historic photos

A week or two ago I downloaded the Dover Street Landmark District report and read through the entire thing over a 2-3 day period during my EL commutes to and from work. I am in love with the history of place so knowing that our street has a significance in Chicago history is just so much fun to me! The report was filled with wonderful historic photos of the street, old architects, train stations and architectural detail shots. I love seeing old photos with buildings I have begun to recognize and are still standing today. And I get the most fun out of seeing people in the pictures and thinking about what their life was like back then living on Dover Street.

Anyway, here's a short clip from the Report and some of the pictures capturing what it was like in the old days! Enjoy!

"The handsome residential buildings of the Dover Street District reflect the history and development of the Sheridan Drive Subdivision (later known as the Sheridan Park neighborhood within the larger Uptown community area) and the associated importance of middle-class housing in late 19th- and early 20th-century Chicago. Possessing a distinctly suburban character, the District is made up of single-family houses, two and three-flats, and small apartment buildings. Situated on wide lots that are generously set back from Dover and Beacon Streets, the buildings of the District exemplify the residential growth and development of this North Side neighborhood in the years after its annexation by Chicago in 1889."

This photo (above) was taken in front of our condo building looking north at our neighbors house - the one with all the children on the front stoop.

Dover Street today

doors, medallions and hardwood

After 5 weeks of waiting, our doors are finally in! We ordered them custom through Lee Lumber in Chicago. We picked them up yesterday right as the skies broke open and a thunderstorm blew through (perfect timing, right?) But, they are everything we hoped and dreampt about! =)

We debated endlessly over the paneling: 5 panel? 3 panel? 4 panel? raised panel? flat panel? jamb style? hinge style? hinge finish? There are honestly too many decisions to make when choosing doors. But we finally decided: 4 panel, flat panel, colonial jambs, square hinges, oil rubbed bronze finish.

Today Justin and my Dad worked on installing two of them. Of course, in an old building like this nothing is plumb or level, so it look took them about 3 hours of shimming, nailing and sawing but they're up! And now, every time we walk down the hall we catch ourselves doing a double take because a.) we actually have doors again! and b.) they're beautiful!!!

pre-installation

post-installation

We also purchased and just recieved the ceiling medallions we're going to install above our light fixtures. Medallions compliment the victorian style and should add a little extra detail to the bedrooms. The style of the bedroom medallions is pretty simple but we will probably pick something a little more ornate for the living room (once we get to that project.)

I also got fed up with our lovely brown paper/blue tape protective flooring and took it all out in the bedrooms. In general I'm starting to get a little tired of feeling like we are living temporarily (first in my parents basement and now in our kitchen); I needed to see something pretty in my house to keep me sane and optimistic that we are still progressing - slowly but surely. We put that paper down in the bedrooms the day after the wood flooring was complete, so getting to finally see it again was a very welcome sight. Farewell brown paper! Now, I just need to get it out of the hallway...

tile accomplished!

Finally finished putting in the tile this week! Last week we laid it, Thursday we grouted it and yesterday my Mom and I spent a couple hours buffing it clean. Let me just say... tiling is not as easy as you would think or as easy as the people at the tile store like to make it sound; just dont believe them. It's a pretty stressful job because you are limited in time. From the second you mix your thinset or grout, you only have about 20 mins to use it until it dries up and becomes useless... so laying tile is kind of like running a marathon. You've gotta keep up the pace and dont stop until the job is done! Luckily, we made it through our first tiling job and are pretty happy with the results. We saved a lot of money doing it ourselves and we learned a lot along the way.

The only change I would make would be to have gone with the black grout instead of the dark grey grout. The lady at the tile store did a good job of convincing us that we would absolutely hate having dark grout and I almost believed her until I got home and remembered my true vision for the tile. And the more I walked the streets of Chicago, the more I was confirmed in my thinking that darker is better. Just about every vintage door stoop in this city has mosaic tile with dark black or dark grey grout, so I had my answer... we ended up returning the light 'wisper grey' she convinced us to buy and getting the charcoal. It's a dark grey, but not true black. I'm definitely happy with the dark grey but next time I'm going all the way with the black! =)

Lesson #37.6793: Always trust your gut when it comes to design desisions.

memorial day weekend progress

It's been a few weeks since we've posted about any progress on the condo. We've been making strides slowly but surely: cleaning windows, scrubbing down the dirty deck, finishing cleaning the cabinets, etc... My Mom and I painted all of our crown molding last weekend/this weekend, so that was a huge accomplishment. And I must say it looks absolutely lovely! Something about that glossy white just makes the room feel finished!

