Where do tree hugging, vegetarian liberals belong in north Chicago? (Schaumburg: lofts, homes)

[Steve-o]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

And we're not yet "out hugging trees, eating tofu and bashing Bush with their (our) newfound neighbors".

Yet.....

Best of luck and I apologize that I didnt notice you posted a few days ago.

[Calidreemer]

Good luck with the upcoming move. You must be up to your eyes in boxes by now. I hope you were able find a rental that will work. Month to month and places that take pets are hard to come by. The good news is you are just in time to enjoy Lake Michigan and the beach. I hope your move is a smooth one and if I can be of help please let me know!

[jaynetarzana]

Thanks Calidreemer! I'm not having any luck finding a rental that takes pets and a month to month lease. I am going to fly there with my little ones while my husband it driving the truck cross country. So I will have only a few days to find something before he gets to Chicago with all of our belongings. I've been scouring the net for rentals. Every place that I find in Evanston is in the bad areas. I'm getting discouraged and my husband thinks that it might not be the town for us. I've been looking at the surrounding areas and there are some nice mid century ranches that might just have to do. I'm looking forward to getting there so I can finally see all of this for myself.

[CarolL]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

Thanks Calidreemer! I'm not having any luck finding a rental that takes pets and a month to month lease. I am going to fly there with my little ones while my husband it driving the truck cross country. So I will have only a few days to find something before he gets to Chicago with all of our belongings. I've been scouring the net for rentals. Every place that I find in Evanston is in the bad areas. I'm getting discouraged and my husband thinks that it might not be the town for us. I've been looking at the surrounding areas and there are some nice mid century ranches that might just have to do. I'm looking forward to getting there so I can finally see all of this for myself.

Other than neighborhoods in the city—Lakeview, Andersonville, Lincoln Square, Bucktown, Wicker Park, et al—I don't think you're ever going to find a town of tree-hugging, liberal vegetarians as exist in Evanston or Oak Park. They're usually mentioned together in the same breath whenever anyone's looking for a progressive, diverse village with a decent downtown, good restaurants, good schools, high property values, beautiful architecture, and close proximity to the city.

Of course, Oak Park is to hell and gone from Mettawa, but so is Evanston and the other aforementioned neighborhoods. I guess that's why others on this board put you onto Barrington and that area, but frankly, Barrington is not the name that pops into my head when someone says "tree-hugging, liberal vegetarian." Far from it. Other than city neighborhoods, Oak Park or Evanston, I don't think you're going to find that type of thing in the "regular" 'burbs. Just IMHO.

[LadyPleiades]

Are you looking to rent a house? What are the surrounding areas? I grew up in Evanston, lived around the country for a while including El segundo, and back in Evanston.

[jaynetarzana]

We're looking to rent something month to month. We were hoping to find a modern loft/condo, but so far no luck. We don't need a lot of space, but we'd like something very clean and in a nice area. We're open to looking in Evanston, Wilmette, Glencoe, Northbrook, Northfield, Lincolnshire, Highland Park or Lake Forest. The absolute most we want to spend is $2500 a month as we're trying to save to buy a house again.

[Anthera]

You'd have much better luck looking for a 6 month lease than a month-to-month. That said, there are some corporate apartments in Skokie, just the otherside of the expressway from Old Orchard Mall. They are accross from the Lifetime Fitness building. I know they are month -to-month. Ambiance is a zero however.

[Lookout Kid]

If you're looking for a well-designed mid-century modern house, you'll need to find a realtor that specializes in these things and cast a wide net through the entire North Shore. There are very few communities that have these houses in large numbers, but the North Shore is the part of suburban Chicagoland most likely to have architect-designed houses becuase of the higher home prices. The problem is that most of these were built for the wealthy, and it's unlikely that they will be in your price range.

Another option for you may be to find a 1950s ranch house that has some cool modernist touches. You may be able to find this, but too many of the ranch houses in the North Evanston/Wilmette/Highland Park communities are what some might call "Skokie-Baroquey". I'll let you figure out what that means on your own.

I am a LEED-accredited architect who does exclusively modern work, so I can provide some perspective here. There are MANY architects in Chicago doing modern homes, but you'll have a hard time with your budget. And to do that in an established older suburb you will probably need to tear down an existing house. Most architect-designed modern homes are in the multi-million dollar range these days. And most well-designed modern condo buildings are in the city. Evanston has some kind of interesting condo towers by David Hovey of Optima, but they don't seem very family-friendly to me!

[chet everett]

I was having part of the same conversation with my architect friend. he works in a non-design capacity but he was just back from a conference where LEED was HUGE. We have disagreements about the total value of such efforts when there are so many things that seem to drive prices so high as to discourage anyone who is not made of money from giving much thought to these things... (maybe we could start a thread on that!)

Anyhow, I don't think there are agents that could make a living "specializing" in Mid Century Modern in the Chicago region -- not enough to make a go of it...

I still contend best bet is going to be in an "atypical" situation and hopefully they'll find a spot that is liberal ENOUGH and hip ENOUGH. A rental that is reasonable central is preferred. I think Evanston is too far east/too hard to get to/from to make it a viable "base of operations" while they SEARCH...

Even heading a bit west to the fringe of Glenview / Niles /Skokie / Morton Grove MIGHT put them in a better spot for seeking out their dream, and trying to find rental houses out that way ought to be in areas that are at least safe...

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

If you're looking for a well-designed mid-century modern house, you'll need to find a realtor that specializes in these things and cast a wide net through the entire North Shore. There are very few communities that have these houses in large numbers, but the North Shore is the part of suburban Chicagoland most likely to have architect-designed houses becuase of the higher home prices. The problem is that most of these were built for the wealthy, and it's unlikely that they will be in your price range.

Another option for you may be to find a 1950s ranch house that has some cool modernist touches. You may be able to find this, but too many of the ranch houses in the North Evanston/Wilmette/Highland Park communities are what some might call "Skokie-Baroquey". I'll let you figure out what that means on your own.

I am a LEED-accredited architect who does exclusively modern work, so I can provide some perspective here. There are MANY architects in Chicago doing modern homes, but you'll have a hard time with your budget. And to do that in an established older suburb you will probably need to tear down an existing house. Most architect-designed modern homes are in the multi-million dollar range these days. And most well-designed modern condo buildings are in the city. Evanston has some kind of interesting condo towers by David Hovey of Optima, but they don't seem very family-friendly to me!

[CrazyJay]

Evanston,

I too am moving to Chicagoland.

I will be moving in to Evanston at the end of this month, or early in July.

However, I'm not a tree hugging hippie. I'm a moderate libertarian. it's going to be a ton of fun pissing off liberals.

Anyway, Evanston is a really nice suburb. It's a good mix of quite suburb living with the urban big city feel.