In Our LivingRoom with Dana Lewis and Sam Vinz
January 17th, 2019 Dana Lewis and Sam Vinz were looking for a place they could call their own in the West Town area. Working with Sarah Frier at LivingRoom Realty they found a perfect bungalow they could transform into a light and art-filled dream home. LR: Tell us about your property? Dana: We bought an 1890 one-story 750 sq ft bungalow in Humboldt Park in 2014. It is a standard Chicago lot size. The house had not been updated/renovated in quite some time (many decades). It was a one bedroom/one bath with a separate garage and unfinished basement. We knew when we bought it what it would be a big renovation project. LR: What were the deciding factors when choosing your area and picking your property? Dana: We had looked at so many properties and could not find anything that seemed like the right fit for us. We were open to the perfect condo, single-family or a multi-unit that was in our price range. The more we looked, we realized we would be paying for renovations that did not match our aesthetic. When we found our house on an MLS listing we thought it seemed like a unique property and worth checking out, especially after seeing so many places and listings that looked so similar. We went for a second visit and brought a contractor who thought the best approach for adding space and renovation would be to add a second floor rather than finishing the basement or extending the length into the back yard. We then had an inspector out to make sure the foundation could support a second floor. Once we got the ok from the inspector we made an offer and got the house. Sam: It got to be really difficult to walk into a condo/single-family/multi-unit that had just been redone in a bunch of awful standard materials. All of that is factored into the price of the home. The ‘contractor-special’ is not really our vibe - so to pay a premium for those finishes was not appealing to us. Dana: Very quickly it became apparent that we were best suited for a place that needed a little love. Which is what we found in this house - it needed a lot! LR: What’s your favorite thing about your property? Dana: This the first time either one of us has owned a property. It’s so much more quiet than living in an apartment, which is nice. It’s also great to have a yard for entertaining. We plan to design the yard for an optimal entertaining space next year. It’s also very nice to be so close to the park. There are great restaurants, coffee shops and bars a 5 minute walk away. LR: What would you tell someone who is embarking on the buying process? Dana: I would say to not settle on a place unless you love it. We made a few offers on places and thankfully none of them worked out. We realized we were settling. As run down as our house was when we bought it, we both knew we had found the home that was going to be perfect for us Sam: Agreed, while much harder to create a space in that manner that we did, settling for something less would have left us both unfulfilled. LR: Tell us about yourself? We rented in Ukrainian Village for 4 years before buying our home. We love to travel and met while traveling in Mexico City in 2010. I am an Emergency Room Nurse Practitioner and Sam owns Volume Gallery, a contemporary design gallery in Chicago. LR: Tell us about any improvements you made or plan to make and why? Dana: We gutted the entire first floor and added a brand new second floor to make a 3 bedroom/2.5 bath home. Everything in the house is new except the first level exterior brick. We did not finish the basement because we don't need the extra space and for now it is nice to have laundry and a workshop type area for Sam for the remaining house projects Sam: We need to do things in stages. First stage is the house, second stage is the yard, third stage is the garage. LR: Can you tell us about that process? Dana: Once we bought the house we rented it out on AirBnB and a 6 month lease which was great because we were able to cover the mortgage while get got everything in order for the renovation. It took about 15 months to get the plans, permits, hire the contractor, loan, etc. Since Sam owns a design gallery, he knows a lot of people in the Chicago Architecture world. We asked our friends Carrie Norman and Thomas Kelley of the Norman Kelley Architecture firm if they would like to design our home. They accepted the job and we are very grateful for all their hard work, patience and dedication. We collaborated with them for the basic concepts of what we were looking for- an open space ideal for entertaining, 3 bed/2.5 bath, a large skylight in the stairwell, an overall modern looking design. We interviewed several different contractors. We basically went with the most affordable option, Walsh Custom Homes and Jim Walsh was great and I would recommend him to anyone without hesitation. I don't think many people can say that about their contractors. We started construction in January of 2016 and moved in August 2016 with no floors, kitchen, dry wall not completed- basically we had plumbing and electric and that was enough for us to stop paying rent and move in. We worked everyday after work and every weekend for about 5 months. Luckily, Sam is very handy so he put in all the floors, kitchen cabinets, bathroom vanities, trim for the floors and painted the entire interior of the house. We hired someone through our contractor to install all the tile. We tried to be as resourceful and economical when finding materials we wanted. We also wanted to support smaller business and stay away from the Home Depot type stores as much as possible. We got wide plank pine for our downstairs floors from a lumber company in Wisconsin. We got 10 ft solid wood doors from salvage place in Milwaukee. We used a small company in Glen Ellyn for our soap stone counter tops and they are also carpenters so they hung our doors and did an excellent job with both. We hired amish from Wisconsin to make and install our built-in closets. We spent many weekends going to tile outlets, salvage yards, estate sales, habitat for humanities, etc looking for what we needed. We still have several projects to finish, but have been living comfortably and loving our space since getting the bulk of the project done by December 2016.
