In the summer of 2013, we moved from our beloved small Chicago condo (nestled in a yellow brick corner building) to a house in the same neighborhood. The house is a two-flat, meaning it’s made up of two units, and it’s over 130-years-old! Unfortunately, it was chopped up and gutted so many times over the last century, that little character remains. For the things the home lacks, it more than makes up for with space, natural light, and room to grow.

To view the galleries below, use the prev/next arrows on the first image. If you’d like to know where we purchased something for our Chicago home, here’s that source list, including paint colors!

Our Chicago House | Before

A lot of the actual demolition was tackled by the two us, but we’ve also called in the pros to help repair damaged drywall, move around the electrical guts, tidy up old windows, seal a leaky roof hatch, run new plumbing and cap off existing plumbing (the second floor kitchen is now our master bedroom!). This is the room-by-room breakdown of how our renovation has unfolded, which includes endless days, night and weekends – and it has all been worth every single second of time and energy.













































Our Chicago Home | After