S.C.
Hi N.,
The first thought I had though let me first say I have NO experience with registered or unregistered day cares whatsoever, is I have learned the hard way that sometimes, the quote "tall fences make good neighbors" and if for any reason you were not happy with her methods, the last thing you want to deal with is someone across the street that you have negative or vise versa feelings for. As far as the woman a street or so over, that shouldn't be risky unless she's in the same "circle" of people of your neighborhood.
My second question to you is (becuase I have no idea about daycares) how much (and I am not asking I am just hypothetically stating something to think about) are you, or will you be paying for two little ones in daycare at the same time.
I worked from home for the first two and a half years of my daughters life and I chose to hire nannies. Have you weighed the cost difference between two in daycare and a nanny at home? You said you work from home, and as I did the same, I really felt like I had the best of both worlds. Not only could I be there for everything, whether my daughter threw up and needed mommy more than anything, or whether I just had time in between meetings where I could be the one who picked her up from her nap, which is something I love because they are in a daze and so cuddly at those moments. I also got to monitor, though I was very careful of micromanaging my nanny in the home, and I also was very willing to have our nanny take my daughter out and about daily for excercise and fresh air.
I actually just responded to a request about a woman paying too much for her nanny and the other respondents said that the going rate in her area was about 10/hr. We paid our nanny 12 and it came out to be about 450 a week. I am not sure if this is in your price range but the perks that came with it were really incredible.
I put out a request for a "mother's helper" and hired the most darling 23 year old nursing student who had 4 years experience already nannying for two children, one with aspergers disease which is a hyperfunctioning autism. She was amazing with my daughter and we set up guidelines right at the on set of employment. I was writing to the other "mama" that when you hire a Mother's Helper, you really get much more than a person who just "watches" your child. Our nanny would cook, clean, do laundry, take my daughter to the park twice a day, take her to the grocery store to shop for our family and she was just amazing. We outlined that her job role was really to pick up any slack that I couldn't handle having a full time job, and because I Managed a team of people, I was able to set all of my meeting times and organize my schedule where I could be the one who took my daughter to the park while Alyse, our nanny cooked dinner. She loved to take our daughter out and sometimes they'd go to the car wash, the library, the grocery store, the park, the pool, wherever...even just in teh cul de sac to ride her tricycle, but I could always see her or get in touch with her at a moments notice. She became part of the family and fell in love with my daughter. I would allow her to buy food she liked to eat for the house as well as craft materials that she had researched for activities to do with my daughter. It was a win/win situation.
Anyway, I just thought that maybe you may feel most comfortable with that if your budget allowed and if you ask to hire a Mother's Helper, you get a lot more for your money.
Of course no daycare is going to make you dinner or mop your kitchen floor!!
Just a thought, and since it sounds like you will have your hands full, maybe a Mother's Helper could be a great solution to ease some of the tedious daily tasks you have.
Hope this helps- and regarding the gut feeling you have, I would say stick to it, not that like another poster said, there aren't wonderful unregistered daycares out there as well as not so wonderful registered ones, it's what YOU feel comfortable with. Your children are your life and to think of any damage being done to them is excruciatingly painful, I can understand. But I would definitely try and steer clear of the one across the street as sometimes things go ary and then you are stuck looking into their yard!
Hope you find the perfect solution!
Take care and congratulations on #2!!!
Kindest Regards,
S.