Justin had this past week off work (more detailed explanation on that forthcoming) and was able to work on the small projects. But today, with the help of my Dad he was finally able to mortar down the cement board for the tile in our bathroom. This is a major milestone considering the amount of groundwork that had to be laid to get to this point. A couple weekends ago Justin's Grandfather amazingly spent a whole afternoon dedicated to filling in the giant hole left behind by the last rehabbers. It not only had to be filled in but had to be level. And it not only had to be level but all the tetris-style pieces he used had to somehow fit between and over the pipes, different layers of old flooring and subflooring. We are truly blessed that he helped us with that because it was a daunting task.

And now, finally, we have cement board down!! After that task was complete, I set out to arrange the tiles and determine our simple inset flower pattern. I'm super excited about how it's looking and can't wait to lay the tile (maybe tomorrow?)

Oh, and we ordered and recieved our new mini wall sink as well! It's adorable! We went back and forth on the style of sink we wanted but I finally won out with a more victorian inspired look. Hopefully it will compliment the rest of the condo.

Anyway, here are some progress photos from the last couple weeks including today:

city screenprints

As you all know, my wonderful husband is a city planner and I'm a landscape architect and we're both pretty urban obsessed. We like public transit, bus stops, railroad tracks, old buildings, beautiful street trees and public spaces. We also really like maps... Justin especially. Sometimes I catch him staring for hours at our atlas or scanning google earth like it's his job (haha, well sometimes that is his job!) So, when it comes to fun city maps, we are always on the lookout. Tonight we stumbled across a pretty cool COLUMBUS city map and just had to share with all our ohio friends. It's designed and made locally from: these are things. It reminded us of the Chicago Ork poster we bought a couple months back... pretty cool!

wilson station

Our local red line stop will be getting some much needed attention this year! While the station has seen its share of ups and downs over the years, I would assume it's in its worst state currently, so this is great news! Check out the progression of the station over the past 80 years... I for one will not be sad to see Popeyes go!

Plants!

I've been hoping to get some color out on our deck for quite sometime now and today Justin and I finally had the chance to buy a couple things for our planters. There is a cute urban garden center just up Clark St. called Gethsemane. It was a quite a popular place this weekend but fun to browse around their gardens of shrubs, flowering trees, annuals and perennials.

Since our deck is mostly shade we decided on these white begonias with purple coleus. I'm interested to see how they handle the true lack of sun. We'll see!

livin in the city!

So... two MAJOR accomplishments over the past 2 weekends. One is that Justin and I are finally moved into our condo! Last weekend we took the plunge and moved our bed and all daily essentials. Since the two bedrooms are still under construction, we moved into the kitchen. Luckily, our kitchen is huge, so we have tons of space. And like some people have said, it just makes midnight snacking easier! =) Here's a photo of our current studio-like space.

The other major accomplishment is that the crown molding and baseboards are nearly all in! Justin's Dad and Grandpa came all the way from Ohio to stay the weekend and work with us! And they weren't messing around either... they woke up both mornings at 7am and didn't quit until 8pm.

The crown molding was a huge challenge because the building is over 100 years old and the walls are all skewed (no 90 degree angles here!). But those Weidls know how to work together and they made it happen. It looks great! We are SO grateful for all their help!

Next weekend... we'll be on to painting crown molding and the ceilings! This week, we NEED to order our new doors, buy door casings, order door hardware, finish cleaning all of our cabinets (ugh), and start organizing materials to tile the bathroom. Lots to do!

Fireplace

I don't think we've posted photos of our living room yet. It's definitely my favorite room in our place. The sun shines through the bay windows every morning and the windows overlook our new neighborhood street /street trees. We love the vintage fireplace surround and curved ceiling edges. We plan to paint the room but still are still deciding on colors... any ideas?

The marble on the fireplace was from the previous rehab job done about 20 years ago, we aren't super fond of the purple and want to replace it with something brighter and lighter to help the mantle 'pop'. Any suggestions?

Deck Ideas

Here's a photo of our deck. We would love to brighten it up with a colorful table and chairs, galvanized containers and hanging plants. Here are a couple of our ideas. Fermob has some great bistro furniture that comes in a variety of colors. CB2 and Pottery Barn both have some of the galvanized planters we like... Then, we'll finish it off with a ton of shade plants.