Banging our heads slowly against a wall.

Before you get anywhere near closing on a house in the city of Chicago, you may want to check out this zoning map online. http://maps.cityofchicago.org/website/zoning/liability.html. Had we known about this web site, we could have saved ourselves some grief and time. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. Two days before we were set to close, the seller's lawyer went to pull the certificate that states the building we were buying was a two flat (as listed on the MLS sheet.) Well, guess what, the building is not zoned as a two flat, but a single family home. Oops, I guess somebody was suppose to have checked that out. Needless to say, all of our best laid plans where gone in the time it took me to exhale with a heavy heart upon hearing the news from my wife.

It turns out the second unit is illegal. In order for us to continue with purchasing this property we have to have the seller take apart the second floor kitchen and have it re-appraised before the closing date. After much back in forth from us - to our lawyer - to their lawyer - to the sellers and in reverse, we came to terms that we could live with. The seller agreed to tear out the kitchen, give us a credit towards a rate lock extension, and a $5000 reduction in the selling price. I guess it's the price for listing the property incorrectly. Like I said before, check out the link above.

The good news is we will be living in the whole house and not renting out the upstairs "unit". We had planned on taking over the whole house in a few years. I guess we're just a little ahead of schedule. I am excited to be moving into a 4+ bedroom house with three full baths. I just feel a little wary of paying for the whole mortgage. Especially after reading a great blog by my friend Dustin (http://open.salon.com/blog/dailyforeclosure) who is going through a foreclosure on his house. Read it.

The outside tour- aka the good, the bad, and the tear it down.

Hello All

We've been living in a large storefront for a number of years. It has served us well. It is approx. 2000 sq. ft. with one very large bedroom and one typical small bedroom. The ceiling height is 12' tall and the space feels very open and airy, although it rather dark and cave like. Which can be mentally troubling in Chicago's very long gray cold winters. For a number of years, I ran a storefront gallery. My wife now uses that storefront space for her studio, which gives her a large working area for free (compared to paying for an outside studio).

It's time to move on. The neighborhood has been fully gentrified and I expect our reasonable rent (grandfathered in) to continue to go up every year. We also are very handy people and really would love to fix this space up more than we already have. However, the futility of giving away our services for free (and material cost) to our landlord for a brief enjoyment just seems wrong. We have been looking for a single family home that would be somewhat central in the city, works in our budget, not be in too bad of a neighborhood (crime-wise), near public transport. Sounds too good to be true. However, we feel there are deals to be had with the troubles in real estate. Not to mention the incentives for first time home buyers and for using energy star appliances. Wish us luck.

Adventure Chapter: First House