More Senseless Violence: 15 Year Old Killed

What the %$#% is going on? Two weeks ago, a kid gets shot less than a block away from our home. Then a kid who lives two streets over gets shot riding his bicycle in Logan Square. No doubt, these are gang related, but these are still kids. It makes me so angry and frustrated that these kids are killing each other for no reason. I used to watch the news and think mindlessly... another shooting, another gang member dead. It really wakes you up to the tragedy and effects it has on a community when it happens in your own back yard. Improving our neighborhood is no longer something I'm wishing for. I'm going to do something about it... I just don't know what yet.

Front Facade

The front facade, which is a combination of Paperstone and Hardiepanel, is nearly complete. In fact, as I'm writing this, it should be all finished. Dennis says, "The Paperstone looks good. It was a pain in the ass to install but I have to admit it looks good." I had nothing to do with the installation, but I have to admit that it looks pretty good too. It was a lot of trouble to get and cost about 10 times more than Hardiepanel but my preliminary assessment is that it was worth the trouble and price. It gives depth and character to the house that Hardiepanel probably couldn't have replicated. I'm also glad that we didn't go with something more conventional like brick--it just wouldn't have looked right with the design of our home. And I like the fact that we're trying new green technology--I think we're the only house in Chicago that's ever installed Paperstone as a facade. I still can't believe this is made of 100% recycled PAPER.

Garage Deck

This week, we finally should have a functional garage deck. Our lot is 25' x 100'--which is shorter than the conventional Chicago lot at 25' x 125'--so our back yard is small even by Chicago standards. So we decided early on during the design process that we should have a garage deck. Now that the house is nearly complete, boy are we glad we decided this. It gives us an additional 300 square foot of outdoor living space. It took one of Cian's guys about a day and half of laying down the sub-floor and will take another day and a half of putting down the Trex decking. My hope is that by this weekend, we can have a BBQ on our new garage deck.

Finishing Touches

Last week, we began putting the finishing touches on the inside. We have some lights, moulding, trim, and fixtures left to do--probably not more than a few days work. The biggest thing left was the stair trim. We had some bamboo flooring left over, so we decided to cut them in half pieces to use them as trim. It's a bit unconventional but I think it turned out great.

Train! Ahh!

Last Sunday, Josh took his first train ride to go to the Wicker Park neighborhood festival. He was so happy about riding the El that he couldn't stop saying, "Train! Ahh!" It's good to be an urban kid when you love trains, buses and trucks. The Wicker Park stop is a short 3 minute ride from our station, so Josh almost started crying when we had to get off. But not for long. There were so many fun kids' activities there--a kids' band, a petting zoo, a dunk tank, coloring station, and a fun bouncy house--so Josh had a great time. The festival also had some fun grown-up stuff too, including several bands and drafts of Blue Moon. As a parent, I have to admit that it's strange to derive so much happiness from watching your child have fun. But isn't that the truth? Anyway, I couldn't picture a better afternoon. Mary must have felt that way too. She said to me, "I love living in Chicago." Yes, so do I. Most of the time, anyway.

A Little Gardening

As we are getting closer to completion, I've turned my attention to our front/back yards. Bottom line: they're both disasters. I have a heart attack every time Josh steps outside, because there's still nails and debris everywhere. Our contractor has taken care to keep the site tidy throughout this process, but let's face it--construction is just a messy process. Here's a couple of my neighborhood helpers Anwar and Josh digging up a concrete chunk buried several feet deep. Some of these suckers weighed more than a 100 pounds. After a weekend of doing this, I was completely sore on Monday.

St. Sylvester School Playground

Mary's sister's family was staying with us for the weekend, and Josh and his cousin Margot had a great time playing at Palmer Square play lot and at St. Sylvester school playground--both of which are around the corner from our house. Apparently, the St. Sylvester playground was built in one day with more than a 100 volunteers from the community. To those who helped, thank you! Things like this make a neighborhood so much more livable and enjoyable for families.

"Who would do that? Steal from a baby?"

Ugh. I'm so pissed off. Two men and a lady just came into our front yard and stole Josh's car stroller! It's fenced in so they had to come in through the fence and take it. By the time I got downstairs, I could still see them about two blocks away but it was about midnight so I couldn't ID them in any way. I suppose if I'd hopped in my car right then and chased them, I may have caught them. But I didn't. I was just so shocked. My neighbor Anwar, who saw the whole thing, couldn't believe it either. He told me, "Who would do that? Steal from a baby." I honestly don't know. What is this world (or economy) coming to? Are some people so desperate that they'd steal from a baby?

Powder Room

Not sure there's much I can say other than to let the pictures speak for themselves. Here's our completed powder room. Ronbow vanity, European faucet, and popup drain from Craigslist for $550. Square mirror from Menards for $100.
Vanity lights from George Kovacs. $200 online.
Light switches--one regular (for vanity light) and one motion sensing (for overhead light). Motion sensing light switch cost $20 from Home Depot. It really works.

Toto Aquia dual flush (1.6 GPF / 0.9 GPF) toilet. About $300 retail. We're completely used to using these dual flush toilets now.

