I am Moving to Illinois - Chicago area
 

So I got the job... ( see more here http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=246658 )

My new Job will be in Elk Grove Village

Need to find a place close by.... good Schools... Good commute

any info you guys want to bestow upon me is welcome.

I got some antifreeze already

DON'T live in a treehouse.

That's all I got for ya.

GOOD LUCK DUDE. IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING COOL I MIGHT TAKE IT OFF YOUR HANDS.

Or a AIDS tree.

Congrats. Gotta go where the work is.

Don't take the red line on the El-Train. And if you do, run like hell.

Are there really elk there?

Taking the rest of the Dinobots with you?

I recommend Shermer, Illinois. It's great for kids, especially high school.

Well done... rep for the John Hughes reference.

They wouldn't call it Skunk or Raccoon Grove, right?

Congrats SLAG. Our interviews were on the same day... did you find out today that you got it? BECAUSE I DID TOO! I'm moving to New York. I'm an attention whore, so I'm starting my own thread too! Congrats brother.

LOVE Chicago, for 2.5 months out of the year.

Dont take governors job or you go to jail

I don't recommend living anywhere close to O'Hare, which is adjacent to Elk Grove Village. Planes are loud, the fumes from the jets foul the air, and at night the sky tends to be a sort of dark burnt orange color. Nasty. Avoid Elk Grove itself, Des Plaines, Bensenville and Rosemont. Decent nearby communities would include Rolling Meadows and Schaumburg to the west, Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights to the north, Elmhurst and Lombard to the south, Park Ridge to the east (I wouldn't go any farther east or southeast, or you're getting too close to Chicago and you don't want your kids anywhere near that ****ing sewer). There are lots of smaller suburbs in the area, but I'm not really all that familiar with them, and not having kids I can't vouch for the schools.

Don't know what your salary range is, but prices on EVERYTHING will be a shock to you up here. Some of these places will be more reasonable than others.

Buy Cutler a beer

Thanks for the info.

While my salary is increased significantly from my last job... around 20k more .. as I understand most of the Chicago suburbs are quite comparable to the cost of living in Johnson County. - The recruiter said that the Median income for Olathe is more than Elgin.

We want to try to stay just about the same a quick look at some places i'm looking at are like Crystal Lake / McHenery / Shaumberg as you said...

does anyone have any suggestions on where to get started

Man my head is spinning

Fixed

Good luck to you OP. Have an uncle that lives in Hoffman Estates and he bitches a lot about the state government.

P.S. Don't speed in construction zones there, at all.

Awesome.

I have found these boards helpful when moving to a new city.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/chicago/

Elgin's a mostly a shithole. If your recruiter is using that particular city as an example then I'm afraid he may be piping sunshine up your ass.

As for Crystal Lake and McHenry, your commute would suck. The problem is that Lake County doesn't have anywhere near the road infrastructure it needs because all the rich pricks in places like Long Grove and Barrington keep blocking improvements. IL Route 59, for example, is one of the major north/south roads and is still only two lanes in some places. That's also the reason IL Route 53 goes from being a six lane freeway to a regular road at the Lake County line. Money talks, the needs of the people walks, and I doubt if that's going to change any time soon. There is no good way to get from places like McHenry to anywhere.

Arlington Heights would be a great choice. But pricey. A lot pricier than ****ing Elgin.

Thanks again for the insight.

are there any places that can help me find a good place in such a short notice

Monday Morning Bump:

Any CP members have a rental property free in any of the decent areas?

Move to Detroit; MUCH nicer!

I live in Itasca, which is one of the smaller suburbs that Frazod mentioned. It's about 8,000 people and attached to Elk Grove on the southest corner of Elk Grove. There are planes but 90% of the time Itasca is in the landing path which is about 10% of the noise of planes taking off and honestly it's never been an issue.

The schools in Itasca are above average from what I have read. I don't have kids yet but that was a concern of mine. The high school there is Lake Park, which is a conglomeration of Itasca, Medinah and Roselle mostly. Itasca is located about a 10 minute drive from Schaumburg and your commute to work would rule.

Itasca is nice that it contains a really wide range of home prices, unlike many suburbs around that area. If you don't mind PMing me with a price range or rent estimate you were looking for I could give you some ideas.

Live up in Lake county. take the metra to work. LIbertyville. You will be looking at a 35 minute train ride each way, where you can unwind, check e mails, read, etc. You wont have to jack with traffic. We lived up there when we were there and it was very affordable as long as you weren't in a community right by the lake (Michigan). I'd move back to Libertyville in a heartbeat.

I didn't realize you'd moved out of Aurora.

