Friday, May 20, 2005

Walking the neighborhood...The Good

We live in a somewhat transitional neighborhood in Chicago. It's been through alot of changes over the past few decades. After the riots in the 60's many people fled the city for the burbs but more recently people are coming back and city living is getting very expensive.

Right now our neighborhood has some typical city problems: drug dealing, loitering, litter, graffiti. But don't get me wrong, this is a nice neighborhood - we just have some "issues."

I've been wanting to do some posts about the neighborhood related to old houses. I've really enjoyed seeing slices of life from other people's blogs lately. Grex over at Petch House showed us some amazing Victorians and Jess over at Bungalow High had some great ones. And of course, we can count on House in Progress for capturing shots of Bungalows wherever they roam.

Here's a few shots of a few of our favorite houses in the neighborhood. One advantage of walking everywhere is you get to know your neighborhood pretty well. These are also homes that have had quite a bit of work done and I think reflect their owners personality.

This is an unbelievably quaint home, we call cottage-like.


I like they way they made this one their own with the paint colors.


Close up of the unique paint job (purists may not like)


A Nice Victorian recently restored.


Close up of wood work


This one was also recently redone and has a lovely Japanese garden.

My plan is to continue this saga in the spirit of Sergio Leone.
The first installment: The Good
Coming soon: The Bad
To be followed by: The Ugly
And so as to not end on a negative: The Beautiful!

3 comments:

Greg said...

Nice homes. I really liked the brick one. We don't get much of that out here. There are some commercial buildings from the turn of the century that are brick, and a lot of stucco bungalows, but not a lot of brick or stone homes. My Mom is in Kentucky right now. She just sent me pictures of the big brick Victorian she grew up in. Sadly, it is now in a bad part of town (sound familiar) and it is cut up in to apartments (sound familiar).

Looking forward to the other installments. I could post plenty of "Bad" and "Ugly" as well.

Ms. P in Jackson said...

The pictures are great. I like the paint colors on the Victorian. A large part of why I'm moving to Jackson is that we can walk or ride bikes everywhere. Here in Arlington, they will put in a seven lane road and won't put in a sidewalk! How much sense does that make? There really is no 'downtown', just a million mini-malls and gas stations.

Old urban neighborhoods are full of treasures. I love looking at the pictures. Thanks for sharing them.

K said...

What a cool-looking neighborhood. I like the rainbow Victorian and the other Victorian with the white base color and blue/gold/purple trim ... gives me some ideas for mine.