Chicago Weblog

I’ve noticed that women have started letting me get on and off the bus before them.

How decrepit do I look, anyway?

In the city, you don’t have a Home Depot.

But you still need hardware. So you have real hardware stores. The kind that were around when I was a kid. One in our neighborhood, Clark Devon (since 1924!), has brass rods and square aluminium posts, a substantial locksmith department, among many other neat things. They even cut and thread pipe – I think Home Depot stopped doing that twenty-five years ago.

And they have the coolest hardware store sign ever:

It even lights up at night:

And last time I was there, I got to see the woman in front of me wrestle a 1×6 on and off the bus. Not something I would recommend during rush hour.

There are those of us, perhaps on the spectrum, who like to watch the clothes go around in the dryer.

Our building provides a video feed of the laundry room on our tv. I can watch my clothes go around from the comfort of my own easy chair. I feel this is very thoughtful of building management.

We have learned that condos don’t always look the same in person as they are advertised on the internet.

So we drove up to look at the one we have placed an offer on.

Startlingly, it looks just like it does in the Redfin ad. What are the chances of that?

Plus, it snowed while we were there. I thought it was exciting. This sentiment was not shared by all in our party.

We had a long-distance walkthrough of the condo we’re considering. For a two-bedroom apartment, it has a large kitchen with gas range (very important to CVH). Based on the dozens of condos that we’ve looked at online, I don’t think we’re going to find a bigger kitchen in our price range. And of course, the building allows cats.

We made an offer and sent our earnest money.

Another condo came on the market in this lakefront highrise. Sixteen stories up. I think George Jetson used to live there. We arranged for our Realtor to give us a remote tour, but alas, once again, it went under contract before we could even see it.

Condos in downtown Chicago are a drug on the market, but it’s a lively market on the North Side.

There is another unit available in this building closer to the ground. We’ll see if we can get a look at it before it sells.