La Villa Loca

As mentioned in a previous post, over the course of planning this renovation we've had TWO general contractors commit to doing the project and then unceremoniously bail. Via email. At least break up with some class, oye. Why are we so unlovable? We're fun. We're cute. Our baggage is pretty minimal. Well, as is the outcome of most breakups, it's not us, it's THEM. What Is Going On With These Guys? If I were to give advice to anyone thinking about doing major construction on their home, it would be this: don't do it when there's 1) full employment and 2) low interest rates. This is the first combo macroeconomic factor we realized (too late) was working against us. The second is that, in addition to low unemployment, there is a well-documented and outsized labor shortage in the trades (carpentry, HVAC, electrical, etc.). So, homeowners have lots of money to throw at their HGTV-fueled fever dreams of RECLAIMED SHIPLAP FEATURE WALLS, and general contracto...

Y’all, blogging is hard. We’ve been shit bloggers. I think we’d have been better at keeping this updated if we had better news to share, but the truth of the matter is that this year has been ROUGH. But after months and months of two-steps-forward-one-step-back progress (or, sometimes, one-step-forward-two-steps-back non-progress), we finally have some meaningful movement in the right direction.  Let me catch you up. In the nearly one year since our last blog post (ugh, sorry sorry sorrysorrysorry) , this is what we’ve been up to: We survived a truly terrifying Chicago winter. We’ve lived in Chicago for nearly 6 years now, so we’re no strangers to the Midwest winter. Our first winter in Chicago featured measurable snow literally every other day from December to March. Our second winter introduced us to the Polar Vortex. The winter of 2018-2019 was different, in large part because we were attempting to brave it in a 100+ year old home with decades-old, drafty-AF, rotting win...