New Construction

December 21, 2003 in Friends

Had lunch yesterday with a friend at Smoke Daddy which is one of my favorite bbq joints in the city. The ribs were just what the doctor ordered for the hang over I was nursing. After lunch, I headed back to my friend’s condo to help her pack up her living/dining area. Despite the fact that the condo is barely a year old, the wood floor already needed to be refinished due to poor workmanship the first time around. Finding space to put her stuff was not easy. From what I’ve seen with many of the new construction condos, storage space seems to be in limited supply. This issue reared its head again with another friend who I was supposed to help today. She just moved into her new condo yesterday, and she postponed my helping her today as she has already run out of storage space even though she still had many things to put away. Yet again, her building is new construction. With that in mind, when it’s my turn to buy, I’m really going to have to look for a place that has adequate closets or storage facilities. That might mean staring clear of some of these newer buildings with their lavish features that are going up all over the city. In the end that might be a good things as the prices wanted for some of these places is simply unreal.

3 Comments

December 22, 2003 at 3:32 pm

miss ellen

Reply

i’m looking at stuff right now & i’m trying to stay away from new construction. total gut rehab is the way to go, IMO. although, the place i’m considering is also small, i can’t afford to be choose-y with my price limits.
but, at least i have a (possible) place that is steps away from the logan square EL. that is more important than closet space right now, as my mornings are hard enough 🙂
December 21, 2003 at 11:30 pm

Kat

Reply

i think new construction is horrible anyway. i need a building of brick and stone not drywall & refacing.
December 21, 2003 at 9:34 pm

bfap

Reply

I’m not sure what price range you are looking at but I recommend checking out Albany Park or Bronzeville. Those seemed to be the only two places in the city where you get your money worth right now and at least has a el stop near it. I tottaly agree about the lack of closet space in new constructions for some reason they are reducing the size of the closet so that they can have larger bedrooms. Even though these bedroom are only big enough for a queen size bed and a dresser and mirror. Makes me wanna move to the suburbs. Another thing you should look at is the quality of the new costruction. Make sure you do back ground research on the developer of any new construction cause some developers are know for doing crappy work. Another weird thing I’ve been noticing is the quality of the housing in bronzeville has been better than what I seen on the north side. Btw another place you might want to check out is Oak Park.