ChiKat

We had a security specialist come look at our building. He suggested we reinforce the front door and upgrade the locks. He provided a reasonable estimate. I sent that estimate to our association.

Besides the owner's whose unit was broken into, no one has responded.

I hate this building. I hate the lack of involvement from everyone else. I want to tell my husband, "Let's upgrade the locks so we don't have a repeat break-in" and not have to wait weeks while a consensus is reached. I am so tired, tired, tired of condo living.

And you're probably sick of hearing about me being tired of condo living. But you'll have to listen for a while longer, because we've decided to stay here another year. It was a tough decision. I have had it with condo life, but my husband doesn't feel comfortable moving until he has a better sense of where his career is going. Next year, he should have a better idea of that.

In addition, next October they announce if Chicago gets the Olympics. I don't think the Olympics would drastically improve the value of our condo, but I do think it would make it a little more marketable. If we're going to stay another year, we might as well wait until the Olympics announcement, just in case Chicago really is selected.

I don't think Chicago will get the nod – I think it will be Tokyo. But wouldn't it be fabulous if we did? I've never been to the Olympics, but if they were here, I would totally go see some of the games. I would probably even try to volunteer.

This is a rambling post – from association complaints, to moving to the Olympics. And now my son is attacking the computer. Time to race matchbox cars instead of working!

I write a post about wanting a backyard, then we have the perfect city day. We went for a walk down to the lake the other day. The weather was perfect. The lake was beautiful. The dog played. The boy toddled.

I love the south lakefront.

The north lakefront is just as beautiful, but it is wall-to-wall people on the bike path and the beaches.

South of 31st Street beach, the wall-to-wall sardine feel disappears and the walking path is wide open. We spent hours just wandering along, enjoying the sunshine, the warm weather and the fabulous lakefront.

I still want a backyard and a nice school for my son, but for now I'm going to savor being this close to this beautiful lake.

We were at my sister-in-laws the other day. At one point the kids and the dogs were getting a bit hyper. Do you know what she did to fix the situation? She opened the back door and let them play outside.

That's what you do when you have a house. You go into your backyard and you play. Because you can.

We are home. The news about the first floor break-ins is very strange.

First, a little background. There are two units on the first floor. Two years ago, a family moved into the rear unit. They fixed up the unit, painted the place, and seemed pretty nice. They claimed they were leasing-to-own. They wouldn't provide the contact information of the owner to the condo association. Whoever owned the unit never paid association dues. After about six months, the family disappeared and the unit remained empty. Not association dues were paid.

Our management company kept investigating and finally found contact information for the owner. The owner was clearly in financial trouble, but promised to pay the association dues. A couple months ago, a young couple moved into the unit. They have no furniture and are rarely home, but they seem like nice people.

The promised association dues have never arrived.

While we were gone, burglars came to the first floor and tried to break-in via the fire escape. When that didn't work, they pried open the first floor.

The people on the third floor witnessed this and called the police.

The burglars got into the building, used a sledge hammer and a chisel to break into the first floor front unit. They walked past laptops, DVD players and televisions. They went all the way to the back on the condo and tore apart the bedroom. They stole a small safe and some jewelry, neither of which were worth that much.

Then they went back into the building, broke into the rear unit that is home to the non-due-paying people. Then they left.

20 minutes later the police arrived.

Apparently, a burlarly in progress isn't high on their agenda. The third floor tenants saw the whole thing, and gave the police a description of the burglars, including the fact that one of them was wearing a blue hat.

The police did not bother to pick up the blue hat that was left on the front lawn until it was pointed out to them.

The police did point out that the people in the rear unit, despite have their door busted open, never filed a police report. The police believe that the burglars were looking for something that was in the rear unit. They went into the front unit by mistake, took the safe and jewelry box, then when they didn't find what they were looking for, broke into the rear unit, found what they wanted and left.

Ugh. I have no idea how to make this better. How to make this safer. We can't demand that the people in the rear unit move out, because we have no proof that they are doing anything illegal. But the whole situation does seem very strange.

The management company is pursuing legal action to try to get the $6,000+ overdue fees from the owners.

Meanwhile, I'm thankful I have a 110-pound dog.

We just found out that the people who live on the first floor of our building were broken into. We have no idea if our condo is OK. Normally, we would ask our neighbors, we feel a little inappropriate saying, "sorry your place was trashed and you're staying with family…could you drive back into the city and check on our place?"

After the health scare and now the news about the condo, I wouldn't call this the most relaxing vacation ever…