whirlwind trip will allow us to make a decision, even if it is a quick one. We've also been busy getting our house here ready for the market, and it just went on this past Tues, so now I feel like I can focus completely on the "next step". It's also taken me a while to get used to the whole Iowa concept... we've been here in the DC area almost 9 years, but I grew up in Milwaukee (WI) so it's not like the midwest is a foreign concept to me. It's going to take some getting used to, but I think I am going to welcome the not-as-frenzied pace of life there. I hope. (Not that DH's schedule won't be frenzied, but I mean the town environment, from what I've heard about it).

[Malpka]

Oh Amy, shopping for houses in Iowa City was a verrry interesting experience. Some of those online pics were rather deceiving, we saw some scary scary places- ick! I wish they would take my picture if they can make things that homely look that good in photo! We really wanted a single family type home, so that did cut the options down a bit. We were also told by lots of folks not to buy a house S. of HWY 6, that it was a less desirable area and hard to resell in. Who knows!
I feel for you guys, gettung your house ready. Luckily ours sold the week we were out in Iowa, but getting it ready to show was a pain. Now it is all over and I can go back to my slovenly ways Now all we have to worry about is the actual move. DH takes his boards in NC on the 27th, so we are in a crunch to get out there before the 1st.
We will def. have to meet once we are in Iowa Good luck to you guys on the house selling/buying. Let me know if I can be of any help!
Rebecca

OB/GYN at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor!!
Amazing - finally we can get on with the planning and execution of our lives!!!

Yea!

Rebecca,
Thanks for the tip about not going south of Hwy 6. That's exactly the kind of advice we're looking for, but our realtor there has been kind of slow in sharing that kind of info. Maybe she's waiting til we're there in person. I don't know. How long did you spend there in person looking at houses? I'm hoping a weekend is sufficient, but it might be pushing it. We're also just looking at single family homes, and leaning toward the more newly constructed ones (2000 or later) but are still open to just about anything. Like you said, it's hard to tell what's what from those online listings!!!

[Malpka]

Amy,
My realtor was not totally forthcoming with all that info until I brought it up-- then he spilled his guts I have also heard that it is better not to buy in the Wood/grant wood elementary or Twain elementary area. These schools are not as good, and even if you are not planning to send your son to school there they could effect resell value. We were hoping to get a newer house, but in the end ended up with a totally 70's Brady Bunch style house It has some definite decorative "issues", but we were able to get a little more sq footage that way. Also we were able to get a more private/level lot. I had never thougth of Iowa City as being hilly- but it really was! Many houses had backyards with such steep slopes that they would be virtually unusable. There is definitely some nice newer construction though. Especially further north- like in North Liberty. I did not really want to be that far out, but it did seem like you could get a great new/newer house for the money. We also saw some brand new houses in a subdivision I think was called Northridge in Coralville which were nice as well (but a couple backed right up to the interstate!). We spent 3 days to look for a house, and were able to get it done with a day to spare. It was nice to have that extra day to go back to the house we purchased and take measurements, etc. We were able to see 30 houses in one day, but we did not have our toddler with us, just the newborn. I am sure it we would not have been able to look at houses 12 hours straight with him with us, but he is the high maintenance sort. We were very fast though, and our realtor had done a great job of setting up showings in location order for maximum time efficiency. It may be smart to ask your realtor to set up time with an inspector the last day you are there. I am bummed we did not get to be at the inspection for our home.

Have you seen the website for the spouses auxilliary group there? They have a few housing listings on there as well. Convenient since the posession dates needed all work with those folks. The site is:
http://medicalpartners.webminders.com/


Guess I have officially hijacked this thread

Cherry- are you going to be at Highland? DH did 8 months of rotations there and we loved it ( well, not Highland, but Berkeley where we lived). We were SO sad to leave...........

I think we will be looking for a place in Berkeley. DH and I met at UC Santa Cruz so we were a bit granola at one point in time. I love Northern California so I'm quite excited to be there (even if its only for a year).

Hey Rebecca (perhaps we should take this conversation offline, hee hee)...

First of all... oh yeah, our son is definitely of the "high maintenance" variety as well. I don't think we'd make it through 3 houses with him in tow!!! We're flying to Milwaukee and he's staying with grandma and grandpa for the weekend (our first time leaving him... kind of nervous about that!).

I sort of "know" someone who is in the process of moving away from IC. I know her from a pregnancy board we used to chat on, so I don't know her IRL but she is really sweet and has been helping me zero in on areas to look in and neighborhoods, etc since our realtor has been on the slow side. Anyway, she told me the EXACT same thing about the schools you mentioned to avoid (she used to be a teacher too). She said to avoid Grant, Penn, Mark Twain, and Horace Mann. She also could also personally vouch that Wickham and Lemme are amazingly good.

I have seen that spouses website, and look forward to possible participating in some of the spouse activities (especially play group!).

Our current backyard is enormous for our area (tiny house) but with a very very steep slope that renders all but the patio useless in the eyes of our toddler. Definitely looking for a flatter backyard too!

I'm glad to hear you made a similar whirlwind trip and were able to find a house you're happy with! It gives me hope!!!

Are you planning to work or are you SAHMing? (Not that that isn't work... I'm home with my son half the week, and boy, it's WAY more taxing than going to the office!). I will probably eventually work, at least PT, but initially will be focused on getting us all settled in....

[Malpka]

Amy-
sent you a PM -- let me know if it worked! My 'puter kind of feaked out after I pushed send

OB/GYN at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor!!
Amazing - finally we can get on with the planning and execution of our lives!!!

Yea!

Congratulations! If you want to tell....was that your top choice or hers?

[Phoebe]

congrats to all of you!