Ceramic tile (12"x24") from where we got almost all of our tile--Tile Outlet. $3.50 per square foot laid in brick pattern.

West Elm "Flat Stock" towel ring. $29 online. Last but now least: low VOC paint from Sherwin Williams (about $40 per gallon but they have frequent sales).

Palmer Square

I've consciously avoided taking pictures of the house for a few weeks now, because I found that I was obsessing about what's not complete, as opposed to what's finished and great. It just wasn't good for my mental health. Maybe tonight, I'll go around documenting some of the progress.

Anyway, despite some setbacks, we're really enjoying our new neighborhood. The neighbors have been very friendly--both the long-time residents as well as the new comers. And look--Josh loves the new tot lot at Palmer Square that just opened. I have to admit--I love it too. It's really a great anchor to our neighborhood as its namesake, Palmer Square. The only thing I don't like about it is that Josh loves it so much that he cries every time we have to leave!

PS: Speaking of Palmer Square, here's a little known fact. I created the Wikipedia entry for our neighborhood, Palmer Square on July 17, 2006. Since then, I've tweaked it a bit here and there and even added a picture of Palmer Square.

Pop! Pop! Fireworks or gun shots?

Last Wednesday night, I was working late in my home office and heard a muffled "pop! pop!" sound coming from somewhere nearby. Our dog Marley immediately went to my bathroom--as he usually does when there's fireworks or thunder or any threatening noise. I thought it was fireworks and went back to working. What I didn't know was that those were actually gun shots. A 17 year old alleged gang member was killed by another alleged gang member on the 2900 block of W. Palmer, which is just one street over from our home. I don't know quite what to say, other than to say it sucks. I think this was the first time I actually heard gun shots other than on a shooting range.

Mad Rush To Finish

Our contractor's goal is to finish the house by this week. I've heard this before, but this time, I think he's really serious. As much as he'd like to make me happy, I think it's about closure and getting on with his life as well. I told him I can't wait until I can have him over to our house as a guest, rather than as someone who works for me. He was my friend before he became my contractor, and I'm anxious to get that relationship back.

As the house is slowly beginning to show signs of completion, I'm seeing more people stopping and openly staring at our house--which is fine, of course. I just hope that they're thinking, "cool" or "nice" instead of, "WTF?!"

Anyway, we decided to say the heck with all the things we have to do in the house like painting, staining, unpacking.... blah blah and just enjoy the weekend. On Friday night, we went to the Urban Belly (thumbs up, Bill Kim, you make my Korean heritage proud) and the Orbit Room (great patio with a good beer selection), both of which are on the fringes of Logan Square/Avondale. On Saturday, we went to the the Tour De Fat at Palmer Square--just around the corner from us. We met some nice neighbors and Josh even made a new friend named Riley (left).

On Saturday night, we went to see Ben Folds who, along with Jack Johnson, formed the soundtrack to Mary and my dating years. He played my favorite father-son song, Still Fighting It. (Most songs about father-sons are sad, like Cats in the Cradle, but not this one. I'd say it's more hopeful.) He didn't play our wedding song, The Luckiest (probably because he didn't have an orchestra with him), but seeing Ben Folds made me think of all the improbable things that had to go right for our family to exist. It must have had some effect on Mary too. She turned to me all lovingly during the concert and told me that she wants another baby.

Being Close to Public Transit

I haven't had to drive my car in the last few weeks, because I'm so close to the train line. I love it. Not having to drive to work almost makes me want to get up in the morning. Anyway, maybe that's why I didn't notice that my gas tank was practically empty the other day. My Hyundai's gas tank holds 14 gallons, and this is the closest I've ever gotten to an empty tank. Wow, .012 gallons to spare. Oh, yeah, gas is above $3 again.

Blue Bins, Finally!

I heard my dog Marley bark this morning so I looked outside and viola, there it was. Blue Bins! The City delivered Blue Bins to our side of the street today. I'm lazy, and I'm not the type of person to make a conscious effort to drive to a recycling center, but I'm definitely going to use the Blue Bins. Make it easy on us and we'll comply.

Long Weekend Away

Everyone needs a break. We spent a long weekend away at Mary's parents' cottage in Glen Arbor, Michigan, which has one of the prettiest lakes in the world. We had a great time, but the drive back was hell. What should have taken us 5 1/2 hours turned into 9+ hours. Apparently, everyone in Chicago had the same idea--to get away for the 4th of July long weekend!!

Installing Green Roof

I decided to take another day off from work to work on my green roof garden instead and I am completely sore today! It was a perfect day for it--nice and cool. I had Anwar from the neighborhood help me and it took us all afternoon to lay down the root barrier and put together 96 trays of the GreenGrid system. Bringing up these 40-lbs soil bags to the roof was a giant task itself. That took us all morning. We haven't yet put in the plants--sedum kamtschaticum--in the GreenGrid trays but we'll do that tonight. Now that it's all laid out, it looks really nice. Maybe I'll save a couple of trays for an herb garden or something. I guess the possibilities are endless.