The essence of house hunting in Boston "all the good ones are taken."

Alright, that's it..I'm blogging about this.....Our move to Boston.  Here is the scoop: we are moving to Boston for a year, so Dave can do a fellowship in pediatric anesthesiology at Boston Children's hospital.  It's only for a year, and no, we don't know where we're going yet, and yes, he's still in the Navy and yes, this adds one year to our owe-back time (enter sarcasm-YAYYYY!).  Anyway..we ARE however super excited to live in Boston for a year, amazing city, i've spent some time there, whether or not I remember all of it is subject to debate--thanks to a few New Years' Eve's at "The Hong Kong" Chinese restaurant that served up some scorpion bowls.  Any....way.....love Boston, excited.  However, two things: equally as bummed to leave San Diego, and this looking for housing in Boston is absolutely the most irritating "research" i've done in a very ....very..long time.

Why?  Well, we have a few things:  two dogs (that do not walk well on leashes/our fault--whatever, that ship has sailed), and a little guy who will be a year old when we move.  Picture me walking two dogs and a toddling toddler with a few feet of snow at 10:00 p.m. at night while Dave is on call.  Not. Happening.

So, we either:  A: need to find a place with a yard or B: find some amazing (ahem ahem..cough cough...sister and in-laws) to watch our dogs for a year.  Dog #1 is Brownie.....he's a whole post in and of himself but the bottom line is, I had a friend actually "rescind" an offer to take him, he's that difficult =0.  Dog #2, Parma is a sweetheart, super easy and a charm, everyone wants her!  My sister Dawn has offered to take Parma and my in-laws would take Brownie (god bless them). 

What's the big deal, find a place that allows dogs.  Well, we have some other mitigating factors such as:  Dave's commute.  Apparently a few places we looked at, even 3 miles from the hospital could take 45 minutes to get to/from and with Dave's hours, we'd really like the commute to be walkable/bikeable.  Easy enough right?  Let me list some issues and then I will post pictures of some of the "said" issues.

1. Place is either completely unsuitable for living (kegs in the bedroom, trash, beer bottles). TRUST ME....at one time in my life I would find this amazing...not so right now!

2. Place is either too far/too close to the hospital so we have either traffic or sirens from ambulances.

3. Place has a yard...but isn't pet friendly. OR it's in a building with "walk-up" only, no elevator!

4. Place LOOKS great, but is on sketchy street, is too close to a bus route, is a "street away from a nice street." OR is in a building completely occupied by students and is written up on "Yelp" --as "horrifically loud."

5. I've also discovered if it looks too affordable, it's a shit hole (sorry mom!) =0

6. We also have the issue of traffic in general but living close to the hospital we have parking issues with Red Sox games.

7. Allows dogs under 25 pounds.....hmm, never understand this, bigger dogs tend to BARK LESS

We've lived in four places in six years in San Diego, never have I had this issue of finding something!

Here's the bulk of what i've been seeing.

There are no words......

I just can't even see past this stuff to picture ANY of our things in ANY of these places.

We have my cousin and his wife going to see a place on Saturday that really does look awesome, meets all of our criteria except...we don't know if it's a "walk-up" only and before anyone gets all "HTFU" on me......remember that Soren is about 18 pounds...add some groceries....not fun to do several trips up flights of stairs!

We are scheduled to go "shit hole hunting" er, house hunting in Boston mid-June...hoping we find something prior to that, but you know what, the outrageous realtor fees they charge for helping you find something just may be worth it so I don't have to sleep in a room and feel like Punky Brewster!