CloverMay's Profile

I am the house owner. I have 3 sons who are home often, usually with girlfriends and guests, thus the need for 4 bedrooms, as well as other guests. The guest room addition is practical as when not in use, it's on a separate HVAC system. The house was built in 1954, with the hight ceiling, a 5 minute walk to the Chicago commuter rail line and bike path, 7 minute walk to a business district.
I chose to not tear down an older home that was well-designed with deep eaves and add insulation, solar panels, new windows and updates without throwing out the baby with the bath water. My goal was not to make a shrine to mid-century design but to remodel a 1950's house to function into the next century while maintaining the integrity of the original design. I kept the original teak wall in the dining room, floors including the living room oak parquet floor with slate and oak elsewhere, interior brick walls and emphasized the indoor/outdoor component which is what originally attracted me to the house.
My utility bills are very low and we sent as little as possible to the landfill. The stairwell and patio bench are built with brick saved when the original garage, in poor condition, was torn down. Other building materials contained recycled material. The fiber cement siding will need much less maintenance and repainting than the wood siding it replaced, which had been perforated by woodpeckers looking for insects within. I reduced the size of the outside hardscape increasing rainwater permeability in an area where McMansions have made that a problem.