One of the shittier places I lived was Rosemont - there are a bunch of 60's-era apartment buildings near what is now the Allstate Arena, but was the Rosemont Horizon when I lived there. Less than a mile from O'Hare, right at the end of one of the runways. It was weird - sometimes I'd see a plane landing and it looked like it was going to clip the roof, and I didn't hear a thing. Other times I wouldn't see the plane, but it sounded (and felt) like it was landing on the roof. God that sucked. The air stank, and everything was dirty. If I walked outside barefoot the bottoms of my feet would be black when I went back inside. I wouldn't live in that pisshole again if you paid me.

Yes I have been in Itasca for about a year, just forgot to update my profile here. I am still trying to sell my damn townhouse there though. Rosemont is a weird town in that it's 95% industrial with just a very small residential area. But I agree, way too close to the airport. I am a 15 minute drive from Rosemont.

PM Sent

Driving Up tomorrow.. to look at houses... we have been packing and packing and I am somewhat worried that we wont be able to take everything we want...

Taking a load with me in my truck tomorrow and dumping it off in a small storage unit somewhere near where I will be working, hotel is near there too...

Have too many places to check out and see... too much to do.. too short time to do it..

Its quite manic... One min. I am super excited... next.. Super Scared... next... pumped... then frightened...

This is normal right?

Very funny. in 1985, a recruiter told me the same thing about Chicago, and I took a restaurant job in Buffalo Grove. Had an apartment in Rolling Meadows. I told the recruiter, "Hey, wait a minute" after I arrived and found out he was lying. He just told me I was there, and I could quit if I wanted to. I had made a commitment to myself to stay for 1 year....NO MATER WHAT.




Damn fun year. Cept every one in the North Chicago Suburbs thought their shit didn't stink, so I had to drive down town to party with real people.

Good luck Slag!

Burt.......back to lurking.

I used to have to go out to Rosemont once a week for work. I'd get off the Blue and always wondered how people could stand to live there.

Looks like we're ending up in Lake Zurich
Thanks everyone for the help / advice

Well said Tim. When we moved up here, we had severe sticker shock, and ended up buying in Glendale Heights, because it was close to work and the taxes were lower than other villages.
Well it is still close to work!
It is a real good time to buy though, as prices are down, and availability is very high. I just heard tonight, that there are 600 foreclosures in this town alone.

That's a nice area. Not too far from one of the gun shop/ranges I go to. You'll learn to hate Route 12.

There's a really neat upscale breakfast-oriented restaurant there called Walker Brothers. You should check it out sometime.

Good luck with your move.

Yeah, moving to Illinois is definitely a "WHO'S FICA???" moment. :D

No kidding!

It won't be long, and we will be full time Missourians!

Hauling another "Clampett Load" down there in a couple weeks. We are actually taking a rocking chair this time, and I am putting it on top, out in the open! :D

Thanks guys..

Got an email tonight from my future landlord... suffice to say.. things aren't going to work out for the Lake Zurich Property... No ones fault really - just a kink in the plans

Now we are going to try to get this Hanover park place we looked at... What do you guys know about that area or Wheaton

Good Luck SLAG. I've finally found a place. Had to take it through only pictures. The company I'll be working for offered to pay for 2 round trips to go apartment/house hunting but there just wasn't enough time. The place I took is letting me do a month to month lease, so if I hate it I can at least move when I want.

Doesn't sound too bad, I'm just not too sure of the neighborhood.

Good choice. Wheaton will certainly be more affordable than Lake Zurich. It's kind of a mixed bag - there are lots of pricey, older homes, yet plenty of reasonable apartments as well. Good area as far as I know. Much closer to Elk Grove, good tollway access, Metra stop for trips downtown (meaning Chicago), nice downtown area, and pretty much any sort of retail store you'd ever want to shop at is no more than 15 minutes away, including Fry's Electronics, which totally rocks. One of my best friends lives in Winfield, which is just west of Wheaton, so I am fairly familiar with the area.

Wheaton is also really close to where HemiEd lives, he might be able to give you some better insight.

Wheaton is only about 2 miles from me, and it is very nice. You will be very close to route 64 and 38.

Wheaton is very nice, my boss lives there. I believe their school system is very good. It will be a nice commute to Elk Grove as well. I believe 355 is close by so you could just shoot north from Wheaton.

These are just a little south of me(I'm just right across the Wisconsin border). Great area IMO. Far enough out to avoid the major congestion but all the conveniences of the big city. If you need any further info or whatever let me know, I would be more than happy to help you out.

This packing up this 4+ bedroom house into the bed of a pickup and a 6x12 uhaul trailer can suck my bawls

Well over a year has gone by and things have just now started to get dicey with my tenant/ friend that was renting my house

I had to issue a 30 day Termination of Lease notice - and My wife wants to move back to be closer to her family.

It has been quite the experience here in Chicago -land
My "new" job is allowing me to work remotely for the time being.

Funny how things change in a year

Now we're rushing up to pack to be back in Olathe by the end of the month

Bummer. Best wishes. Let me know how much money you have to to fix crap when you get home and I'll do my best. ;)

http://youtu.be/DqYUVOHqTns

Oh and congrats, Slag!