The House

Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand! - Edna St. Vincent Millay



I have always preferred creating a positive future to running from a negative past or present. 

So when I finally decided in month 19 of what was supposed to be a 2-week roof project that I needed to move out of my beloved downtown Chicago home near Lake Michigan for the summer -- since part of the problem involves condo neighbors' air conditioner condenser lines causing intolerable noise and vibration inside my place due to improper and unannounced embedding in my roof -- I wanted not only to run away from the pain of ac season, but to run toward a wonderful adventure. It was time to escape poorly designed and installed machines growling and shaking and waking me up at night and causing aggravation all day. It was time to heal my shattered nerves from over a year and a half of awful and botched roof work, time for a change of scenery, time for a respite, time for a pleasant summer adventure.

Adventure found me! 

I began looking for a quiet short-term rental condo in my downtown Chicago neighborhood, and thought it might be fun to decorate it lightly like my own little hotel suite for the summer, a cat-friendly hotel suite of course, for Sweet Jorji the Cat!

I wasn't looking for a house, and wasn't looking in a neighborhood so far uptown that to me it feels like Wisconsin. 

But the house found me!

Physical details of the house:

  • built in 1906
  • ~1700 square feet
  • 2 stories plus basement
  • secluded northside Chicago neighborhood not near public transportation with more of a country or suburban feel
  • original deco doorknobs
  • architectural detail at ceilings and baseboards
  • renovated perhaps 1950s based on metal kitchen cabinets and original drawer pulls, plus pop-out wooden ironing board upstairs
  • not modernized recently
  • no forced air
  • no central air conditioning or heating
  • old iron radiators
  • worn oak floors
  • sagging dirty wooden porches
  • damaged front door
  • peeling paint
  • rusted mailbox and railings
  • dirty facade
  • dirty interior
  • surrounded by trees
  • quiet. 

In other words, a "fixer:" dirty and dilapidated, with good bones and charming touches, and certainly not the move-in ready downtown condo I'd been searching for. I was looking for a summer of peace and quiet. 

Then again, downtown short-term rentals were proving hard to find, buildings had many restrictions, and even if I were to find a place where I was looking it would likely be a small studio in order to stay within my rental budget for the summer. This latter point was not necessarily a deal-breaker, but no place was emerging.

This house, owned by the father of a business contact of mine to whom I'd mentioned I was looking -- as I was telling everyone I was looking! -- had been empty for some time due to a bad experience the owner had with prior tenants, was not on the rental market at all, and was available short-term as an exception. And, the house presented me with an irresistible interior decoration opportunity: a positive future to create. 

An adventure of imagination.

As soon as I walked in, to the sound of beautiful birdsong from the many surrounding trees, the house whispered -- very quietly as this is a very quiet house -- let's try it!

Some "before" photos:

























I visited on May 11 with a dear former student of mine who was in town (and I'm sure she is surprised I rented this house!). The owner of the house was cheerful and friendly, and said he could start getting the house ready for a June 1 move-in. We talked on the phone a few days later about details and also simply had a very nice fun chat, and I came back on May 19 with a cashier's check. 

Obviously I was biting off more than I had originally expected to chew -- just how much we'll soon see -- but the pros seemed to outweigh the cons, and I immediately started thinking about decorating options such as a Great Lakes theme. I started referring to the little house as "the cottage," and my mother called it the "summer serenity cottage," and voila!

This summer project was happening!

Your friend in decorating,

Valerie























More house highlights on Telegram!

Looking for me at Chocolate Uplift? Here I am on Instagram!

Feel free to say hi via email as well: valerie.beck@post.harvard.edu.

Thank you!


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