Mostly or "Substantially" Done

The house in legalese is substantially complete. It now even looks finished. Cian will be working next week to put in the finishing touches, but we did get the thumbs up from the Bank inspector.

New Bars and Restaurants

It seems that with our moving in, new bars and restaurants are opening up just to welcome us into the neighborhood. Ha, well at least half of that sentence is true. Last Friday, Mary, Mary's aunt Louise, and I went on a spontaneous bar-hopping tour when we went to Cole's Bar (bottom), the Rocking Horse (top, right), and Dunlay's on the Square (top, left)--all great places within walking distance to each other and from our house. It felt nice to bar hop within our neighborhood and then stumble home.

The City and the Bank

I've had my share of issues with the City and the bank, so I'm really looking forward to a day when they don't have this incredible power over me. On Monday, we finally submitted our paperwork to close out the construction loan and to start our conventional mortgage. If approved, this would mean no more monthly penalties, no more arbitrary increases in our monthly payments, and no more burdening administrative oversight. Most importantly, we could shop around our mortgage to refinance, whereas we're stuck with our bank and its whims so long as we're in the "construction stage."

All is going according to plan, but, of course, the City has now thrown a wrench into this. I've applied for a certificate of occupancy on Monday but when I called today to check on it, the person in charge didn't even have a record of it. Not good. She says sometimes it takes a few days for it to show up on the system, but that didn't make me feel any better. Meanwhile, the bank is demanding that I give them either the certificate of occupancy or something in writing from the City by August 24, 2009 saying that it is behind in issuing certificate of occupancies. There's a slim chance of that happening. Bullocks.

Trex Decking: Green & Comfortable

We're not the type of people who want green products solely for the sake of having environmentally friendly products. We're not that hard core--not even close. We've always tried to maintain a balance of costs and benefits--both to the environment and, perhaps more importantly, to us.

When it came to decking material, we rejected traditional wood early on, because it required too much maintenance and we didn't want to worry about splinters with kids running around. That led us to Trex, which is made of recycled plastic bags and reclaimed wood--so no trees were hurt by us in the making of this deck. And it's comfortable, looks pretty good, and is maintenance-free. One rather big deterrence for many people is that it costs approximately 2 to 3 times more than pressure treated wood (still less than Ipe wood though), but we thought the benefits outweighed the costs in the end. Josh and Marley agree.

Garage Deck and Design Changes

One truism about designing a home is that you can't plan everything. And even if you do, you'll need to make minor adjustments as you go along, because you change your mind or your life changes (i.e., have a child).

This was true for our garage deck, because the original design had the parapet wall facing our home as a solid wall. But we changed that during construction and opened it up with slotted wood-fencing (picture) because we wanted to be able to see the deck from our first floor. It's now finished and looks and functions great. We can supervise Josh from our living room even when he's on the deck--including when he's being naughty and throwing things off the garage deck!

San Francisco, Green Hotels, and Chinese Food

Our contractor is working furiously to finish by next Friday (we're not getting another extension) and I'm on the road again--this time at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco preparing for a hearing tomorrow. The Ritz is a great hotel, but it isn't by any means a green hotel. But even the Ritz asks that its guests put aside a little bit of their self indulgence to save and conserve for the sake of the environment. Does it work? I'm not sure. All I can say that it works for me--it makes me think twice before throwing that towel on the ground.

One other note about SF. I love noodles, and I think Logan Square's Friendship Chinese has the best lo mein noodles in the U.S. I'm not kidding you--you have to try it. I now think I've found the best chow mein noodles in the U.S., and it's at a completely unassuming place in SF Chinatown called Oriental Pearl. The Ritz concierge couldn't even get me in (it was booked solid on a Wednesday night!) so I had to do with some take out. Wow, YUM-O! (Yes, Rachel Ray went there when she was here for her $40 a day show.)

Final Bank Approval Date: 8/17/09

Here's my answer to our economic uncertainties: baseball. Too bad he hasn't quite gotten the concept of hitting forward. Must be that White Sox hat I put on him. He still throws with his left hand though, so there's hope for me yet.

Besides playing a little baseball with his old man, Josh had a good time at the Open Streets Chicago, Retro on Roscoe and the Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival (below, left) last weekend.

Anyway, we're working on finishing the siding this week and we're scheduled to send in our final paperwork to the bank by 8/17. That means we have to be finished and ready for final bank inspection by that date. We also must have applied for a certificate of occupancy by that date.

It's getting close.