From Step Repair to Step Rebuild

I took advantage of one of the last warm weekends in Chicago for the year and repaired the front step.  However, as I brushed away the lose debris, more and more of the steps came loose. 

Started with this

 

Then so much loose debris came out that I broke through to under the front porch.  Now under that porch is our root cellar but that only accounted for about half of the space.  Until now we had no idea what the walled off area contained.  

Here is a picture of the cavern below the porch

 

So, this little project turned into a rebuild of the bottom two steps.  However, it was neat to see what was under there. 

No, Carlos Does Not Live Here...

Image via Wikipedia Warning to new homeowners:
If you happen to receive mail addressed to the former tenent, and the letters are from lawyers and probation officers, be concerned. 

Now I admit Nicole was correct when she though that we ought to let people know that Carlos does not live here. Nicole envisioned the police busting in, shooting our dogs, and saying "oops, wrong house". 

I did not anticipate that the Chicago Police would be knocking on our door for him.  I mean that is the sort of thing that happens to small town mayors...not us  That was until tonight; luckily the Chicago Police only rang the door bell, but they did warn that others are looking for Mr. Carlos Curtis, and that we might get future visitors.

The fun never ends here at the Freedman House!

Unrelated Note About the Rain: found a leak in the roof but otherwise we lucked out.  Hope the fellow Chicagoland housebloggers fared as well or better.  

Lead Paint Abatement Begins

We have finally settled on the licenced lead abatement contractor for our job.  He was nice enough to have some of the work started before our next hearing with the city on September 9th.

We were pleasantly suprised to find out that the wood underneath is actually in really good shape.  Here are two pictures of our front porch windows from yesterday.  Once they get sanded they will look even better.  Now we have to think about either staining them and keeping the wood look outside or painting the windows back to white.  Thoughts? Opinions?

 

Great Deal on Antique Bookcases

Our latest great find on Ebay has been these two antique bookcases.  True to the period our house was built, these are from Circa 1910.  Got the two of them for $65.00.  

 

  

In particular, I like the mini-rail along the top shelves of these.  

Lead Paint Woes Continue

If you recall a while back we posted about our City troubles. Well, the City of Chicago in all its infinite wisdom and benevolence did not take pity on us poor unknowing new homeowners. Rather, the City attorneys said that we bought the problem when we bought the house and that we had 60 days to comply with the lead paint mitigation plan. Oh, and if we want any of the documents that were sent to the origional owners when this whole mess started, we would have to file a FOIA. It is little wonder why these older homes are left to rot and contribute to decaying neighborhoods. Who wants to deal with all this?

So, we are now collecting job quotes and passing them on to the original owner (who failed to disclose any of this to us at the time of sale) through the attorney we used at the closing. The first quote we received is from DPB Abatement Services for about $7,500 to abate the paint from exterior windows, soffits, and the walls of our full bath. Don from DPB has been very helpful in understanding the city and how this process works. Thus far his quote is the lowest.

Today, Colfax Corporation came by and did a survey and will send us a quote soon after they get in touch with our court appointed inspector Pamela Kimble. Every contractor has been astonished at the level of action being requiered by the city in this case, especially given that there are no children at risk.

If anyone has used either of these companies, let us know what you thought. Our next hearing is set for September 9th so stay tuned for the next segment in our continuing saga.

Finally Getting to the Landscaping

Finally, this Fourth of July weekend I got to do some work on our awful front yard. Since we removed the pine tree from the front, we could not get any grass to grow. Sick of looking at the weeds I had to do something and I was not into the idea of paying for sod. I don't mind mowing when grass is already there, but to pay to put in something that means that much more work for me.

Here is the before:

The After:
We hope to add some landscaping stones and we just planted some lily bulbs along the foundation that should be coming up in a month.

City Troubles

As I discussed in previous posts, we had intended to rehab our windows. We planned to do a lot of it ourselves, and move along a bit slowly.

Well, this Saturday, we got in the mail a summons to go to a hearing. Apparently the Chicago Department of Public Health cited our property as having lead paint violations on every window and all soffits. The property was cited on June 21st, 2007, and re-inspected in September of 2007. We bought it in February of 2008.

No disclosures were made regarding the lead paint by the seller, our inspector didn't find it, our appraiser didn't mention it, and the title search did not come up with the citation.

Now we have to go to a hearing on July 8th (so we only got 2 weeks notice essentially, since it arrived on a Saturday) to answer why the violations were not fixed according to a Mitigation Plan that we did not know existed!!!

Worse, the violations are subject to a $500 per day, per violation fine!!

We contacted the attorney who helped us with the closing, and will be working on this.
We will keep you posted.