Route27

UPDATE – they finally started tearing our roof off our house. Its still a little hard to believe that after seven months of planning, permit getting and reviewing with the city we finally broke ground and begun construction. My friend Nick, GC, founder and CEO of Exemplary Builders is running with the project. We started removing the roof from our house yesterday.

Planning Details

Since this is a Chicago A-frame building built in 1902 we needed to provide special provisions for fire safety. We will be using all steel materials including steel rafters, two by fours and joists. They actually ended up costing about the same and they are lighter than the wood materials. It works out well for us.

Here is a snapshot of the construction/remodeling of the house prior to the roof tear of demolition:

Day 0:

Day 1

Day 1.5

Of course murphys law didnt fail: As soon as you tear down the roof of yuor house it will rain or snow. Prior the roof tear down you will have weeks of consequitve perfet weather. After the new roof is up you will have weeks of perfect weather.

We have moved two weeks ago into our new place. We have completed the renovation of the rental unit and have decided to move there while we await the arrival of our zoning exception from the City of Chicago. We have been waiting for the arrival of the permits for two months now, but I really believe it is going to happen now. For a fun story of Andy’s trip to City Hall, stay tuned. Meanwhile, here is a before and after shot to give you an idea of what our place is like.

Our Kitchen before - notice the four or five layers of linoleum floor. There were gas pipes run outside the walls, cabinets made from plywood, lacquered plywood as decorative wood on the sides of the floor.

Our Rental Unit Kitchen After rehab. We have also changed the bath tub, installed new sinks, re-tiled the bathroom, put new floors in the dining room, put in central heat and air, removed and re-run obtrusive gas pipes, put new carpeting in the bedroom and installed a new washer and dryer.

If anyone reading this has gone through this process, PLEASE feel free to vent in the comments section!

So, you want to do some work on your property in the city of Chicago. Here are the steps outlined to me by our Architect, Alex Demeter for our third floor extension.

1) Meet architect, outline the scope of work
2) Get a survey on your property done, the city of Chicago requires a survey of the property that is not older than six months.
3) Measure building to get existing plans
4) Architect Create existing drawings
5) Architect will create concept drawings
6) Review with client until a final concept is achieved
7) At this point our architect recommends that we hire an expeditor to deal with the city of Chicago
Schedule an intake meeting (when I checked this is at least a month away from the date that you call to ask for one)
9) The Department of Construction and Permits (DCAP) AKA “the City” will generate a list of corrections
10) Architect will make corrections and re-submit to the city
11) The city will review and issue permits

Estimated timeframe – 2-2.5 months, and that is a very aggressive estimate!

That’s all. More on the in-depth of step by step to come…

After you get the fixer upper, after you get the mortgage (more on that), you must then develop the plan. Well not the plan like a gant chart, the plans of the house.

Thinking I am a pretty handy do it yourselfer, I decided to measure the house myslef, and draw up the existing plans myself. Here it is:

Take a closer look - keep in mind I am NOT an architect, thats right!

Well, my plan to save hundreds of dollars by avoiding the architects come in and measure almost worked. Except that upon comparison to the survey it turned out that the house I measured from the inside was six feet (thats right, we’re talking feet) not inches longer than the outside of the house. Sometimes you are bigger on the inside than you are on teh outside… huh?

Back to plan A…

After looking at 15+ properties Mara and I have decided to bid on a two flat at in Albany Park, a north west part of City of Chicago. The asking price was 335. We wrote up a contract at Bar on Buena the day before my b-day. Morgan Sage our realtor was quite patient with us while the guests for my b-day party came around. We wrote up the contract with beers in hand with more than a handful of contributors and pundits.

The next day we took off for Herberts wedding. The nerves started tensing up when we received a final counter offer for 325. We were told no more negotiations, that was the fnial deal. But I was not satisifed, much to Mara’s dismay.

After one more counter offer, and three days later, we received a txt message from Morgan that read:

“We have a deal at 321.6″

And that is how the DIY fixer upper adventure begins.