Thought I'd start a new thread for interesting houses...

I really like this one in my town.

https://www.realtor.com/reales...L_60005_M88170-15551

The realtor needs some help with writing the description...

quote:

BONUS - seller offering a HWA for extra piece of mind

It's a nice house but it has two many levels. Four levels is a lot. The owner won’t need a health club because he’ll get lots of exercise climbing the stairs.

The street view photo shows it has a one car garage which is inadequate. A big house like that needs a two car garage.

It’s in a great location. It’s within walking distance of the Arlington Heights Metra rail station and that’s a big plus for someone who works downtown. It’s also close to the downtown area of Arlington Heights.

The outdoor raised patio doesn’t have a guard rail around the perimeter and that might be a building code violation. A co-worker of mine once fell off his raised patio because it didn’t have a guard rail and he had to be hospitalized.

Sometimes realtors like to fudge things on the MLS sheet. They’ll call a room a bedroom when it’s not.
One or two of the bedrooms look like they may not be legal bedrooms. In the city of Chicago, in order for a room to be a legal bedroom, it must have the following three features:

1. Window
2. Door
3. Built-in closet. A free standing armoir cannot be substituted for a built-in closet.

If a bedroom doesn’t have all three of the above features, then it’s a room and not a bedroom. Arlington Heights building codes and definitions may be different from Chicago’s though.

I noticed the absence of a deck railing, too. One too many beers and that last step could be a doozy.

They're calling the basement floor 1, which means it's really a three story house. Not that unusual for homes of this vintage to have the attic turned into living space. And.... it turns out that people that live in homes with stairs tend to be healthier. Built-in exercise, ya know.

The listing notes (and the floor plan shows) that the garage is an extra wide two car "tandem". Two cars fit, but not side by side.

Also, if you look at the floor plan, the three bedrooms on the second floor all have closets. The third floor space being used as an office does not have a closet. I've heard the rules you quoted but am not sure how they apply to real estate listings in AH. In any event, it would be very easy to add a closet to that third floor room.

The style doesn't do anything for me.

Nice house. The facade is a bit busy for my taste and the house is too big for the lot but I’ve found that a lot midwest houses looks this way.

I see it has high velocity ducted air conditioning and they’re calling it a “Space Pack” - a new term for me.

I wonder why they don’t use it for heat and ditch the radiators.

quote:

I wonder why they don’t use it for heat and ditch the radiators.

Could it be bc radiated heat is more efficient? Warmer? Not blowing dry dusty air?

We had radiated heat when we lived in WI, it was really great! But I believe it depends of course on the type and age etc.

Another fan of radiant heat here.

Saw this new listing this morning. Built in 1903 and totally redone. Unfortunately it's on a busy street that's going to be a total nightmare if the Chicago Bears move forward with their plans to build a stadium here. It would be maybe a mile down the road. Probably explains the price...also, four floors just for Q-L.

https://www.realtor.com/reales...L_60004_M85693-02533

I like this one a lot! Although, the first thing I would do is get of all that gray paint. In a house of this age/era, with all the wood details, the gray walls really don't match IMO.

P.S.

quote:

that's going to be a total nightmare if the Chicago Bears move forward with their plans to build a stadium here

Indeed!!! That's the sort of thing you'd really want to know about before buying!!!

I noticed they didn't include "walking distance to proposed new stadium" in the property description....

I'm really not looking forward to the Bears coming here. The racetrack was relatively low key. Certainly traffic increased on the weekend of the Arlington Million, but otherwise it really wasn't too bad.

This new stadium would see a lot more use beyond just football games (which is bad enough). Have you seen what's going on with Taylor Swift concerts? She's performing in Chicago this weekend, and the area around Soldier Field is going to be chaotic...

I know what you're talking about with the concert crowds, because we have some stadium concerts here, primarily in Acrisure Stadium (was Heinz Field), the home of the Steelers and the University of Pittsburgh football team.

The football games attract tailgaters to the surrounding parking lots, but they involve people that have been doing it for awhile and are fairly organized. In addition, the games are mostly in the afternoon.

The concerts draw some serious partiers who start in the morning for a concert that is typically much later in the day. Some get so wasted they don't make it to the concert and many leave a vast mess behind them, although the bad publicity associated with a few concerts has led to more self-policing of the concerts by the organizers and some fans.

Big Al

Very nice house in what sounds like a dicey location. Probably overpriced on that basis.

Like any house of that vintage I need to know how much was done during the reno. How much asbestos is left? What vintage is the wiring? Have the sewer pipes all been replaced? How many roofs does it have on it?

I love old houses but most of them are something of a kludge.