Happy New Year!
January 01, 2019 Every year we ask an artist to create our New Year's card with the thoughts of a notable Chicagoan. This year Ethan D'Ercole created our wonderful card.It's an ode to Chicago and Ukrainian Village.Wishing You a Happy and Healthy 2019!
In Our LivingRoom with Christen Carter of Busy Beaver Buttons
November 06, 2018 Meet Christen Carter of Busy Beaver Button CompanyBusy Beaver Button Company, a thriving small business, was looking to grow its space, open a museum, and stay close to its original location on Armitage in Logan Square. With the help of Annie Coleman, Managing Broker of LivingRoom Realty, they purchased the perfect empty building sitting on a double-wide lot a few blocks west of their original location on Armitage. We asked them a few questions about their journey to expand their headquarters. LivingRoom Realty (LRR): Tell us about yourself? Christen Carter (CC): I am a small business owner - Busy Beaver Button Co., and co-curator of the Button Museum. Right now, my life is mostly around buttons since I’m also working on a book about cultural history told through buttons. I do love fixing up old buildings that need love and kinda like having property - it’s part of my retirement plan. I also like decorating and nesting into places, this has become a hobby of mine. LRR: Tell us about your property? CC: It’s a double-wide storefront with two apartments above. When I bought the building, it was just a blighted shell that suffered a couple of fires. But the beautiful yellow brick and personality were there! Plus, it has “good bones” as they say. The location is 3407 W Armitage, just west of Kimball. There’s also a big backyard and 3 car garage. LRR: What were the deciding factors when choosing your area and property? CC: We knew that we needed a place to expand, since I’m hoping this will be a 10+ year place for my company, Busy Beaver Button Co. And the big back yard will let us build out when we need to.It’s also walking distance from my house and close to the homes of many people who work here. And only a block away from our old location, so we wouldn’t lose any employees because of the distance. Being only a block away was very handy during construction - we could meet a tradesperson on a dime, since it took 2 minutes to walk from our previous location. The two apartments above help pay the mortgage and give us a cheaper property tax rate, those two things really help! Plus, for security sake, it’s nice that people are here during the day and at night, too. I feel connected to Logan Square having lived and worked here since 2004, so I wanted to stay nearby. Plus, I remember when this building had two separate fires, the building was empty for years and it needed some serious love. LRR: What’s your favorite thing about your property? CC: The feel is just so nice. It’s pretty spacious and can display the Button Museum and accommodate the visitors. My brother, Joel found all these beautiful salvaged doors and interior windows, people can hardly believe that this place was a burned shell before we got it. You can really tell in all the details that a lot of love and consideration was put into it - this is mostly because of my brother! LRR: What would you tell someone who is embarking on the buying process for your type of building? CC: I always tell people to expect the project to cost at least 50% more than quoted by a GC and also about twice as long. The city can take a while and things always come up. We had to re-zone but that was the easiest thing - we had a good lawyer. That’s the other big thing - the professionals that you work with must honestly respect you and what you’re doing - trust is key. Some of the people we worked with were great, but some really made our lives more difficult than it needed to be. I learned a lot and now have developed what a “trusted partner” is, this helps us recognize red flags to change course. Have a good idea of what's important to you in terms of property characteristics, but also keep an open mind about what's going to work realistically, and be honest about your lifestyle needs. Obviously, finding the right agent is also crucial! LRR: Tell us about any improvements you made or plan to make and why? CC: I’d love to expand out the back to make more space for the button production. I also want to fix up the garage, not exciting, but we ran out of money with everything being over budget. Hopefully all of this within the next 3 years! Thanks to Christen and Busy Beaver Button Co. for letting LRR into their living room! Visit Busy Beaver Button Co. where you can order custom button, magnets and more. Do you have a button fan on your gift list? Consider picking up the Button Box which contains one hundred colorful postcards featuring over three hundred buttons from the collection of the Busy Beaver Button Museum.
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