Closing Day!

We finally closed on the condo over the weekend! Praise the Lord! It's been a long quiet winter so we we were ready to get started on all of our demo projects right away! The place is not in bad shape by any means but it hasn't been updated in about 20 years so things are in need of a facelift. The condo was built in the 1890's and has some great historical details so we hope to add to the vintage feel with the work that we do. It's a 2 bedroom condo on a Historically designated street. It has a Living Room, Foyer, Dining Room, Kitchen, 2 bedrooms 1.5 baths, a deck and a fireplace!

Right now, we're focusing on the bedrooms and the 1/2 bathroom first so that we can move in ASAP. We tore out the carpet in the bedrooms, removed the hollow core doors, tore out the base trim and took out the bathroom shelves, tile, sink and toilet. We will be doing hardwood floors in the bedrooms to match the rest of the condo, new solid core doors for all the rooms in addition to crown molding, new baseboards and light fixtures.

Here are some pictures:

These are the floors we found under the carpet. They turned out not even to be the original floors... there is 1 more layer of flooring beneath that we believe is the original. In the second bedroom the floor was cut through to install the gas line to the fireplace. It's interesting to see how they cover these things up!
And in the master bedroom there had been some old walls that were torn out and cemented in. The red spot used to be a closet that opened into the kitchen...

Hello Chicago! (for real this time)

It's been 7 months since we moved and it's been a looooong winter. We've looked at over 60 condos and were able to narrow down exactly what we wanted and where we wanted to be. When we first started looking we focused on 10 different neighborhoods and gradually limited it down to about 3-4 that we thought would be ideal for us: North Center, Lincoln Square, Uptown and Andersonville. These neighborhoods are about 5 miles north of the city. We would have loved to be closer but the closer you go the pricier and smaller the places get. Thinking long term, we focused on a place that would have enough space for us (and at some point a family) as well as our list of priority check list items (close to public transit, vintage building, deck, fireplace, plenty of space, etc).

Our new condo is located in the neighborhood of Uptown which got its start as a summer resort area for downtown dwellers. At one time all northbound trains from downtown ended in Uptown and the neighborhood became known as an entertainment destination. Since then, Uptown has seen it's share of urban decay and blight similar to other urban neighborhoods throughout the Midwest. It's not the most refined of the northside neighborhoods, but it has a strong foundation with years of history and beautiful architecture. We are excited to move to an area that's less than perfect but still holds the potential to be great. As urban designers and soon to be residents, we look forward to contributing in any way that we can in helping Uptown find itself again.

This is a map of Uptown. Our new condo will be at the southwest corner of 'Sheridan Park'.

Hello, Northbrook?

Our first 6 months in Chicagoland have actually been spent living in Northbrook, a suburb 35 miles north of Chicago. Brett's parents graciously allowed us to stay with them during our extensive search for a home of our own. The one-hour train ride into the city every morning for work was not that bad, but getting up at 5:30 a.m. was. Here's a graphic showing Northbrook in relation to downtown Chicago:

And here are some images of our temporary suburban basement living quarters:

Goodbye, Columbus

Although it is 6 months past, we wanted to start off this blog with photos of our departure from Columbus, Ohio. We were very blessed to have so many wonderful friends support us during that time, and the move was extremely bittersweet for both of us. We miss Columbus and all of our friends greatly, but are truly excited to begin a new chapter in Chicago. Next week we'll be the proud owners of a condo unit in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. We'll update this blog regularly to share with you our journey through homeownership and residency in one of Chicago's greatest and most vibrant communities!

our 3rd floor storefront apartment on main street in columbus, moving day.