Old Housing in Chicago, or, adding poorly built additions (Peoria: condo, houses)

[snoylekim]

I imagine there are quite a few buildings in Chicago that might have shown fewer apartments in 1929 than , say in 1959 to date ...Lots of building were quasi or illegally subdivided in parts of the city to handle the housing shortage after WWII .. not much housing was built between 1929 and 1955 in the city ... That's why the additional 'apartments' never showed up in the county records ...

[latikeriii]

My mom bought a house on the Southeast Side in 1990 and when she tried to sell it in 2001, she was sued by the city and had to pay a fine because of an illegal addition. The house was built in 1947 and the addition looked like it was added sometimes in the 60s. It was sold twice since the 60s and the addition was never an issue(at least that's what we thought). Basically when the house was close to closing, my mother got served. It was a long drawn out process and she eventually paid the fine since she didn't want to deal with the situation anymore(she moved to Alabama and got tired of flying to Chicago for court appearances). I guess you can check with the city to verify if the addition was legal.

[Attrill]

I think a big thing in looking for additions is to look for anything that is out of the ordinary. Most buildings in the late 1800's were built as boxes, anything that changes a basic structural box shape is a good candidate for being an addition. Does the addition sit on a different foundation?

Originally Posted by MannheimMadman

Do you have any pictures from the above project?

I've got more than anyone prolly wants to see

This is the back of the house, the door covered by the tarp is the back door on the right in the first shot I posted



We found NINE different layers of wall in our dining room (the room in the first shot). We filled an entire dumpster tearing out the walls in that room. Here's a snapshot of the layers we tore down.



This is what the room in the first shot looks like after getting the drywall up and painted, we've got some trim in now and it's starting to come together.



The biggest thing we did was add an entire new room onto our house:

[MannheimMadman]

Originally Posted by Attrill

I think a big thing in looking for additions is to look for anything that is out of the ordinary. Most buildings in the late 1800's were built as boxes, anything that changes a basic structural box shape is a good candidate for being an addition. Does the addition sit on a different foundation?

We found NINE different layers of wall in our dining room (the room in the first shot). We filled an entire dumpster tearing out the walls in that room. Here's a snapshot of the layers we tore down.

Actually, what I believe to be the addition DOES sit on a new, raised foundation. This is one of things that originally piqued my interest in finding out the history of my building.

I love that picture of the layers of wall. Did someone really put up a parquet type of wood panel?

Which layer looked to be the oldest, and could you possible 'time-stamp' each layer as which decade from which it came?

[WhaThe]

Originally Posted by Attrill

I've got more than anyone prolly wants to see

Not me. Having a similar house, I love seeing your pics. I don't have the time or money to go as crazy as I want but will hopefully in a few years. I like to see what others are doing to help me figure out exactly what I want to do one day.

I found an area upstairs in my place that is a small sealed room. Closet sized. I'm resisting the temptation to poke through the wall to see if anything is back there. Probably nothing but fun to think about. I knew a guy years ago who had a sealed brick room in his basement. He broke through it and found a still all setup. Probably made their booze during prohibition and then sealed it back up everytime.

[snoylekim]

Be careful w/ sealed rooms in the basement ..could have been the coal room , which you don't want to reopen ..ever ... interesting that it's sealed and upstairs ...

[WhaThe]

Originally Posted by snoylekim

Be careful w/ sealed rooms in the basement ..could have been the coal room , which you don't want to reopen ..ever ... interesting that it's sealed and upstairs ...

It's not a coal room. It's just that the upstairs was finished some years ago and they sealed an odd shaped area up. Would have been a great place to stash that life savings but I'm fairly certain it's empty space.

[Attrill]

Here are some photos of different wallpapers we found on the bottom layer of the walls:







Our house was built in 1879, and we're fairly sure these wallpapers run from soon after the house was built until 1900-10. There was a pale blue paint that we think was the original color, but we aren't sure that it wasn't a primer or something.

Originally Posted by WhaThe

Not me. Having a similar house, I love seeing your pics. I don't have the time or money to go as crazy as I want but will hopefully in a few years. I like to see what others are doing to help me figure out exactly what I want to do one day.

I found an area upstairs in my place that is a small sealed room. Closet sized. I'm resisting the temptation to poke through the wall to see if anything is back there. Probably nothing but fun to think about. I knew a guy years ago who had a sealed brick room in his basement. He broke through it and found a still all setup. Probably made their booze during prohibition and then sealed it back up everytime.

We found some really cool old mason jars in our crawlspace. After doing some research we found that they are over 100 years old, and while it's nothing really valuable, its a nice thing to have. Definitely look into the sealed room! If you don't find anything back there you should go to Peoria Packing and get a bunch of bones. Bleach them, stick them back in the room, and seal it up until someone finds them 100 years from now


There are more photos of the work we've been doing here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/attrill/sets/72157622192470704/ - broken link) if you're interested.

[StrayKitten]

Originally Posted by snoylekim

Be careful w/ sealed rooms in the basement ..could have been the coal room , which you don't want to reopen ..ever ... interesting that it's sealed and upstairs ...

Okay, I know everyone else knows the answer to this but, why don't you want to reopen the coal room?

[jwaiter]

Originally Posted by StrayKitten

Okay, I know everyone else knows the answer to this but, why don't you want to reopen the coal room?

You'll let the out the angry Coal Monster! Duh.