Located in a Chicago greystone building, a couple relocates the apartment entrance with updates throughout
Homeowners: A professor and an accountant post their home remodel on Sweeten
Where: Chicago’s Lakeview East neighborhood
Primary renovation: A relocation of the condo’s front door, plus rip-and-replace remodels of two dated bathrooms
With: Sweeten Chicago general contractor
Homeowner quote: “We’ve renovated before, and we know: The wrong contractor can add unnecessary stress, delays, and cost. The right contractor can make the process relatively painless.”
Written in partnership with the homeowners. “After” photos by John Laning.
Landing a historic fixer-upper in Chicago
Our apartment, which we bought in 2019, is in a historic greystone building in Chicago’s Lakeview East neighborhood. A three-bedroom fixer-upper, we chose it knowing we could renovate it to our exact specifications. The unit had, curiously, two front doors, neither of which was in a logical location, and we wanted to find a solution to that problem. We needed to renovate the two bathrooms, which had been largely untouched for decades. And finally, we wanted to redo the living-room fireplace façade as a finishing touch to our renovation.
The apartment is a full-floor unit in a three-flat building; it’s around 1,575 square feet and has a 160-square-foot rear deck. We have two French bulldogs and wanted the condominium for its generous size, but we also appreciated its historic status and original character. We’d noticed that historic properties often had their period aspects stripped out. We wanted to bring modern updates to the space, maintain its vintage features, and incorporate mid-century touches into our design.